The Complete Tommy & Tuppence Collection Read Free Page B

gap of a quarter-century, but still with “spirit unquenched.”
    Postern of Fate was not only the last Tommy and Tuppence book but also the last book that Agatha Christie wrote. By now she was eighty-three years old and in poor health, and it is arguable that her publishers should not have asked for another book. But writing her “Christie for Christmas” was what she had done for more than fifty years and eighty books, so it was inevitable that she would begin writing a new book as soon as the previous one had appeared in the stores. In fact, her Notebooks contain detailed notes for the book that was planned to follow Postern of Fate but, sadly, it was not to be.
    Postern of Fate, like many of the latter-day Christies, begins promisingly: Tommy and Tuppence move into a new house where Tuppence, while shelving books, uncovers a coded message hidden in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, a message that suggests a murder had been committed there many years ago. “Mary Jordan did not die naturally . . . it was one of us.” Such a setup is typical Christie country but this intriguing opening is the most interesting aspect of the book and, despite a subsequent murder and the attempted murder of Tuppence, the bulk of the book is a series of nostalgic conversations. It is, in reality, a journey into the past both for the writer and the reader. Many elements from Christie’s happy childhood in her family home, Ashfield, appear in barely disguised form—the books she read, her rocking horse, the monkey-puzzle tree in the garden, the greenhouse—but the arch-plotter of yesteryear is little in evidence. We finally get to meet the Beresford grandchildren but the chronology of the three generations will not stand close scrutiny. A rapid decline in Agatha Christie’s health meant that in the years that followed Postern of Fate books and stories written many years earlier during her glory days— Poirot’s Early Case (1974), Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975), and Sleeping Murder (1976)—would appear to delight her worldwide audience.
    Although the name of Agatha Christie is inextricably linked to the whodunit, The Secret Adversary, in many ways an atypical story, was the first of her books to be adapted for the screen. In 1928 a German silent film of the book was released as Die Abentueur GmbH. It is highly unlikely that Agatha Christie ever saw this film herself (or, in fact, even knew of it) as prints of it have surfaced only in the last twenty years. Despite the fact that the film is German it starred an English actress and an Italian actor, Eve Grey and Carlo Aldini, as the intrepid investigators and is, despite its obvious restrictions, better than you might suppose. For the most part it follows the plot of the novel although as the film progresses the relationship between the two becomes less certain. But as an early example of the international interest in Christie’s work it remains a fascinating piece of cinema history.
    After this screen outing the Tommy and Tuppence series languished for many years until British TV adapted the short-story collection Partners in Crime in 1983 and preceded the series with a two-hour version of The Secret Adversary. This lavish and faithful adaptation stars the perfectly cast James Warwick and Francesca Annis in the lead roles and also features George Baker in the role of Mr. Whittington. This actor was later to achieve fame as Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford but had earlier appeared as Ngaio Marsh’s Inspector Alleyn; he also appeared in the Joan Hickson version of At Bertram’s Hotel (1987) and was the first Neville Strange in the original West End production of Towards Zero in 1956. The television movie also stars Honor Blackman as a glamorous and sinister Rita Vandemeyer and Alec McCowan as a sleek Peel Edgerton. The ten-part television series that followed, called Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime,