A place to discuss Agatha Christie's novels and characters (including Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot and Tommy & Tuppence), the TV and radio adaptations, or anything else Christie-related.
What a borefest for my first Miss Marple novel. I'm 20% and I'm not hooked. I read about 10 Poirot novels and There were none and Agatha always keep me interested (last one was Elephants Remember and I found it alright).
Are all Marple stories slow burning like this one or it's just a dud?
Edit: thank you for the suggestions and kind words! I love this community, it's so wholesome
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It’s not AC’s best mystery but it does pick up some. I recommend Murder at the Vicarage or A Murder is Announced to get the full flavor of Miss Marple.
Those are my two favorite Marple books. I didn't mind Bertram's but I found many others to be extremely boring. Her writing style is so different for Marple.
A Murder Is Announced is definitely my favorite Miss Marple. She’s active and slowly assembles the clues which allows the reader the opportunity to catch up.
A Murder is Announced is absolutely the way to go.
Agreed. Poirot books are much better than Marple ones. Maybe that's why there are so many more of them. But the two you and u/BoomerRandy58 mentioned are the best.
Really?? I love it. Love the atmosphere , love the hotel, the plot and the food descriptions. All of you here saying you don't like it are all heathens 😆
""I love it. Love the atmosphere , love the hotel, the plot and the food descriptions.""
The same with me, I love the Bertram hotel for the hotel itself mostly, the description is vivid, I would sit in the lobby all the time :) The plot was slow, but then picked up. I was my second AC book (after After the Funeral) at around the age of 12. It made me a lifetime fan
The image of what's her name with melting butter running down her chin has always stuck with me for some reason. This book makes me hungry.
So true! That image stuck with me too!
I like ABH for its atmosphere, the food, the gossip. The book has its moments.
The book could've been a standalone. Or with Tommy and Tuppence? Battle? Race?
Miss Marple in a London-centric book isn't her best environment, I think.
But only she could have realised that many of those old fogies were imposters because she knows people.
And then there's this nostalgia and melancholy in the book as she reflects in how times have changed and reminisces about her youth that is just perfect for Ms Marple.
I can see that objectively it's not one of her best books, I'm just very fond of it.
Me too! The hotel description is one of the highlights of Christie, for me. It's so knowing, about catering to American tourists etc. -- I think she predicted the "themed immersive environment" concept that Disney resorts and cruise ships started doing, decades later. (Also her Parker Pyne story aboutwhat we'd now recognize as an escape room ... )
And I love your point about how Miss Marple's in the perfect position to be able to figure out what's going on with the oldsters. What keeps it from becoming too cynical, for me, is exactly what you noted about the passage of time. Christie herself, underneath it all, is probably thinking about her own youth and realizing how long it's been, since she was a child staying at hotels like that with her parents.
Same here! I love all the detail about it, the setting of the hotel, and then the twist when you realise what you eventually realise about it.
Even knowing what I know now, I would still want to look at that hotel, and at least have tea at it!
I'd have to settle for this pretentious tourist trap (where Christie actually stayed, more than a hundred years ago).
https://www.teaattheempress.com
Even knowing what I know now, I would still want to look at that hotel, and at least have tea at it!
I'd have to settle for this pretentious tourist trap (where Christie actually stayed, more than a hundred years ago).
https://www.teaattheempress.com
I just read this one, too, and I also found the first half kind of boring. Once the actual mystery kicks in, I started enjoying it. Try A Murder is Announced or The Body in the Library for Miss Marple!
Another fan of The Body in the Library here!
That’s one of my favourite Miss Marple’s actually but it not the best choice for the first one for her.
I’d recommend The Thirteen Problems. The stories are short and snappy, giving a good insight into how her mind works.
Definitely agree that A Murder is Announced is great. I also really liked Pocket Full of Rye and The Moving Finger,
That one is just a dud. Every other Marple I enjoyed but that one I'd give a 2/5.
Try "A Murder is Announced"
Her earlier Miss Marples are the best. I'd recommend getting a collection of her short stories as a taster of how good she could be. Definitely don't start with the last books Agatha wrote whether that be Miss Marple of Hercule Poirot!
You get the best introduction to Miss Marple with the books set in her village, I think.
At Bertram's Hotel is IMO by far the worst Miss marple novel and easily a bottom 10 Christie. Don't judge Marple by this snoozefest.
You picked two of my least favorite Agatha Christie lol. To me, her later works did start to decline, though there are some gems within them. Try picking books she's published around or before the 40s. At least, that's my criteria.
Yeah, stumbled upon a worst list thread and Bertram/Elephants were commonly listed
This is the only Marple that I truly did not like. & I absolutely love Ms Marple!!
I enjoy Bertram but don't find it one of her best and definitely one of her weakest Marples. The atmosphere is really fun, though (in my opinion). It does pick up a bit closer to the end.
It's alright, but the following are all better Marples:
The Body in the Library
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side (should be read after BitL, but doesn't have to be immediately after)
Pocket Full of Rye
4:50 from Paddington
Nemesis (don't read this one until after you've read a few others, because it's chronologically set much later)
This one is by far the worst Marple. It's awful. Stop reading it and go read the first one, Murder at the Vicarage.
Loved Bertram's Hotel,the atmosphere is so wonderful and the description of the hotel is so lovely and old worldly
Although I don’t usually like her later books, 4.50 from Paddington is good. (Also published as What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! in the U.S.)
That’s the only book I didn’t enjoy at all, the adaptation either
I believe it is regarded as pretty much the weakest of the Miss Marples. The best part of it is the chase scene, the last exchange between "investigators", the descriptions of food, and the exchange between Raymond and Joan about Aunt Jane and her talents for being at the wrong scene and time.
I just audiobooked “The Murder in the Vicarage,” and really struggled to stay focused on it, which is not a problem I often have. I’m not sure if it’s because I didn’t especially like the vicar character or what. I do love Miss Marple, though. (Short stories, show, other books).
I'm in the minority, I guess. I enjoy At Bertram's Hotel and I hate Nemesis ( people seem to really enjoy that one).
But I agree that Murder at the Vicarage or Body in the Library is better.
I'd actually put A Murder is announced after Bertram's for me. That's probably because there's not a single person I like in A Murder is Announced. The characters seem like caricatures to me. 🤷🏻♀️
My least favourite marple along with pocket full of rye. Not a highlight. Shame you picked it up first.
My favorite MM is Sleeping Murder. Then The Moving Finger, then the short stories. Bertrams Hotel isn’t really that compelling.
I really like Body in the library
I never managed to complete Marple's novels, always stopped before the half! And I never apreciated any movie adaptation! Very different from Poirot. I think Marple's novels were a sort of much less demanding writing which allowed her to please a large but less demanding audience with less effort. Christie wrote the most clever stories for Poirot, I think his novels were more difficult to write, aimed at a very demanding audience of whodunit enthusiasts. Not by chance in a couple of lists of best detective novels so far, there are only a few Poirot novels together with And Then There Were None. no Marple's.