Boek
In Hotel Bertram
| Auteur | Agatha Christie |
| Eerste Uitgave | 1965 |
| Uitgave | 1974 |
| Uitgeverij | A.W. Sijthoff |
| Vorm | roman |
| Taal | Nederlands |
| Bladzijden | 196 bladzijden |
| Gelezen | 2003-03-23 |
| Score | 8/10 |
Inhoud
Hotel Bertram is deftig, rustig, onopvallend en erg duur - een stukje Londen dat de laatste zestig jaar niets veranderd lijkt te zijn. De meeste hotelgasten zijn daar alleen maar blij om, maar mis Marple, die een weekje in het hotel logeert, vindt het een beetje verdacht. En natuurlijk blijkt ze gelijk te hebben. In het deftige, ouderwetse hotel gebeuren raadselachtige dingen, en sommigen van de gasten zijn heel wat minder keurig dan ze lijken,
Bespreking
Sublime setting, great mystery: Miss Marple at her best!
Raymond West's latest novel is doing very well indeed, so he and his painter wife Joan decide to treat Raymond's old Aunt Jane Marple to a holiday. Miss Marple takes this opportunity to visit in London and spend the week in that eminently traditional, eminently expensive bastion of Edwardian hostelry, Bertram's Hotel. On arriving she immediately recalls her visit of many years ago, when she was still a silly schoolgirl, madly in love with a very unsuitable young man. Most things in the hotel seem to be untouched by the greedy monster of modern time and that is the way Miss Marple likes to see it. But something did change: an undefined atmosphere suggests more than the eye can see. When the absent-minded clergyman Canon Pennyfather goes missing, Jane knows that she still can trust her dark premonitions.
Agatha Christie was sixty-six when she wrote At Bertram's Hotel and by doing so proved that she still could recall the spirit of her earlier works. All the elements of a typical Christie mystery are present. The setting is this time an Edwardian hotel full of memories of that golden age (supposedly based on the Brown's Hotel in London). Christie looks back to the good old days with more than just melancholy. The main characters also seemed to have travelled trough time: old spinsters, colonels and clergymen, they all carry past glory as some kind of burden.