When a government minister telephones Maigret directly, the inspector senses trouble. Auguste Point is not accused of murder, theft, or fraud, but of knowing too much. A devastating disaster at a children's sanatorium has reopened old political wounds, and a long-suppressed engineering report threatens to bring down reputations, careers, and even the government itself - or it would, if it hadn't just gone missing. Wary of entering the murky world of politics, Maigret nevertheless agrees toinvestigate. Shuttling between ministerial offices and engineering schools, Parisian salons and Brussels hotels, Maigret gradually exposes a web of influence that extends far beyond any single culprit. One of Simenon's most overtly political Maigret novels, Maigret and the Minister delves into the morass of self-interest and betrayal that underpins a seemingly well-functioning bureaucracy. Lucid and disquieting, it finds Maigret confronting faceless powers that can't be arrested - and asking whether truth even matters when responsibility is everywhere and nowhere at once.