Postern of Fate

Infobox Book
name = Postern of Fate
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration of the first UK edition
author = Agatha Christie
cover_artist = Margaret Murray
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Crime novel
publisher = Collins Crime Club
release_date = October 1973
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 256 pp (first edition, hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 0-002-31190-9
preceded_by = Elephants Can Remember
followed_by = Poems

"Postern of Fate" is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1973"Collins Crime Club – A checklist of First Editions" Chris Peers, Ralph Spurrier and Jamie Sturgeon. Dragonby Press (Second Edition) March 1999 (Page 15)] and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year [Cooper and Pyke. Detective Fiction - the collector's guide: Second Edition (Pages 82 and 87) Scholar Press. 1994. ISBN 0-85967-991-8] [http://home.insightbb.com/~jsmarcum/agatha68.htm American Tribute to Agatha Christie] ] . The UK edition retailed at £2.00 and the US edition at $6.95.

The book features her detectives Tommy and Tuppence Beresford and is the detectives' last appearance. It is the final novel Christie ever wrote, but it was not the last to be published.

Explanation of the novel's title

The title comes from the poem " [http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/518.html Gates of Damascus] " by James Elroy Flecker. The poem is also referenced in the short story "The Gate of Baghdad" in the 1934 collection "Parker Pyne Investigates".

Plot summary

Now in their '70s, Tommy and Tuppence move to a quiet English village, looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But, as they soon discover, their rambling old house holds secrets. Who is Mary Jordan? And why has someone left a code message in an old book about her 'unnatural' death? Once more, ingenuity and insight are called for as they are drawn into old mysteries and new dangers.

Literary significance and reception

Maurice Richardson in "The Observer" of November 11, 1973 was positive in his review: "Now in their seventies, the Beresfords, that amateur detective couple of hers whom some of us found too sprightly for comfort, have acquired a Proustian complexity. A code message in an Edwardian children's book puts them on to the murder of a governess involved in a pre-1914 German spy case. Past and present go on interlocking impressively. Despite political naivety; this is a genuine tour de force with a star part for Hannibal, the Manchester Terrier." ["The Observer" November 11, 1973 (Page 36)]

Robert Barnard: "The last book Christie wrote. Best (and easily) forgotten." [Barnard, Robert. "A Talent to Deceive – an appreciation of Agatha Christie" - Revised edition (Page 203). Fontana Books, 1990. ISBN 0-00-637474-3]

"Postern of Fate" has been criticized as of lower quality than the bulk of Christie's output. According to "The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English", this novel is one of the "execrable last novels" where Christie "loses her grip altogether". [cite book
pages=132
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=NB59uc9_ss8C&pg=PA132&vq=%22elephants+can+remember%22&dq=%22The+Cambridge+Guide+to+Women%27s+Writing+in+English%22&sig=ueM4utqE0BzwP2Nd6cKGkDZ0NpE
isbn=0-52-166813-1
first=Lorna
last=Sage
coauthors=
title= The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English
publisher=Cambridge University Press
date=1999]

Publication history

* 1973, Collins Crime Club (London), October 1973, Hardcover, 254 pp
* 1973, Dodd Mead and Company (New York), Hardcover, 310 pp
* 1974 Bantam Books, Paperback, 276 pp
* 1974 GK Hall & Company Large-print Edition, Hardcover, 471 pp ISBN 0-81-616197-6
* 1976, Fontana Books (Imprint of HarperCollins), Paperback, 221 pp
* 1992, Ulverscroft large-print Edition, Hardcover, ISBN 0-70-892708-4

References

External links

* [http://us.agathachristie.com/site/find_a_story/stories/Postern_of_Fate.php "Postern of Fate"] at the official Agatha Christie website