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    By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate
    By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate
    By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate
    Audiobook14 hours

    By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    TWO BESTSELLING MYSTERIES IN ONE GREAT PACKAGE! 

    BY THE PRICKING OF MY THUMBS

    Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Agatha Christie’s delightful sleuthing duo, investigate the strange and troubling doings behind the scenes at a gothic British nursing home in By the Pricking of My Thumbs

    When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady.

    But when Mrs. Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talks about ""something behind the fireplace,"" Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in a spine-chilling adventure that could spell death for either of them.

    POSTERN OF FATE

    Tommy and Tuppence Beresford return in Agatha Christie’s classic Postern of Fate, to investigate a deadly poisoning sixty years after the fact.

    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: ""Mary Jordan did not die naturally."" And sixty years after their first murder, Mary Jordan's enemies are still ready to kill. . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJan 22, 2013
    ISBN9780062253064
    By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for By the Pricking of My Thumbs & Postern of Fate

    3/5

    26 ratings18 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I love Agatha Christie and wouldn't ever call her a bad writer... but I have to admit that this book isn't all that great. It's actually pretty dull.
    • 1/5
      In the 1973 Postern of Fate, we find Tommy & Tuppence Beresford retired and having just bought a new-to-them old house. There is an old mystery (from WWII) connected with the house, but the point of the book (if there is one) seems to be to catalogue all the books that Christie read and loved as a child. The writing, quite uncharacteristic of Christie, sounds as if the author was a doddering old woman (well, she was 83) who was dictating a vague idea of a story. (But, where were her editors?!) The book meanders, repeats, meanders some more. It was maddening, and I finished it only because it fulfilled two of my more difficult reading challenges – Birth Year Reading Challenge, and Vintage Mysteries – Lethal Locations. (Who knew that the “Postern of Fate’ was a gate into Damascus?)Read this if: you are a complete Christie freak and want to know all about her childhood reading, or must read all her work. Otherwise – don’t read this. 1 star for the Christie connection
    • 3/5
      As a person who generally loves Agatha Christie's works, this was not my favourite book to read. The idea of the mystery was excellent, but it felt like a build up went a bit too long and generally went all over the place. The ending (I won't spoil it) was not worthy of how great the idea was and felt out of place. It's a decent bedtime read, but probably not a book I would read over and over again to enjoy in my spare time. The only great part of this book were the dialogue of Tommy and Tuppence. I enjoyed watching them banter back and forth, so if you love them as two people, not as two detectives, you'll at least enjoy that part of the book.
    • 3/5
      Not one of the best, or even the best Tommy and Tuppence mysteries, but I did appreciate all of the color that Chrisite gave her sleuths. Tommy and Tuppence starred in far fewer Christie mysteries than Poirot or Miss Marple, but they were always my favorites and I feel fortunate to have gotten this deeper perspective on them as people even if the storyline itself was a little weak.
    • 1/5
      In which a retired pair of amateur detectives discover an age-old mystery right under their noses.

      So it has come to this. "Postern of Fate" was Agatha Christie’s final written work, and it is undoubtedly her worst. Yes, worse than those tawdry thrillers she churned out in the 1920s, or the spurious supernatural short story collections of the ’40s. In her defence, the octogenarian Dame Agatha was probably suffering from early onset dementia, but her editors should’ve seen sense in not damaging her legacy by publishing this tripe.

      This is the 5th novel in the Tommy & Tuppence series, which began with two delightful little throwaway books in the ’20s, matured into a charming-but-pointless ’40s novel, and was already teetering on the brink with the laborious "By The Pricking of My Thumbs". The only redeeming factor is to see the continuation of these lovely characters, who aged along with Christie since their first novel (her second) in 1922. Conversations meander onto tangential topics page after page (Christie reportedly would speak into a dictaphone, or recite to a typist, and then basically just check what spilled out for spelling errors – even if this is a myth, it doesn’t seem unlikely!).

      The murder mystery is nonsensical, and our heroes have stopped being characters, instead becoming mouthpieces for an outdated generation. I’m a big fan of Dame Agatha, so one day I will buy a copy of this for the sake of completion. But for now, I’m quite happy not to have this cluttering up my shelf.

