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The large-scale plot (wide-ranging crime spree masterminded by ... well, a mastermind of course!) is a bit of a non-starter, but the atmosphere of Bertram's Hotel more than makes up for it. The small-scale plot involving the heiress is rather well done.

Although... the doddering elderly clergyman with a shock of white hair, who finds himself adrift in the modern world and gets into trouble by forgetting what day it is and missing his flight to Lucerne... is 63. Sixty-three! About 20 years younger than I expected. I haven't met a doddering 63 year old ever. What changed since 1965? Has NHS done a great job of maintaining the health of its citizens into their later decades, or what? ( )

While Miss Marple is present through most of the book, she doesn't really contribute to the solution in the way I expected. This reread has made me reconsider my rating. In particular, I didn't care for the ending. ( )

This is one of the Miss Marple books, and it feels like three different short stories awkwardly jammed together (via the connective tissue of a London hotel): you've got a missing-clergyman story, you've got an international-smuggling-ring story, and you've got a murder-because-of-a-threatened-inheritance story. I guess this novel is nominally interesting for the exceptionally serene POV of the murderer (and is maybe interesting to Miss Marple fans because it takes place in exotic London), but the actual "mystery" is pretty thin gruel. ( )

This was DCI Davy with help from Miss Marple, rather than a straight Miss Marple, but was well-plotted and had endearing characters like Canon Pennyfather and his housekeeper. It made me want to stay at a hotel in London. ( )