Book Club

Tommy and Tuppence Stories

Tommy and Tuppence provide a change of pace for Christie readers with their energetic exploits.  Discuss in detail their stories with others in the know - but beware spoilers. 

The best comments will be added to the Stories pages.

If you can't find your favourite Young Adventurers story, don't worry - they'll all be added soon.

Warning: These discussions may contain spoilers!

Postern of Fate

Moderator1 10 Nov 09 at 2:58 p.m. GMT

Moving into a new house is always a busy time but Tuppence has even more to occupy her when she finds a cache of children's books, many of which Tuppence fondly remembers.  However, she is amazed to find a cryptic message in one of them.  Still blessed with her inate sense of curiosity she begins to uncover secrets about the house and about an old murder and perhaps one still to come...  

Written towards the end of her life, this is thought to be well below Christie's usual standard.  Do you agree?  Should it have been more heavily edited to make it into a better book?  Or, is it a fitting last book for Tommy & Tuppence?

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17 replies

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murder_is_easy123 28 Oct 11 at 5:08 p.m. GMT

I think that this book is brilliant, but I can clearly understand why some people may say otherwise.  It is slightly ambitious and unrealistic.  I still love it, though, and I hope that they make a film version of it (I'm hoping for ITV to adapt it for the 6th series of Agatha Christie's Marple - although, of course, it won't be the same without Tommy and Tuppence!)

ChristieFanBlogger 23 Feb 11 at 9:55 p.m. GMT

I must find one of their earlier stories to see if they were always this bad, or if elderly spies is just too much of an oxymoron even for the great Ms. Christie.   Nothing ticks me off more in a mystery than for the killer to be introduced so late in the story.  The killer/spy/bad guy turns up on page 258 of a 294 page book!   Here I waste all my time thinking about the characters I’m getting to know all along, not that there were many except Tommy's boring spy buddies.  The only mystery I found worth solving:  “A postern is a secondary door or gate."

Leopoldo 15 Dec 10 at 6:55 p.m. GMT

I think  it is a very good book and fits Tommy and Tuppence, because as they are not young anymore, it couldn´t be a thriller like the others. It is very adequate for their age and still a very good book. It shows all the qualities of Tommy and Tuppence, there is suspence, but, as I said before, in a different time. They are the best!

zeeta 15 Sep 10 at 1:43 p.m. GMT

I love postern of fate - the references back to Oxford and Cambridge and the Horse "Truelove", all of which were mentioned in Agathas autobiography as memories from her own childhood. I think she was remembering her own life when she wrote it and for that it makes this book very special.

kagee 12 Sep 10 at 12:14 a.m. GMT

This is myfirst post on this website. I've been trying to get here for years but was hung up on technology.  Today my techie friend set me up with a spiggy new laptop and helped me get on.

Postern of Fate is my favorite Christie novel, and I am a diehard Christie fan. I love their relationship, a primer for a good marriage.

I also like that it's a little quirky.

Please revp!

kagee

Sallye818 30 Jun 10 at 9:15 p.m. GMT

Tommy and Tuppence have always been my favorite AC characters since I started reading her books as a teenager.  I remember seeing the (here in the U.S.) PBS adapatation of "Partners in Crime" on TV and for eternity this is how I will picture tommy, tuppence & albert. 

"Postern of Fate" is definitely a farewell to the Beresfords, and I'm so glad AC wrote it.  I would really have been depressed had the characters just suddenly dropped off the face of the earth.  I loved seeing the twins again, hearing about Betty, the adopted daughter, and even the grandchildren.  I felt like I was reading a letter from a cousin I hadn't seen in years.

As for the plot, I agree that there are better Christie writings, but having just reread it after many years, I still love T&T!

hiezabelt 30 Jun 10 at 1:22 a.m. GMT

This was my first Christie´s book when I was about 12 and I still love it, may be not her best but as usual I could not put it away until the end.  One can see how mature she became and she does that to them but gracefully, and they still have the will to live and have fun.

trembath 27 Jun 10 at 9:34 p.m. GMT

i found this disappointing. have very recently reread it. i must have read it before because ive read all of them but on a few days off sick rediscovered it. what struck me was:

1. the rambling and unsatisfying plot. you never really get to find out what it was all about and, in particular, what happened to the boy.

2. the stilted dialogue eg 'Debby, our adopted daughter, went to Africa didn't she? have you heard from her?'

3. the strange sub-characters. the children seem like escapees from just william. the book was published in 1973 and is clearly set in the 70s from the references to decimal currency but the children are called Henry ,Clarence and (beggaring belief) Algernon.

That said, I am a devoted Christie fan otherwise i wouldnt be on this forum and T&T are probably my favourite characters.

