At Bertram's Hotel (A Jane Marple Murder Mystery)

This is not the book that Agatha Christie wrote. There are major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. What "improvements" have been made for the Signet edition? For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Stepping into Bertram's Hotel is like stepping into England of the past, right down to the maids and servers who work there. Everone fits ths part pefectly. All the right people stay there, a mix of nobility, clergy and fine old dames, and people seek out the hotel to have just that experience - a step back in time. Miss Marple has decided to take her vacation at Bertram's Hotel, a place she stayed at when she was a young girl. To her great pleasure and surprise, she sees that everything at Bertram's is just as she remembered it, well, not quite, for everything is not quite what it seems to be at Bertram's Hotel. The plot revolves around a cast of characters staying at the hotel, and then mixes in Scotland Yard who are trying to solve a string of bank and train heists. When Chief-Inspector Davy makes a connection between some eye-witness accounts and Bertram's Hotel, he decides to check the place out. Initially, he is just as struck as Miss Marple at the atmosphere of the hotel, but he definitely smells a rat, and knows somehow that Bertram's is involved with the case the Yard is trying to solve. What follows is a masterfully woven mystery about an absent-minded clergyman who has 'disappeared' and a young heiress intent upon knowing how much money she will inherit (or who will inherit it if she dies). The matter becomes all the more pertinent when a hotel worker is killed, leaving Davy with no doubt that Bertram's is a facade. "At Bertram's Hotel" is as fast-paced as all of Christie's works are: the reader never wants to put the book down because you need to know what happens next. Miss Marple's methods of deduction fit in perfectly with the mood of this novel, and she winds up giving the Chief-Inspector a hand in solving the case, naturally, although the inspector is just as sharp-eyed as Miss Marple. The conclusion is both rushed and unhurried, and the story is left with a delightful air of uncertainty at the very end.

One of the best of Agatha Christie's later mysteries. Miss Marple has found the perfect spot to stay for her vacation. Nothing ever seems to change at Bertram's Hotel, everything is just as it was before the war. But is this all this charming gentility merely a facade for something far more dangerous?

This book is truly a great mystery of it's time and ours.Agatha Christie takes you to a place where dreams come true and where you learn that the innocent are usually responsible.A work of art.

This book is an Agatha Christie's classic. You just get involved in the story and you cannot put it down. As usual, the end is unexpected. It is a great book for those who like mistery