Bertrams Hotel
Bertrams Hotel (original title At Bertram's Hotel ) is the 56th detective novel by Agatha Christie . It first appeared in the UK on November 15, 1965 at the Collins Crime Club and the following year in the US at Dodd, Mead and Company . The German first edition was published in 1967 by Scherz Verlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna) in the translation by Maria Meinert, which is still used today.
It determines Miss Marple in her tenth novel.
action
Jane Marple, the teenage amateur detective, receives a stay at Bertram's Hotel in London from her niece Joan West as a gift. She had already spent a few days in this hotel as a young girl and would like to refresh these memories. To her surprise, she finds the hotel, which has retained its Edwardian flair , almost unchanged despite modernization. The action begins with tea time , which is spent by most of the guests in the foyer, because there you can watch the comings and goings in the hotel. There Miss Marple meets a childhood friend, Lady Selina Hazy. Together they watch the arrival of a young woman named Elvira Blake and her guardian Colonel Luscombe, the absent- minded clergyman Canon Pennyfather and, to everyone's surprise, the arrival of the adventurous Bess Sedgwick, well-known in England. Lady Selina thinks she knows many other guests, but they assure her that they are someone else.
Elvira has inherited a large fortune from her father, but it will be held in trust until she turns 21 next year. She is the daughter of Bess Sedgwick, who left her child when it was just two years old and who avoids contact with her daughter. It turns out that Lady Sedgwick is hiding from Elvira because she thinks that her lifestyle makes her a bad mother. In addition, both women have the same lover, the racing driver Ladislaus Malinowski. Elvira surprises her guardian by asking who will inherit her money if she dies or if she dies after getting married. She learns that as long as Elvira is not married, her mother Bess would be her heir. She also says that attempts were made to poison her while she was at school in Italy.
Meanwhile, an informal commission meets at Scotland Yard to deal with increasing bank robberies, train robberies and stolen jewelry shipments. Those present, including Chief Inspector "Father" Davy, acknowledge that the series has grown large and threatens to get out of hand. There are suspected masterminds of whom they have no idea. It is also noted that witnesses in some robberies claim to have seen prominent persons near the scene or in the crime vehicle who were verifiably in Bertram's hotel at the time.
The next day, Miss Marple goes to town while Elvira, with the help of her best friend, steals enough from a jeweler to fly to Ireland for a day. But she doesn't even tell her friend the reason for her trip. Canon Pennyfather, the absent-minded clergyman, wants to fly to a congress in Lucerne , but he arrives at the airport one day late and returns to the hotel without having achieved anything . When he enters his hotel room around midnight, he is dejected. Since he did not appear at the congress and could not be found, his housekeeper reports him missing to the police after a few days.
Chief Inspector Davy and Inspector Campbell take over the investigation into the disappearance of Canon Pennyfather. They learn from Miss Marple that she saw Pennyfather leaving his room at three in the morning.
In fact, he woke up four days later in a house a few hours from London, but near the spot where a mail train from Ireland was attacked three days earlier. A family found him on the side of the road, but he can't remember anything. But one witness to the robbery is certain that someone who looked exactly like Canon Pennyfather was involved in the robbery.
Miss Marple overhears a conversation between Bess Sedgwick and the doorman Micky Gorman and finds out that the two were married in Ireland. Gorman claims the marriage was invalid - if it did, Bess Sedgwick's second marriage, which earned her the title and fortune, would be invalid.
When Elvira returns to the hotel in the thick fog, two gunshots can be heard, and Elvira tells the storming Chief Inspector Davy that someone shot her, Gorman tried to protect her and was shot in the process - with Malinowski's pistol.
Chief Inspector Davy notes that Malinowski, Lady Sedgwick and Elvira's lover, drives a car that has been seen in several robberies, it only has a number that differs by one digit. Eventually Davy arranges a rerun of Pennyfather's nightly observation by Miss Marple, and she realizes that she has seen someone else. When asked about the theory of a doppelganger, Pennyfather also remembers that when he entered the hotel room he was surprised that he was already sitting on a chair in the room.
