Postern of Fate [Hardcover]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 1973

The final Tommy & Tuppence novel, in which a poisoning many years ago may not have been accidental after all! Tommy and Tuppence Beresford have just become the proud owners of an old house in an English village. Along with the property, they have inherited some worthless bric-a-brac, including a collection of antique books. While rustling through a copy of The Black Arrow, Tuppence comes upon a series of apparently random underlinings. However, when she writes down the letters, they spell out a very disturbing message: M a r y -- J o r d a n -- d i d -- n o t -- d i e -- n a t u r a l l y!

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The Beresfords are wonderfully revived. Smooth, beautifully paced, and effortlessly convincing.' New York Times 'Past and present interlock impressively! this is a genuine tour de force.' Observer

About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Collins Crime Club; 1st edition (January 2, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0002311909
• ISBN-13: 978-0002311908
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,284,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New light on Dame Agatha Christie's last days, February 6, 2005

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Postern of Fate (Paperback)

Since its publication, POSTERN OF FATE has received largely execrable reviews, with some labelling it "tedious" and others finding themselvs unable to follow its byzantinely boring plot. Look at the reviews on Amazon for samples. Now comes new evidence that the version of POSTERN OF FATE which we have was severely edited and that Christie's original may be a very different (and more cogent) work than the one we all know and abhor.

Sotheby's was offering the "complete Dictaphone recording of Agatha Christie dictating her last novel" including the original dictaphone belts she used (sixty of them). This was evidently put up for sale by her secretary, Mrs. Jolly. Did you know that "Postern of Fate" was Christie's sub=title for the novel and that the real title is "Doom's Caravan"? Sotheby's catalogue, from which I quote here, reveals that "the text incorporated here differs substantially in very many instances from the final, printed version . . . Among the most striking differences might be noted the following. [WARNING -- SPOILERS AHEAD.] The group responsible for Mary Jordan's murder is here more clearly identified as a Fascist cell amd many more details of, and clues about, them are given in a substantial section eventually cut. The motivation for the murder of old Isaac by a descendant of this group who is endeavouring to bring Fascism to England is, accordinly, more substantiated in the present version; moreover, in the way this material is here worked, clues are thrown out so as apparently to implicate a different murderer. The rearrangement of the final, printed version, in which some of these chapters are placed earlier, also leaves a few threads hanging loose, evidently because of poor editing, there remain in the printed version a few references to certain of these sections which had either by then been moved in such a way that the references are inappropriate or else cut alttogether . . ."

Perhaps it is the case that Christie's last novel isn't the sad, woolgathering, near-Alzheimers experience it presently seems to be, but instead it was the victim of "poor editing"? Wouldn't it be great if a critical edition of POSTERN OF FATE--or should we call it DOOM'S CARAVAN--could be prepared by the Christie estate which would clear up some of these inconsistencies and restore the blot from her reputation?

I give this book only 4 stars because, well, it isn't all that good, and until her original version is restored, this is all we're going to have.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Agatha's worst book!, November 18, 2006

By 

Linda W. Jones "mountain.frog" (Conifer, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Postern of Fate (Paperback)

I am an Agatha Christie fan, and although her books don't have the deep character development of some authors, she's generally ingenious in the construction of the mysteries, and such a good writer that each book is a pleasure to read.

BUT.....this book is boring, boring, boring. There is no mystery to speak of, and such as it is, is solved pretty much without any particular input by the Beresford couple, Tommy and Tuppence, nor is it a mystery the reader gets to try to solve.

Tommy and Tuppence continually, page after page and chapter after chapter, speculate on what might be the solution to the mystery. In the first place, speculation is not exactly detection. In the second place, about the sixth or eighth time Tuppence brightly wondered what might be the solution and Tommy fondly said he didn't know either, I wanted to strangle both of them. I prefer for SOMETHING to be happening in a book. NOT for the characters to be sitting around saying "Gee, there seems to be a mystery. I wonder who did it?"

This might have made an amusing short story. But it was strung out to tedious length and actually made me angry with myself for not just throwing it away instead of slogging all the way to the disappointing end.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars She's written much, much better, September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Postern of Fate (Mass Market Paperback)

I am a tremendous Agatha Christie fan, and you will be too so long as you don't start with this book. It's true, she wrote it when she was in her 80s, and it shows. However, start out chronologically with her books - The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920, and go on from there, and you will probably love her. Mysteries, action adventure (rather tame by todays standards but there's nothing wrong in that !) and well written. Her later books must be read by devoted fans who just want to see her old characters again. Her earliest books are the best - and I mean, the best!