The two things I admire most about Simenon are firstly, his restraint; secondly, his empathy.

The prose is minimalist, simple, and direct. My high school English teacher would write "more succinct" on everything I'd write-- Simenon's style is just that. The mantra is in effect tenfold here.

Events are compressed into sentence shots, more jolting than calvados and pernot. It is a very immediate style. His staccato descriptive volleys, "Lunch. A stupefying snooze. Cocktail. Dinner..." (p.52) are running starts to most scenes.

(The introduction by Norman Rush tells us that Simenon deliberately limited his vocabulary to 2000 words which demonstrates further his restraint)

As for the empathy, it's again a simple yet effective approach. Simenon tells us what the mood of a character is very bluntly. "He felt agonising impatience...He alternated between fury and despair." We are always made aware of Timar's mental state, which given his suspicions is often mutable.

Timar is a wealthy white man leaving the provinces to work at a timber camp in the African jungle. Heat is frequently mentioned. On more than one occasion the maddening heat coupled with Timar's fever leads to descriptions of feeling both "hot and cold" simultaneously.

Many things in the book are juxtaposed and given closer inspection to reveal their similarities. "The relationship between the two tones [of paint] was remarkably fine and delicate." The mask being a different shade stands out from the wall, and yet Timar examines the contrast and finds it "remarkably fine and delicate".

Timar feels homesick in this hostile environment and it's difficult for him to pinpoint his emotions. "Only the polished brass bar made him feel safe, since it was just like the ones in any provincial cafe in France." Little differences like this comfort Timar, as do the habits he forms early in the bar scenes which he has difficulty parting with.

The most memorable occasion of Simenon's exploration of the alien surroundings is when Timar is on a canoe with 12 hired colonials. The scene starts with the empathic viewpoint "Now he looked at them as human beings, trying to grasp their lives from that point of view..." What he sees is "the current carrying them on for centuries as it had carried identical canoes to the sea..." He sees it's universal. The differences are superficial: clothes, smell, sounds. Timar sees the subtle differences and how we are all really alike.

The things which differentiate us are our childhoods, upbringing and what is familiar to us. We can become slave to our routines and favour the familiar. All these differences add up for with Timar and cause conflict within. But he is at peace when he examines them and sees them to be superficial and subtle.

Which is best for rowing down an African river in a canoe, a starched white suit or a loincloth? I've read Three Men In A Boat which does actually answer that one and again it's universal - the same in Oxford as in the wilds of Africa.

Rapped up in this conflict is Timar's suspicions, card games, drinking, sex, smoking and murder and moral ambiguity of the usual Simenon noir.