Miss Marple now sees the connections. Most of the hotel's historic feel is wrong. Some guests are real, but others are played by actors - not only in the hotel, but also in various crimes. The hotel is the center of a well-organized crime ring headed by Bess Sedgwick. The ring worked with doppelgangers of well-known people to distract those who witnessed the raids.
Miss Marple and Inspector Davy confront Bess Sedgwick with their findings. She confesses to the raids and takes the blame for Gorman's murder on herself. Then she escapes and commits suicide in a car accident. Miss Marple immediately questions the confession, however. She expresses her long-held suspicion to Inspector Davy that Elvira shot Gorman. Inspector Davy informs her that Elvira was going to Ireland to check whether her mother Bess was married to Gorman. When that turned out to be true, Elvira believed that her inheritance, with which she wanted to buy Malinowski's love, was in danger. She shot Gorman without knowing that she was still entitled to the inheritance.
people
- Jane Marple - the amateur detective and guest at the hotel. She is friends with Selina Hazy and Canon Pennyfather.
- Mr. Humfries - the hotel manager of Bertrams Hotel
- Miss Gorringe - Mr. Humfries' assistant
- Rose Sheldon - a housekeeper
- Lady Selina Hazy - a guest at the hotel
- Elvira Blake - a guest at the hotel
- Bess, Lady Sedgwick - Elvira's mother
- Colonel Derek Luscombe - Elvira's guardian
- Michael "Micky" Gorman - Lady Sedgwick's husband and doorman at Bertram's Hotel
- Robert Hoffman - co-owner of Bertrams Hotel
- Chief Inspector Fred "Father" Davy
- Ladislaus Malinowski, racing driver and lover of both Bess Sedgwick and her daughter Elvira
- Inspector Campbell
- Sergeant Wadell
- Canon Pennyfather
- Mrs. McCrae - Canon Pennyfather's housekeeper
- Archdeacon Simmons - Canon Pennyfather's friend and houseguest
References to real places
Various sources (such as the English language Wikipedia) claim that Christie got her inspiration from the Browns Hotel in London . However, the official Agatha Christie website emphasizes that there is no evidence of this.
Film adaptations
The novel has been filmed twice so far.
Miss Marple (TV series)
First, in 1987, a largely faithful film adaptation was made as a two-parter for the British television series Miss Marple (TV series) with Joan Hickson as Miss Marple.
Agatha Christie's Miss Marple
In 2007 it was made into a film again and aired in the third season of the ITV television series Agatha Christie's Marple with Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple on September 23, 2007. In the process, however, people, actions and motives were significantly changed.
Major expenses
- 1965: Collins Crime Club (London)
- 1966: Dodd, Mead and Company (New York)
- 1967: German first edition by Scherzverlag (Bern / Munich / Vienna)
- 2015: German translation as Bertram's Hotel by Anna Leube (Hamburg)
Audio books
- 2005, Bertrams Hotel (5 CDs): only unabridged reading. Speaker: Gabriele Blum. Revised version of the translation by Maria Minnert: Publishing house and studio for audio book productions (Marburg / Lahn)
- 2005, Bertrams Hotel (3 CDs): abridged reading. Speaker: Beate Himmelstoss. Translation by Tanja Handels. Director: Toni Nirschl: Der Hörverlag (Munich)
Web links
- At Bertram's Hotel on the official Agatha Christie website
- At Bertram's Hotel (1987) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marple: At Bertram's Hotel (2007) in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Collins Crime Club - A checklist of First Editions . Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)
- ↑ John Cooper and BA Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide : Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8
- ↑ American Tribute to Agatha Christie
- ↑ a b German first edition in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ Bertrams Hotel on the official Agatha Christie website
- ↑ Audiobook (complete) in the catalog of the German National Library
- ^ Audiobook (licensed) in the catalog of the German National Library