Beechwood Hotel

Come for a whodunnit night at Emma and Hugh Asher’s ivy-smothered hotel, ‘well placed for touring north Norfolk’, and murder by chocolate could be on the menu. South African nights bring dishes such as lamb bobotie, seafood potjiekos and ostrich kebabs. Agatha Christie memorabilia celebrate the fact that the author used to stay here with friends when the house was named The Shrubs. Bedrooms are old-fashioned, some with an antique four-poster, some with French doors to the garden, which is ‘lovely to wander round’. Two garden rooms have a modern four-poster, a slipper bath and walk-in shower, sauna cabin and deck with hot tub. In the dining room, and now in a converted summer house, Steven Norgate’s menus are sourced with the emphasis on quality, food miles, sustainability and animal welfare. Typical dishes include herb-crusted hake with caper beurre noisette; saddle of lamb with redcurrant jus; caramelised onion tart with three cheeses (maybe Binham Blue and Gurney’s Gold, no mousetrap). Golfers’ packages are available, but be wary: a ‘golf stick’ was the murder weapon in Spider’s Web. (ML, SP)