What I meant was that books like the Maigret novels probably wouldn't be published as free standing books, but packed into collections, say three or four of them together, to get closer to the magic 500 pages.

I will mention that I highly recommend Simenon's writing, Maigret series and others. He's a fine writer. The TV series with Michael Jambon is excellent. The Maigret stories are the right length to turn into an hour show without losing too much of the interesting details.