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dennisfischman 's review for:
At Bertram's Hotel
by Agatha Christie
This feels like a late-in-life effort for both Jane Marple and [a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1589991473p2/123715.jpg]. Miss Marple spends most of her time in London revisiting old haunts from her childhood, including a few that, after World War II, no longer exists. Her perceptive eye and her sense of curiosity are as sharp as ever, but there's only one slight reference to a "type" she knows from her village. Instead, one of the main characters is a celebrity she knows from the newspapers. The world is moving on!
And Agatha Christie explodes the expectations of the cozy mystery. Even though it is set at Bertram's Hotel, as the title plainly tells us, a lot of the important action takes place outside its environs: in some cases, far outside. There's a shooting in the street (unusual, as I recall, from other Christie novels), and a female character who combines some of the 1920's adventuress personality with some of the 1950's femme fatale traits. It's as if both Agatha and Jane are taking stock of a world that's changed and finding a way to say, "I'm still here. I still matter."
And Agatha Christie explodes the expectations of the cozy mystery. Even though it is set at Bertram's Hotel, as the title plainly tells us, a lot of the important action takes place outside its environs: in some cases, far outside. There's a shooting in the street (unusual, as I recall, from other Christie novels), and a female character who combines some of the 1920's adventuress personality with some of the 1950's femme fatale traits. It's as if both Agatha and Jane are taking stock of a world that's changed and finding a way to say, "I'm still here. I still matter."