A Miss Marple Mystery (Miss Marple Mysteries) - At Bertram's Hotel

A relatively late "Miss Marple" mystery. Miss Marple is vacationing at the old, exclusive and expensive Bertram's Hotel in London. But, this being a Miss Marple mystery, she hardly has time to get out her knitting bag before the mysterious occurences begin. This edition is a good well-made hardcover edition at an exceptional price, and clearly the one you want to buy. My tepid rating comes from a feeling that--without giving the plot away--Christie overreached herself with this one, and wrote a kind of crime novel perhaps better suited to other authors. I don't regret buying it, but I'm glad the other Marples are different.

As always the ending of Christie's books are always worth waiting for - and this book was right up there with the best. But until one gets there, this particular book rambled a fair amount. Unlike some of her classics, this plot was not tightly woven. Just the same it made for good subway reading.

But it's still a good Agatha Christie mystery! If you love Miss Marple, you can't help but appreciate that Agatha Christie allowed Miss Marple to age with time to the point where she didn't get around as much but her mind was still as sharp as ever. Very enjoyable read!

Agatha Christie was a master in her field. For some contemporary readers her stories may lack the sex and violence expected in a thriller. From my point of view Christie makes up for this by the clever plot, the interesting characters, and the subtleness of her endings.

This is not the book that Agatha Christie wrote. There are major differences in punctuation, word choices, and scene breaks between the original Collins and Dodd Mead editions of this novel. There are further differences between the Dodd Mead editions republished by Random House/Avenel and the Dodd Mead editions republished by Simon & Shuster/Pocket. What "improvements" have been made for the Signet edition? For every publishing house putting out her works, there seem to be a new batch of editors altering Agatha Christie's words and the sound of her voice. What's the matter with these publishers? Whose voice do they think we want to hear when we sit down to a novel by Agatha Christie? And what will she sound like twenty years from now? It's frightening that her estate has failed to see the importance of guarding her words as she wrote them. Please tell me I'm not the only one here who senses that a crime has been committed.

Story is very boring and no resemblance to Agatha Chrisite 's way of writing. Repetitions of cliche and by the middle one can easily guess the outcome. No role for Miss Marple. I think its better to give a miss to this one. Though got at very low price, not worth the time it takes to read.