Agatha Christie "At Bertram’s Hotel"

Agatha Christie - At Bertram's Hotel

There are women that are not suitable at all to perform the role of mother. It is exactly this type of a lady, a rich seeker of thrilling emotions, Bess Sedgwick, who appears in the novel "At Bertram’s Hotel" by Agatha Christie. At the time, Bess, who did not want to live an ordinary life, delegated the upbringing of her daughter, Elvira Blake, to governesses, and later on sent Elvira to a closed boarding school in Italy.

Elvira completes her education and returns to England. By incredible coincidence, she turns out to be in the same hotel with her mother and her mom’s lover. The girl is disoriented, she learns a lot of unwanted information, including that she may not receive her inheritance, which she desperately needs to get married. Bess is struggling to stay away from her daughter as it is not the right place for her daughter to be next to a chieftain of a gang constantly tickling nerves by committing extravagant, but absolutely illegal acts. 

Unfortunately, the influence of heredity shows itself - the first husband of Bess, Michael Gorman, dies supposedly protecting Elvira. Nothing stands between the girl and her inheritance. When a criminal investigation starts, maternal instincts of Bess Sedgwick wake up, she takes the blame for the murder of Gorman, then escaping from the arrest, she gets out of the window, climbs over the roof, gets into the car, accelerates it to the maximum speed and deliberately crashes into the barrier.

Miss Marple and the police commissioner do not have doubts about the guilt of Elvira, but Bess took the blame upon herself, her testimony is recorded. It is in form of death that Bess Sedgwick gave love to her daughter, which she was incapable of during her lifetime.