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A review by mborer23
Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie
4.0
I love Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, and this is the last novel to feature them. It's also the last novel Christie ever wrote (although not the last to be published.) Perhaps fittingly, mortality flits around every corner (such as in the poem where the title comes from) and loss is a major theme: loss of life, loss of youth, loss of memory.
Tommy and Tuppence are now grandparents in their 70s, settling down into retirement in a peaceful cottage they've just bought. When Tuppence stumbles upon clues to a very cold murder case indeed, they're thrown into one last mystery with espionage at its heart. Possibly reflecting the author's own state of mind, the Beresfords here are still energetic and curious, but they forget things, get confused over names and details, say the same things a few different times, and occasionally contradict themselves.
Some continuity lapses: the name Mrs. Blenkensop (Tuppence's false identity from "N or M?") is spelled Blenkinsop throughout this book; the Beresfords' daughter Deborah is mentioned to be the mother of twins, although when we meet her children at the end, they're all different ages; Albert, whose wife Milly was very much alive in "By the Pricking of My Thumbs," is here seen mourning his late wife Amy.
Interestingly, however, one earlier lapse is here corrected. In the previous novel, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs," Tuppence mentions her two children Derek and Deborah, but seemingly forgets about Betty, the child they adopted after the events of "N or M?" In this book, Betty is restored to the family and is said to be a college graduate doing ethnographic work in Africa.
Overall, this is an interesting read, even if it's not quite as exciting as the other Beresford stories, and includes the usual deus ex machina (or in this case, canis ex machina) climax.
Tommy and Tuppence are now grandparents in their 70s, settling down into retirement in a peaceful cottage they've just bought. When Tuppence stumbles upon clues to a very cold murder case indeed, they're thrown into one last mystery with espionage at its heart. Possibly reflecting the author's own state of mind, the Beresfords here are still energetic and curious, but they forget things, get confused over names and details, say the same things a few different times, and occasionally contradict themselves.
Some continuity lapses: the name Mrs. Blenkensop (Tuppence's false identity from "N or M?") is spelled Blenkinsop throughout this book; the Beresfords' daughter Deborah is mentioned to be the mother of twins, although when we meet her children at the end, they're all different ages; Albert, whose wife Milly was very much alive in "By the Pricking of My Thumbs," is here seen mourning his late wife Amy.
Interestingly, however, one earlier lapse is here corrected. In the previous novel, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs," Tuppence mentions her two children Derek and Deborah, but seemingly forgets about Betty, the child they adopted after the events of "N or M?" In this book, Betty is restored to the family and is said to be a college graduate doing ethnographic work in Africa.
Overall, this is an interesting read, even if it's not quite as exciting as the other Beresford stories, and includes the usual deus ex machina (or in this case, canis ex machina) climax.