P_Lombard 24 Jun 10 at 6:47 p.m. GMT

I think it would be fair to say that this is not the best book Agatha wrote, but it is not downright terrible. Although I found the first half of the book to be rambling, I felt the second part of the book, especially after the murder of Isaac, to be just as exciting as any other Christie mystery.

Since Tommy & Tuppence are my favorite detectives, it was kind of sad to see how much they had changed since The Secret Adversary, but Tuppence at least is still as fun as ever. I enjoyed her interaction with her maid who had lots of "problems" and the dog, Hannibal, was also a very interesting character. It is a shame we saw so little of Albert in this book. His scenes are usually a highlight of the Tommy & Tuppence experience.

aznm 19 Jun 10 at 10:41 a.m. GMT

I've always respected this book because it was Dame Agatha's final book written and because she cared enough about Tommy & Tuppence to give them one last hoorah.  We watched them grow as detectives and mature gracefully in the T&T novels, so this one is especially poignant given it was important for the author to end her wonderful career penning another of their adventures.

Perhaps it is lacking in some of the old Christie flair, but it gives us a quiet goodbye to T&T, to Christie's brilliant writing career, and to the Dame herself.  I can't fault this book for it's little weak points when it has so many strong points, albeit, nostalgic points.  T&T were around, in the background, almost as long as Agatha Christie was churning out mysteries, longer than Miss Marple, if not as prominent.  I'm glad the author honored her many T&T fans by obliging us with one last visit, one last adventure.

I'm also glad she remembered to include adopted daughter Betty, who was absent from even a mention in By The Pricking of My Thumbs.  This book was a nice wrap up to the whereabouts of the Beresford family, a good way to let the readers know the family was growing.

tudes 01 Jun 10 at 10:02 p.m. GMT

I think it's a great book. It´s very different from the others,. The murder is much more releated with the past than the present. Everything reminds old times, in a good sense. Reminds the happiness of a plenty life that will end soon, but it´s ok, because nothing was left behind. And it can be applied to Agatha Christie as to Tuppence and Tommy. In this way, the book is perfect. Of course, it can´t be the first Tuppence and Tommy`s book, because there are a lot of references, especially to "M  or N". It´s a lovely book. Different from others Christie´s stories, but a very good one.

drwatson 30 Jan 10 at 12:11 a.m. GMT

edit this book over some fans dead bodies. The Master wrote it and that's the way it should stay. Changing a book to make it read better is what happened to the Hardy boys and look what happend to them. I for one enjoyed the interaction between Tommy and Tuppence and found the mystery to be an secondary issue. I am a fan of the couple and always will be. I was disapointed when Miss Marple was shoved into their mystery by the pricking of my thumb and turning Tuppence into a drunk but this company can only see the need to change everything Chrstie created. I will wait for the time Poirot solves a Miss Marple story say for example the murder at the vicarage.

Liberty1976 28 Dec 09 at 10:15 p.m. GMT

After finishing the novel, I have to concur with the opinion that we are saying goodbye to AC herself.  She is certainly allowing the readers to have closure with Tommy and Tuppence even to the point of bringing their children and grandchildren into the book in the final pages.  I also noticed a comment earlier in the book which may have hinted at AC's own feelings toward men.  Tuppence makes a statement to her husband along the lines that men cannot be trusted, and he retorts that if she can't trust him then she has married the wrong kind of man.  It would be interesting to compare AC's biography with her character's dialogue (especially in her romance novels written under a pseudonym) to determine if there is an established pattern regaring her view of the male/female relationship.

go_leafs_nation 15 Dec 09 at 5:18 p.m. GMT

This book rambled on and on and on, and probably could've used some revision, although preferably by AC. Notably, this is the one time in her books that she really doesn't play fair, as the killer shows up pages before they're revealed as the culprit.

PierreMichel 03 Dec 09 at 4:24 a.m. GMT

I agree that we get to say goodbye to Tommy and Tuppence, but i couldn't help feeling while reading it that we were saying goodbye to Agatha Christie too.

Tommy_A_Jones 16 Nov 09 at 1:46 p.m. GMT

I agree Librerty1976, I see it ias Agatha Christie giving us a chance to say goodbye to Tommy and Tuppence, I do like this one and prefer it to By The Pricking Of My Thumbs

Liberty1976 15 Nov 09 at 9:49 p.m. GMT

I've gotten half way through The Postern of Fate, and I've noticed that it refers back to many other Tommy and Tuppence stories.  I can see why people would think it does not live up to the Christie reputation.  I think only true fans would want to read it, and being a solid fan, I'm also a Christie purist.  Leave things alone.  There's no need to edit the novel at this point.  It may not be as good as other Christie novels, but it is valuable in its own right.