Now I don’t know about you but I’m partial to a bit of Golden Age Crime. Reading it, not partaking of it of course, I’m old but not that old. I’ve a fondness for the British Library’s Crime Classics series which re-introduces crime fiction novelists from the early to mid 20th Century. Many were contemporaries of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, members of the Detection Club and highly popular in their day. They have, sadly, for one reason or another, become forgotten by later readers. This is where the British Library steps in.

The series features authors such as Christianna Brand, E C R Lorac, Anthony Berkeley and Sebastian Farr to name but a few. Each book’s cover depicts an image appropriate for the time period the book was written or set in and for those of us who like uniformity, the spines all look great together lined up on a book shelf!

The series has been going for some time now, in fact the 100th book in the series, Death of a Bookseller, was recently published. Now the British Library have introduced a subscription service so you need never worry about missing the latest in the series.

Starting with Death on the Down Beat by Sebastian Farr, each month, the latest novel or short story collection will be sent out. This month also included a catalogue to show the whole series (and has handy little tick boxes so you can mark off which ones you have, and more importantly, see which ones you still need to get). There was also a matching bookmark and an introduction to the subscription. The price is £9.99 and includes postage in the UK. You can also see which titles will be coming up in the next couple of months.

As someone who loves this series and who often shies away from subscriptions due to the worry of duplicates, I think this one fits the bill. I know I won’t get a duplicate as I know which series it is from and can look and see which book it will be.

Whilst I’ve not read this month’s book yet, it sounds just the kind of book to curl up with on a (now colder) evening, as I have found with many of the previous books in the series.

You can find out more about the subscription service here.

*I received a free subscription but no monetary payment. I was not asked to provide a review of the subscription and all opinions are my own.*

Giveaway

I happen to have a spare copy of Death on the Down Beat so it would be rude not to share. For your chance to win the book and a packet of humbugs (you need something to snack on at the opera) simply comment below.

**open to UK addresses only. No giveaway accounts. No monetary alternative and I take no responsibility should the book be lost in the post. Closes midnight 29th September 2022.**