There's life in the old girl yet—but I do wish she could be persuaded to stop writing. This one [Postern of Fate] is a disaster. It is confused (Mutton Chop did not send Tommy to Mr. Robinson), rambling, garrulous, and just plain silly. There are not one but two dogs whose innermost thoughts are revealed to the reader and the dialogue by members of the lower-classes is unbelievable. Mostly this latest by Dame Christie suggests that through her years she has probably been overrated and that her detecting heroes and heroines (Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence and Hercule Poirot) are just too damn cute. If there is an audience, it's the geriatric set, there'll-always-be-an-England division. (p. 75)

Dick Datchery, in The Critic (© The Critic 1974; reprinted with the permission of the Thomas More Association, Chicago, Illinois), March-April, 1974.