If one really wants to enjoy a good mystery in this tale, it can be found in the mysteries that surround the hotel itself - the 'old-fashioned' atmosphere, the presence of freewheeling types like Lady Sedgwick and Malinowski in such an archaic establishment, and the sightings of hotel guests like Canon Pennyfeather at recent robbery scenes. However, one must remember that the title of this particular tale centers around Bertram's Hotel. Even worse, the murder does not occur until the last third of the movie. When I first read the novel, it did not take me long to figure out Michael Gorman's killer. 'AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL' does not feature one of the best murder mysteries written by Christie. Everything comes to a head when one of the hotel guests, a forgetful clergyman named Canon Pennyfeather, disappears on the night the Irish Mail train was robbed and on the following night, Bertram's commissionaire, Michael 'Micky' Gorman, is shot dead in front of the hotel. Their relationship seems to be tangled with two men - a Polish-born race car driver named Ladislaus Malinowski, who seemed to be romancing both women and Bertram's commissionaire, an Irishman named Michael 'Micky' Gorman, whose conversation with Lady Sedgwick is overheard by both Elvira and Miss Marple. And thanks to an encounter with an old friend named Lady Selina Hazy, Miss Marple also becomes aware of a family drama being played out inside Bertram's, between an adolescent girl of good family named Elvira Blake and her estranged mother, a famous adventuress and socialite named Bess, Lady Sedgwick. But it does not take Miss Marple long to realize that the hotel's lack of change seemed unusual, considering that most long-standing hotels tend to change over the years. Otherwise, the hotel's atmosphere, interior designs, the food and the style of the hotel's staff has not changed a whit. The plumbing and communication system may have been modernized. Her first reaction to Bertram's is sheer rapture, as she realizes that the hotel has retained its late Victorian/Edwardian atmosphere after many decades.

'AT BERTRAM'S HOTEL' beings with Miss Jane Marple arriving in London to spend a holiday at Bertram's Hotel, a place she used to stay during her youth. When I first saw the television adaptation for it, I found myself wondering how the director and the screenwriter would handle it. It strikes me as one of the most unusual novels she has ever written.

Agatha Christie's 1965 novel is a bit of a conundrum for me.

Bertram's hotel