26 Cases from the Life of Commissioner Jerome

Long before the appearance of Inspector Maigret, Parisians were engrossed in stories about the adventures of Commissioner Jerome. The daily French newspaper “Le Matin” (created in 1884 and shut down in 1944) printed a column that drew enormous public interest: “A Thousand and One Mornings.” Maurice Renard wrote about six hundred stories for Le Matin, covering dozens of plots and genres—but only one character the author returned to again and again throughout the publication: Jerome. Jerome, who began his career as a judicial investigator, then became an inspector, a commissioner, and finally a deeply respected divisional commissioner. The author brought this hero onto the scene in 26 short detective stories. As is often the case with him, Maurice Renard takes pleasure in confusing the trail: the chronology of publications does not follow the chronology of Jerome’s service career.