Postern of Fate

Postern of Fate
Agatha Christie

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…

Postern of Fate

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

Collins 1973

Agatha Christie® Tommy & Tuppence® Postern of Fate™

Copyright © 1973 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.

www.agathachristie.com (http://www.agathachristie.com)

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 author’s 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 …

Postern of Fate, the Desert Gate, Disaster’s Cavem,

Fort of Fear …

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

Cover (#ub56a3f9d-de67-5525-a0a1-05310ed92c6d)

Title Page (#u9279cc30-6625-5b1c-8889-b0212226e50e)

Copyright (#ud9d54ce2-2ffb-5c33-ab88-c8b12da05779)

Dedication (#u6661219f-7614-52d1-8265-add98767b4be)

Epigraph (#u8b7cdc43-f88c-5e1e-a17d-38e430e4fa48)

BOOK I (#ubec4b426-6dbe-5b41-b7cb-31cd4d39d943)

CHAPTER 1: Mainly Concerning Books (#u49f7edec-6dad-5c9f-9e82-c93de4f61e77)

CHAPTER 2: The Black Arrow (#u7d57f13d-ba7a-5efd-a9d0-63d685f0fd3e)

CHAPTER 3: Visit to the Cemetery (#ue951af6d-9fb3-555a-85ca-12337cfe116f)

CHAPTER 4: Lots of Parkinsons (#u3dd14361-4f34-5dca-8ee6-6c9ae333c59b)

CHAPTER 5: The White Elephant Sale (#uf7c3a938-2031-59c7-993c-f043c9cb2bc1)

CHAPTER 6: Problems (#u7f9e0eae-42b1-5ade-8ce9-97047fad73af)

CHAPTER 7: More Problems (#u68877cbf-dbf4-55e7-97cb-ddb4bdfe15d8)

CHAPTER 8: Mrs Griffin (#u60ce0c6c-5ebc-526f-bb35-e1e10fd49952)

BOOK II (#u93369cc5-0c3d-5cd0-9503-080105b64810)

CHAPTER 1: A Long Time Ago (#u667105a7-0266-524b-a278-c09c722f6d85)

CHAPTER 2: Introduction to Mathilde, Truelove and kk (#u9775761f-ad57-583b-a3bd-0c27638401e1)

CHAPTER 3: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 4: Expedition on Truelove; Oxford and Cambridge (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER 5: Methods of Research (#litres_trial_promo)