At Bertram's Hotel is the 11th Miss Marple, published in 1944, and Jane is winding down her career - there are only two more Miss Marple mysteries after this one: Nemesis, published in 1971 and The Sleeping Murder, published in 1976 (but apparently written much earlier).

Bertram's Hotel is an old-fashioned hotel in London, with an impeccable reputation and an equally impeccable tea tray. One can get *real* muffins here, slathered in butter, to go with one's tea. As an American, I have no idea what these real muffins look like - I'm concluding from the discussion that they are not our blueberry studded, cake-like confections, and are, perhaps, something more like what I would call an English muffin.

Anyway, the whole book had me wanting to have tea. Because these people drank a lot of tea, and ate a lot of tea pastries.

This was a fun mystery for other reasons as well - there were three separate subplots here: the robberies that Scotland Yard was trying to solve, the mystery of the missing Canon Pennyfather, and then the murder of the Commissaire (sort of a doorman, I think) which occurred very late in the book.

Bess Sedgewick was a wonderful side-character. She was an adventurous sort of a woman, who was staying at the hotel during the time that Miss Marple was spending her holiday there. This is one of those Christie books where she puts a whole bunch of people in the same place to watch the fireworks ensure - Bess is there, her daughter Elvira, who was raised by an elderly retainer after her father died and after Bess sailed into the great unknown to have adventures, is there, an ethically challenged, but extremely handsome, Italian race-car driver is hanging about, and then we have the ridiculously absent-minded Canon Pennyfather who disappears midway through the book and turns up miles away from where he should have been.

Chief-Inspector Davies, nicknamed "Father," is the one that puts it all together after Scotland Yard is brought in to figure out what has happened to Canon Pennyfather. He and Miss Marple are perfect together, and I wish that he had shown up in some of the other Marple books. Christie missed an opportunity here. He says to his subordinate:

"I just think I'd like to have a good deal more information about this place. I'd like to know who is behind it, what its financial status is. All that sort of thing."

Campbell shook his head. "I should have said if there was one place in London that was absolutely above suspicion--"

"I know, I know," said Father. "And what a useful thing it is to have that reputation!"

The resolution to the book is a bit of a let-down, unfortunately, with the murderer being seemingly free due to a lack of evidence. I don't want to say too much and spoil the end, though, because Christie's puzzles are always so much fun to try to solve. I had read this one before, and remembered the identity of the murderer, but the other two subplots were just as mysterious this time as they were the first time I read it! This is one of the reasons that I love Christie so much - between the mouthwatering descriptions of tea and the complicated plotlines, I always find something to enjoy!

After immersing myself in 1950's London, I'm back to 1965, At Bertram's Hotel!

"I just think I'd like to have a good deal more information about this place. I'd ike to know who is behind it, what its financial status is. All that sort of thing."

Campbell shook his head. "I should have said if there was one place in London that was absolutely above suspicion--"

"I know, I know," said Father. "And what a useful thing it is to have that reputation!"

I've read this one before, but I've completely forgotten two of the three subplots!

I wasn't able to locate my copy of The Burden last night and I was too tired to figure out what I did with it, so I decided to reread At Bertram's Hotel. I read it at least eight to ten years ago, and while I vaguely remember it, and I think I remember the whodunnit, my memory is pretty dim.

The intro was fun, and it really made me want to eat a British tea pastry!

I grew up with Agatha Christie the way some people grew up with the Bible; she was a constant presence in our house.  Being a contrary child, that means I'd read everything except Christie.  Mild guilt about this while I was in my 20's had me picking up the Miss Marple short stories (minimal commitment, you see).

I gotta say, while I could understand the attraction, I didn't understand the devotion.  Miss Marple was smart and the mysteries were great, but the abuse of village parallels was too much.  Towards the end,  I was just yelling "just say what you mean you old bat!"

Which is why it's now very many years later and, with few exceptions, I still haven't read most of Christie's work, even though I've been slowly accumulating them.  When my current booklikes-opoly square required a book set between 1945 and 1965, At Bertram's Hotel was just about the only book I had that fit the bill.  

So, here I am, finally reading my first full-length Miss Marple.  I'm happy to report only one village parallel!  And Miss Marple does more than just sit on a bench and knit; she's actively eavesdropping and inventing mishaps to get closer to people who are up to no good.  She felt like an active participant in the mystery, even if she wasn't really sleuthing and had no idea about what exactly was going on until the end.

But the book was generally a bit odd.  At 192 pages I should have had it read in a few hours; instead I kept falling asleep every time I picked it up so that it took me 3 days instead.  It wasn't boring; Christie is a master at pulling you into whatever setting she's cooked up and I quite enjoyed Bertram's Hotel, but the momentum was very slow to build and ultimately, what should have been a tidal wave of a story was more of a small surge: I felt the pull, but nothing so strong as to suck me in completely.

I also got the impression that Christie was rather fed up with Miss Marple when she wrote this, or maybe just feeling wistful herself about the way the world seemed to be changing rapidly around her.  I kept imagining Christie as Miss Marple; longing for a time when England, and by extension, her mysteries, were more elegant, well-mannered, and gracious.  Even though there would be at least 10 more books after this one, At Bertram's Hotel feels like a nostalgic look back by an author who's feeling her age.

So, not her best, but I'm betting it's nowhere near her worst; definitely more likeable than reading the Marple short stories back-to-back.

Total pages: 192

$$:  $2.00

Audiobook

Miss Marple visits a hotel she used to love and finds it has changed beyond repair. This was a BBC production so there was an entire cast with sound effects. Nice change from the normal one narrator type audiobooks. 4 out of 5 stars.