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readingthroughthelists 's review for:
At Bertram's Hotel
by Agatha Christie
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At Bertram’s Hotel is distinct from the other Miss Marples I’ve read recently. While A Murder is Announced, The Moving Finger, and The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side tended to center around one particular character (whether murderer or victim), At Bertram’s Hotel is instead an analysis of a place--the eponymous Bertram’s Hotel.
Bertram’s Hotel sits in a time out of time. Within its walls lies a perfect recreation of old Edwardian England, where elderly British aristocrats and clergy can relive their childhood days and curious Americans can revel in a quaint“English” experience. Even Miss Marple is not immune to the charm of nostalgia, even as she senses the increasing artifice (and menace) of the experience.
It is the slow revelation of the cracks in the façade of Bertram’s that piqued my interest the most in this mystery. The reveal that a seemingly “perfect” place is actually concealing sinister deeds is an old standby in mystery/horror, but one I find nearly always effective nevertheless. This mystery turns less on action than on atmosphere, especially since this the rare Miss Marple mystery set, not in a small village or hamlet, but in bustling London.
I didn’t solve the mystery, but also I’m not really sure what mystery I was supposed to be solving. A killing does occur, but late in the story, and by then I was more interested in the rising sense of “wrongness” at Bertram’s than I was in figuring out whodunnit. Personally, I wished the novel had incorporated a touch more horror, a revelation that things are not only bad, they are really bad, and I was a little let down by the reveal.
There are some interesting musings from Miss Marple near the end of the book about the power and danger of nostalgia and the way it can be traded on by unscrupulous people who know how to use a fictionalized past to their advantage. It all feels, as Miss Marple concludes, a little too good to be true.
Bertram’s Hotel sits in a time out of time. Within its walls lies a perfect recreation of old Edwardian England, where elderly British aristocrats and clergy can relive their childhood days and curious Americans can revel in a quaint“English” experience. Even Miss Marple is not immune to the charm of nostalgia, even as she senses the increasing artifice (and menace) of the experience.
It is the slow revelation of the cracks in the façade of Bertram’s that piqued my interest the most in this mystery. The reveal that a seemingly “perfect” place is actually concealing sinister deeds is an old standby in mystery/horror, but one I find nearly always effective nevertheless. This mystery turns less on action than on atmosphere, especially since this the rare Miss Marple mystery set, not in a small village or hamlet, but in bustling London.
I didn’t solve the mystery, but also I’m not really sure what mystery I was supposed to be solving. A killing does occur, but late in the story, and by then I was more interested in the rising sense of “wrongness” at Bertram’s than I was in figuring out whodunnit. Personally, I wished the novel had incorporated a touch more horror, a revelation that things are not only bad, they are really bad, and I was a little let down by the reveal.
There are some interesting musings from Miss Marple near the end of the book about the power and danger of nostalgia and the way it can be traded on by unscrupulous people who know how to use a fictionalized past to their advantage. It all feels, as Miss Marple concludes, a little too good to be true.