British Library Crime Classics Series 1 : 6 Books Collection (Death on the Cherwell, The Cornish Coast Murder, A Scream in Soho, The Lake District Murder, Murder Underground and Mystery in White) Paperback – 13 May 2015

What great value and what a delightful set. Sure, one could hardly call this high end literature, but for a darn good read out of the old school, these are quite excellent. So far I have knocked off 3 of the set in the 6 days since Christmas, so they are pure entertainment and not in any way "difficult". Each individual volume has plenty of reviews so have a look at them for more of the same positive vibe. Of the three I've read, my favourite, mainly because it was very seasonal I suppose, is A Mystery in White - a traditional everyone trapped in a country house sort of mystery, but A Scream in Soho adds some more urban grit to the mix and Murder Underground is a nice study in 30s society even if the mystery elements are perhaps not as tasty as the other 2. The other 3 books look like "Summer" reading to me so I will leave them for the suitcase and the hols. All in all if you like good old fashioned mysteries, this series will not disappoint as they do exactly what they say on the cover.

The British Library Crime Classics 'tell the story of crime fiction during the first half of the 20th Century". That's from the blurb. They've published 100 books by authors who are largely unknown today. They are fascinating . The writing style, the mores of the day, the range of plots and social significance all add up to a jolly good read. (Perhaps with a couple of plonkers). They come individually or in boxsets (which reduces the cost ) I recommend .

This was excellent value, we had seen copies for sale in Waterstones and thought they looked good but they were £8.99 per book. We got the six books for £18.99, not read them yet but looking forward to a good read

I loved all of these books. The English was a joy to read. Long words and complex sentences that required proper concentration. I had forgotten about good grammar. More modern writing is much simpler, presumably because children have not been taught reasonable English in schools for quite some time, here I must confess that my own grasp of grammar is not all that it might be either. I enjoyed reading all these books, the stories were light and entertaining, with the wonderfully clear descriptions that you only get from a writer speaking of their own time. I have since bought more of these books and looked up the authors to find complete lists of their publications.

Am gradually collecting the whole series of BL Crime Classics. This package was a real bargain and contains a good selection/variety of crime writers of the period

Thought all stories were by John Bude.Has selection changed, or did I not read the description properly?

Bought as a present for my sister she is really enjoying reading them

Some were excellent, some really boring e.g. Death on the Cherwell, which I felt could have been written by a child. And one of the others was obviously written for men, as it was stuffed full of technical detail, which was almost incomprehensible and quite tedious.