At Bertram's Hotel

 The Book

Miss Jane Marple is on vacation, again. This year, instead of going all the way to a random Caribbean Island, she asked her nephew Raymond to send her to Bertram's Hotel instead. While there, she notices something strange is happening. 

Guests keep getting mistaken for other people, or told they were places where they swear they weren't. A rebellious girl keeps slipping away from her minders and lying. A forgetful clergyman mixes up his days and then disappears for over a week. When we finally catch up with him again, we find he was nearly run over by a car and got a concussion. But he was missing so long, his housekeeper reports it to the police. They start investigating. While at the hotel, they find that a mother/daughter reunion is in the making, with the criminally inclined (but superb at getting away with it) XXX and her daughter Elvira meet in passing, only one of them knows it will change the future. Elvira is now a rich woman. And if something should happen to her, her mother will get all of the money. Before the Cannon XXX's (our missing clergyman) case can be properly closed, the doorman is murdered and it looks like someone wanted to kill Elvira. 

When the police discover Miss Marple is there, they ask her to clear up a few things. And she does. But will it be in time to save a life? 

My Thoughts

We are definitely into the waning books of Agatha Christie's career. If the complaint about the last book, A Caribbean Mystery, is that the mystery is too straight forward, this one is a little bit all over the place and not in a good way. As these stories keep going on, I am reminded that Christie is acutely aware she's turned little St. Mary Meade into the murder capital of the world. Hence this one is set in London, where murders abound. so we are meant to believe. What I took away from this book, which is a delightfully breezy read, is how much Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote is based on Miss Marple. True, Jessica Fletcher was married. Right down to the doting nephew who works in publishing.

I wasn't as enamored of these characters. I had little sympathy for either Elvira or her mother. And, I thought, the subplot that Cannon XXX gets involved in was a little more than wild. All in all, what I felt at the end of day was Christie has firmly in her declining years. The stories are fun, but not stimulating. Worth reading at least once.

How Much My Library Card Saved Me

This is a leatherette edition from my own library. I am curious to see if it will be the last of them. We are getting towards the end. I believe, if I had to go out on a limb, that neither Nemesis nor Curtain will be in the leatherette editions are both are quite popular end stories of their respective characters. This book does not seem to have been over used and is in quite good condition. We established previously that they are about $20.00 each. That's the number we will use. 

Library Books

This Book                                                         $20.00

Library Items Reviewed This Year                 $340.83

Private Books

This Book                                                        $00.00

Total of Private Books                                     $55.75

Total of All Items Reviewed This Year          $408.58

Still Here? 

 I am now a published author. You can pick up a *FREE COPY* of my novella The Big Intersection here.