A one-legged man is shot in his cosy cottage in a retirement development "neither the country nor the town", not too far outside Paris. His eccentric maid (her clothes are more way-out in the book), known as "the parakeet" inherits the house and the money, to the chagrin of his grasping family - beautifully played in a briefs scene. At one point the maid (Felicie) hitches a ride to the city while Lucas follows on a mobylette. Much of the action takes place in the rather stifling cottage which is too full of second-hand furniture. A great episode.
Simenon was so good at depicting milieux that were both strange and ordinary: one street in Paris, this little suburb, a mansion block stuck on its own by the side of a main road waiting to be joined by others, the bar run by Fat Jaja... and many more.