Poirot Score: 49

Postern of Fate

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Explanation of the Poirot Score:

Postern of Fate is Christie’s swan song for Tommy and Tuppence Beresford. Christie wrote her very first Tommy and Tuppence adventure, The Secret Adversary, in 1922, fifty years earlier!

This is the very last book Dame Agatha Christie ever wrote, aged 83, but not the last published. Postern of Fate contains some humorous writing about dogs, but sadly no original plot or clues. It is a continuation of ideas about fascist fifth columnists from her previous novel Passenger to Frankfurt [1970], with many rambling childhood reminiscences. The text is stark proof of the deterioration in cognitive function of Christie’s magnificent mind, probably from microvascular disease. Christie had a heart attack after she had written this novel.

Click here for full review (spoilers ahead)

Trivia

Dedication : ‘For Hannibal and his master’

Christie chose this very last work to be dedicated to her second husband, Max Mallowan, and their Manchester terrier, Bingo. Bingo did nip visitors and was fiercely protective of Christie, just as Hannibal, a Manchester terrier, is to Tuppence Beresford in this book. Bingo also bit Max Mallowan, which explains why he cautiously keeps Bingo at arm’s length in this picture (above).

Christie’s Last Clue:

The title for this last novel comes from a poem by James Elroy Flecker The Gates Of Damascus. Usually Christie’s book titles are more obviously related to the content of the plot. For example, Dumb Witness is about a dog called Bob who must have seen his mistress’s murderer, or ‘By the Pricking of My Thumbs’ is about a wicked assassin.

I was puzzled by this chosen title. Christie and Mallowan met on an archaeological dig in the Middle East and they spent much time there for Max’s research. The poem describes the four gates of the City of Damascus, and the paths that lead from them. Each gate-keeper has a verse. The Baghdad Gate – the East Gate – is the ‘Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disaster’s Cavern, Fort of Fear’. The merchant caravans took this path from the safe comfort of the city of Damascus to Baghdad is across the desert fraught with many dangers: thirst, heat, blizzards and attacks from Bedouins. The gatekeeper warns:

‘Pass not beneath, O Caravan, or pass not singing’.

I think the title is Dame Agatha Christie’s last real clue. She knew ‘Doom’s Caravan, Death’s Caravan’ awaited her.