Maigret, Maigret, and more Maigret! I hadn't heard of the series until a recent thread here, and then boom! - 7 books in the last week. A great character, and definitely the best pipe-smoking character I've read. A lot to learn here. Maigret don't have no time for all that "dry your tobacco and smoke it slow" nonsense. He frequently sucks down 3-4 bowls of ghastly French government shag in less than an hour. He smokes his pipe in the wind and cleans it with chicken feathers.