When Jane Marple comes up from the country for a holiday in London, she finds what she’s looking for at Bertram’s: a restored London hotel with traditional decor, impeccable service — and an unmistakable atmosphere of danger behind the highly polished veneer. Yet not even Miss Marple can foresee the violent chain of events set in motion when an eccentric guest makes his way to the airport on the wrong day …

‘At Bertram’s Hotel‘ was a fascinating Jane Marple mystery. For me, this ranks as one of Agatha Christie’s best books.

I’ve been impressed with how well-written the later Jane Marple books are. I love sharing Jane’s thoughts on getting oldand dealing with a rapidly changing world. I also enjoy Jane’s insights into how the people around her are adapting to the changing mores of post-war England.

In this book, Jane’s nephew has booked her for a two-week stay at Berram’s hotel in London, a place she has happy memories of from when she stayed there as a girl, many decades earlier, before the Second World War took its toll on London. 

Jane is surprised to find that Bertram’s has been restored to its former, quietly expensive, respectability. It’s as if the hotel has rolled back time and brought its Edwardian ghost back to life. 

This, of course, troubles Jane. It is too good to be true, therefore, it is not true. What then is the truth?

I loved how Jane’s observations on the pull of nostalgia and the impossibility of recapturing the past not only gave insights into how things look as we grow older, but also enabled Jane to see Bertram’s Hotel differently than everyone else. She knows that something isn’t right. Figuring out what that something is was the fun part.

I also liked that, while Jane was instrumental in solving the mystery, the heavy lifting was done by a very competent police Inspector who was smart enough to use Jane as his eyes and ears.

The mystery was clever. Although there is a killing, this is much more complicated than a murder mystery. This is a story that touches on the restlessness of the age and the emergence, post-war, of organised criminals carrying out well-planned raids on banks and trains.

The people in the book were engaging and credible. Many of them, like the old Cannon who causes so much havoc when he becomes confused about which day he is supposed to catch a plane on, are the kind of solid upper-middle-class people that have always populated Christie’s books and been a part of Jane Marple’s life. There are also younger people, still from the same class in some cases, but with very different attitudes and expectations. Finding them all together is whatmakes Bertram’s hotel such an interesting puzzle for Jane. 

This was a satisfying read: engaging, well-written, plausible but still surprising.

I listened to the audiobook version of ‘At Bertram’s Hotel‘ narrated by Stephanie Cole. I thought she was the perfect choice for narrator. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample of her work.