Postern of Fate
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…And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan's enemies are still ready to kill…
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Postern of Fate
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by
Collins 1973
Agatha Christie® Tommy & Tuppence® Postern of Fateâ¢
Copyright © 1973 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers/Agatha Christie Ltd 2015
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780006165279
Ebook Edition © Jan 2015 ISBN: 9780007422739
Version: 2017-04-17
For Hannibal and his master
Four great gates has the city of Damascus â¦
Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disasterâs Cavem,
Fort of Fear â¦
Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing.
Have you heard
That silence where the birds are dead, yet something
pipeth like a bird?
from Gates of Damascus by James Elroy Flecker
Contents
CHAPTER 1: Mainly Concerning Books
CHAPTER 3: Visit to the Cemetery
CHAPTER 5: The White Elephant Sale
CHAPTER 2: Introduction to Mathilde, Truelove and kk
CHAPTER 3: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast
CHAPTER 4: Expedition on Truelove; Oxford and Cambridge
CHAPTER 5: Methods of Research
CHAPTER 2: Research by Tuppence
CHAPTER 3: Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes
CHAPTER 4: Possibility of Surgery on Mathilde
CHAPTER 5: Interview With Colonel Pikeaway
CHAPTER 8: Reminiscences About an Uncle
CHAPTER 10: Attack on Tuppence
CHAPTER 11: Hannibal Takes Action
CHAPTER 12: Oxford, Cambridge and Lohengrin
CHAPTER 13: Visit From Miss Mullins
CHAPTER 15: Hannibal Sees Active Service With Mr Crispin
CHAPTER 16: The Birds Fly South
âBooks!â said Tuppence.
She produced the word rather with the effect of a bad-tempered explosion.
âWhat did you say?â said Tommy.
Tuppence looked across the room at him.
âI said âbooksâ,â she said.
âI see what you mean,â said Thomas Beresford.
In front of Tuppence were three large packing cases. From each of them various books had been extracted. The larger part of them were still filled with books.
âItâs incredible,â said Tuppence.
âYou mean the room they take up?â
âYes.â
âAre you trying to put them all on the shelves?â
âI donât know what Iâm trying to do,â said Tuppence. âThatâs the awkward part of it. One doesnât know ever, exactly, what one wants to do. Oh dear,â she sighed.
âReally,â said her husband, âI should have thought that that was not at all characteristic of you. The trouble with you has always been that you knew much too well what you do want to do.â
âWhat I mean is,â said Tuppence, âthat here we are, getting older, getting a bitâwell, letâs face itâdefinitely rheumatic, especially when one is stretching; you know, stretching putting in books or lifting things down from shelves or kneeling down to look at the bottom shelves for something, then finding it a bit difficult to get up again.â
âYes, yes,â said Tommy, âthatâs an account of our general disabilities. Is that what you started to say?â
âNo, it isnât what I started to say. What I started to say was, it was lovely to be able to buy a new home and find just the place we wanted to go and live in, and just the house there weâd always dreamt of havingâwith a little alteration, of course.â
âKnocking one or two rooms into each other,â said Tommy, âand adding to it what you call a veranda and your builder calls a lodger, though I prefer to call it a loggia.â
âAnd itâs going to be very nice,â said Tuppence firmly.
âWhen youâve done it I shanât know it! Is that the answer?â said Tommy.
âNot at all. All I said was that when you see it finished youâre going to be delighted and say what an ingenious and clever and artistic wife you have.â
