A review by midici
At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie

3.0

I love Miss Marple mysteries. She's an old lady who eavesdrops her way into uncovering mysteries and murders which is a fantastic conceit that I like reading. In this particular novel Miss Marple decides to go stay at Bertram's Hotel in London, as a sort of holiday. There is a lot of work done to make Bertram's seem like a very specific kind of hotel. It has a sort of 'back in time' charm, a luxurious sense that you are staying in a place that has not caught up to modern times and has no intention of doing so.

There is an interesting cast of characters staying at the hotel. An infamous, well-off lady of world-wide renown whom no one would expect to see at Bertram's. An absent-minded priest. Gossiping old ladies (one of whom is Miss Marple). A former soldier who guards the door and those within. And a young women with a strange family history, who is obsessed with discovering who will benefit from her death.

I really enjoyed the way the large crime-ring tied back into the story of the on-going family drama with Bess Sedgewick and Elvira. It was also one of the first novels by Agatha Christie I have read where the guilty party is not really caught, or charged.