Postern of Fate: Agatha Christie’s Last Novel, Tommy and Tuppence and the Hidden Message in an Old Book
Tommy and Tuppence Beresford buy an old house in a small English seaside town and decide to move there. The house comes with an attic full of old books, which Tuppence, a keen reader, decides to sort out.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Postern of Fate (1973), the last novel Christie wrote
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 336 pages
Scope: Tommy and Tuppence novel
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0007590636 (ASIN 0007590636)
A Message in Red
The books bring back memories of her past, and she happily rereads passages from works she has always loved. While doing so, she finds a message made up of words underlined in red on the page of a book: "Mary Jordan did not die naturally. It was one of us."
Fifty Years On
Tuppence begins to investigate the history of the house and of the town, relying on the memories of elderly residents of care homes and old ladies of the village. It is hard work investigating events that took place more than fifty years earlier, but with the support of her husband Tommy she manages to find out who Mary Jordan was, why she was killed and by whom.
The Black Arrow
The book in which Tuppence finds the hidden message is a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Black Arrow, once owned by a boy called Alexander Parkinson who lived in the house long before and died young. Tuppence’s delight in rediscovering the children’s books of her youth, from Stevenson to Kipling, gives the opening chapters a gentle, nostalgic charm, and many readers will share her pleasure in remembering old favourites.
A Title From Flecker
The title comes from a poem by James Elroy Flecker, "The Gates of Damascus", which describes the four great gates of the city, among them the "Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate". It suits a story about the passage of time, about doors into the past and the secrets they hide, and about an elderly couple looking back on their long life together.
Hannibal and Albert
The Beresfords are accompanied by their faithful servant Albert, who has been with them since The Secret Adversary, and by their Manchester terrier, Hannibal, who plays an important and very brave part in the story. Their presence gives the book a warm, domestic feeling, and fans of the couple will enjoy spending time with them in their new home.
Christie’s Last Novel
Postern of Fate was the last novel Christie wrote, published in 1973 when she was eighty-three. (Curtain and Sleeping Murder, which appeared later, had been written decades earlier and kept in reserve.) Many critics find it rambling and repetitive, and a later linguistic study of her novels suggested that her vocabulary in these final books showed signs consistent with declining memory.
How to Read It
For that reason it is best approached with affection rather than high expectations: as a farewell to two old friends rather than as a tightly plotted mystery.
Reading Order
Readers new to Tommy and Tuppence should start with The Secret Adversary and come to this book last, as Christie intended.
A Couple’s Farewell
What remains most touching is the relationship at the centre. After fifty years of adventures, Tommy and Tuppence still tease, worry about and rely on each other, and Christie, who was herself married for more than forty years to Max Mallowan, writes about long companionship with obvious feeling.
It is a gentle goodbye.
Why Read It
It was the last novel Christie wrote, and it reunites readers with the couple who first appeared in The Secret Adversary half a century earlier. Nostalgic and gentle, it is a fitting farewell for Tommy and Tuppence fans.
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