Lettre à mon juge (Letter to My Judge) was written by Belgian author Georges Simenon in 1946 during his stay at Bradenton Beach, Florida and published in Paris the following year by Presses de la Cité. It is a dark psychological account of a man overcome by buried passions, who becomes a murderer. Unusually among Simenon's output, it is written in the first person. The novel was first published in English in 1953 by Routledge & Kegan Paul, translated by Louise Varèse. Plot The novel is in the form of a long letter written in prison by condemned murderer Dr. Charles Alavoine. Alavoine wants to explain his personal side of the story to a judge handling his legal case, as his trial did not bring out the true motives for the crime. In the letter, he tries to explain what sort of man he is and how he came to commit his crime. The son of a brutish peasant farmer in the Vendée and his effacing wife, Alavoine qualified as a physician and bought a practice in the town of La Roche-sur-Yon. After his first wife died in childbirth (leaving behind two daughters), his widowed mother looked after him and his family. He later married the bourgeois Armande, who, with the tact and style he lacked, was soon dominating his home, his medical practice, and indeed all aspects of his life. Never convinced himself of his role as healer to and pillar of the community, he was easy prey to a young woman named Martine. Alavoine sensed her deeply-hidden pain, even if at first he could not diagnose it. Martine was from Belgium, a drifter, existing on odd secretarial jobs and one-night stands with passing men. Although Martine was neither beautiful nor sophisticated, she and Alavoine instantly enjoyed passionate sex and had an intense desire to be together. Alavoine hired Martine as his medical assistant (with Armande's reluctant agreement) in a scheme to spend time with her. Alavoine became obsessed with learning everything about Martine's past and "cleansing" her of her sins, which he attributes to an "Other" Martine who must be erased. This lasted until Armande caught them in an adulterous act and banished them from the family house. The guilty pair went to Paris, where Alavoine acquired a practice with a flat in a working-class district. At last able to spend all their time together, their relationship deepened,