      Tommy and Tuppence ranking: 5th out of 5
    • 3/5
      There is a lot to like in this book, but also much to dislike as there are inconsistencies in the plot, which itself is muddled and confused. What I really like is how Christie has added her own childhood memories, I believe that her family actualy had a toy cart nicknamed Truelove.
    • 2/5
      A mystery written for a different era -- there's very little actual sleuthing in this one and a LOT of slow-paced conversation about the mystery. Repetitive and slow conversations! Ugh. Not suitable for audio, not very intriguing, and not very plausible to solve a mystery that's 40 or 50 years old with very little actual evidence. Take a pass .
    • 4/5
      A sentimental favourite! It was Christie’s last book.
    • 3/5
      I'd never read any Christie before, so I figured I should check her out, since she's such a classic author. This was her last published book; it's a mystery, of course. A couple of retired detectives buy a house in a quaint English town - but find a cryptic message in an old children's book that leads them to start investigating a sixty-year-old possibility of death by foul play.... However, their questions may stir up things safer left forgotten.
    • 2/5
      One of Christie's clumsiest works, even to the point of actual errors of continuity. A quick read but a weak introduction to the leads (Tommy and Tuppence) and a generally uninteresting book.

      It *does*, however, raise some interesting questions for me about Christie's moralizing and shoring-up of the contemporary/20th century imperialist mentality in England at the time she was writing. It's a tempting thought to throw together a little study on her works that focuses on her often hawkish undertones.
    • 3/5
      Last book Christie wrote, appears to be unedited as it does need quite a bit of trimming. Some items are not explained. Very wordy, but if you recall that these are a couple of 70 plus years, who via other books have established repartee and humour, then the conversations are credible. Dedicated to a dog who appears in the book obviously much loved by Agatha. I got the feeling that the final chapters were constructed from notes and conversations rather than actual dictation of the writer.
    • 1/5
      I read the entire book hoping for it to go somewhere, but it was sadly anticlimactic. Everything happened at a distance and when crucial conversations took place, the characters were very vague. You never knew quite what was going on... at least it was short.
    • 2/5
      This was Christie's last novel, but it's also one of the most confusing of her novels. There's lots of talking, and when I say lots of talking, I mean that it could probably do with being about 100 pages shorter. The idea behind the mystery is intriguing, but so much time is spent getting to it and then lots of time wasted investigating the past that I found myself flicking forward to see how many pages I had left before it was all over. The most frustrating thing though is that the revelation about the mystery all happens in the last three chapters and yet none of the investigating beforehand seems to have built up towards said conclusion. The whole novel ends up being a mish-mash of random ideas, none of which really follow through and I found this somewhat disappointing. There were moments when the pace of the story picked up or the characters were particularly engaging, but overall it felt like you really had to work at reading this story to get anywhere.
    • 4/5
      I didn't expect to like the Tommy and Tuppence mysteries by Agatha Christie, but this one has me looking forward to more.The two former detectives have decided to retire in their declining years to a large house in a country village. Things are not as tame as they seem, however. Tuppence discovers a code in a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow. Her curiosity id piqued and she must find out who "Mary Jordon" is, who, according to a young boy who left the book behind, "did not die naturally."It turns out that Tommy and Tuppence aren't the only ones who know something about the old house. Things get dangerous as the two begin to uncover a mystery that is over 60 years old.
    • 4/5
      Not one of her better books; the mystery's a bit silly - it took two thirds of the book to get there - but the book was more character based than story, which is a bit unusual for a Christie. It was also a LOT more chatty; Tommy and Tuppence tend to blabber in their old age, apparently. Still, it's fun to watch them age. They're a great couple, and very different from most Christie character couples. I loved the stuff about their little dog; so sweet.
    • 3/5
      I would have given this book two stars but for one exception: I'm a bookaholic, and I liked the book theme woven throughout the plot. The mystery starts out with a children's book, and arranging books on shelves. Tuppence frequently gets distracted by her books, and I can totally relate. I did not however like the spy/espionage element and I was a little confused by the ending. I got the feeling I had missed something important at the end, which is unusual for me.
    • 3/5
      A very late Christie book. If she hadn't become the Queen of Mystery by the time this was written I don't think the book could have been published. They obviously felt anything with her name on it would sell, which was probably true. Tedious retelling of details, no characters developed as the bad guys, no real case. I had apparently read this in 2015 but I hadn't commented on it and couldn't remember it, so the re-read. Blimey, it was awful.
    • 3/5
      This is another Tommy and Tuppance book. It was a good mystery, but less exciting the other Christie books.