Book review: Lock No. 1

Georges Simenon (translated by David Coward)

ONE night, while staggering back to his barge home, Gassin, an old drunkard, falls into the Marne canal on the outskirts of Paris.

While in the water, he finds another body, that of his long-time friend, Emile Ducrau, who has been stabbed in the back. Fortunately, the wounds are superficial, and Ducrau, a haulage magnate who owns practically everything in the area on both land and water, is soon revived.