middle-class existence at any time. Alavoine senses that life has more to offer than what has been bestowed on him. Although he succeeds to break out of the prison of his milieu, he then becomes the prison guard of his lover. On their last day together they both recognize each other in a pair of chimpanzees in the zoo, which nestle to each other under the gaze of the visitors. The lovers have created their own prison behind invisible bars, which leaves them only the way to death. According to Pierre Assouline, Avaloine is a prototype of the Simenonian hero, who is no longer able to control his fate out of an average existence, and almost inevitably stumbles against the abyss. In the novel, he refers to himself as a "casual criminal". As seen in numerous other works by Simenon, the novel is also an expression of an urgent need for communication and understanding, which has no place in the judicial process. The first lines underline Alavoine's desperate efforts to attain this understanding: „My Lord, somebody, one person at least ought to understand me. And I wish you to be that person.“ In another part of the novel Alavoine mentions one of Simenon's credo: "It is a terrifying thought that despite all being human and struggling under an unknown sky, we refuse to make a little effort to understand each other. “ The irony of the novel is that Alavoine turns to Judge Coméliau of all people, Maigret´s antagonist in the Maigret novels, whose snobbery and moral prejudices consistently obstruct his look of the human truth. It seems Lucille F. Becker will give a negative response to the open-ended question of whether Alavoine gained any understanding through his letter. This reflects Simenon's worldview, which purports that the individual remains locked in their solitude. Reception The English translation Act of Passion became one of Simenon's best-selling books in his adopted home, the USA. By 1958 it had sold 350,000 copies. The Saturday Review reported, "Perhaps inevitably, Simenon has decided to abandon the static form of the detective story and to write novels about the eternal conflict between good and evil." Similarly, Kirkus Reviews described the novel as more of a psychological investigation into the motives for murder than the criminal investigations of earlier years, whereby Lettre à mon juge stood in the tradition of Simenon's successes La Neige était sale and