At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2025

Even Miss Marple sometimes needs a break from St. Mary Mead, and when her nephew, Raymond West, and his wife offer to treat her to a holiday, Miss Marple asks them to send her for a week or two to Bertram’s Hotel in London. She had stayed there as a child and heard from friends who’d stayed there recently it was like stepping back into an Edwardian idyll. 

At first, she is delighted with the old fashioned service and buttered muffins but almost at once she decides it is too good to be true. The hotel is an odd mixture of elderly, upper class British nostalgic for the past and affluent Americans enjoying the turn of the century atmosphere. And there is a guest who doesn’t fit either pattern:

Whatever she had expected of Bertram’s Hotel, it was not to find Bess Sedgwick there. An expensive night club, or a lorry drivers’ pull up – either of those would be quite in keeping with Bess Sedgwick’s wide range of interests. But this highly respectable and old world hostelry seemed strangely alien.

This is just one of the anomalies about the hotel that bother Miss Marple so she starts paying attention to the people coming and going, but that does not arouse suspicion:

“And what about the other one – the old lady?”

“She’s sitting over there, by the fireplace,” said Miss Gorringe.

“The one with white fluffy hair and the knitting?” said Father, taking a look. “Might almost be on the stage, mightn’t she?” Everybody’s universal great-aunt.”

Well, we all know that when Miss Marple seems the fluffiest, she is at her most astute. Here, the police detective investigating the disappearance of an elderly clergyman is Chief-Inspector Fred Davy (known affectionately as Father to his colleagues), whose “large, heavy, bovine face” hides determination and insight. And he is not too high in the instep to consult Miss Marple!

It is a pity that the Edwardian façade of Bertram’s Hotel hides criminal activity because I’d certainly like to stay there! The Agatha Christie Companion states that Bertram’s is a thinly disguised version of Brown’s Hotel, in the heart of Mayfair – current price $891/night! I’ve yearned for afternoon tea there but it’s £80 and that does not include the bubbly:

This isn’t just Afternoon Tea, it’s a pillar of quintessential London life. Settle into our historic Drawing Room for a delicate feast, paired with our surprising and sustainable tea library. Or a glass of bubbly.

Whether you prefer your Afternoon Tea experience to be plant-based, festive, or paired with Champagne, you’ll find it in our historic Drawing Room . . . .

This is my twenty-sixth book for the 2025 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge. I also read it for Read Christie 2025.

Title: At Bertram’s Hotel
Author: Agatha Christie
Publication: Morrow, trade paperback, originally published in 1965
Genre: Mystery
Source: Library