This past weekend I travelled to Port Townsend near Seattle to attend my sister-in-law’s wedding. With a five and a half hour flight each way, I was left with plenty of time to read and I managed to polish off four or five books over the course of three days – not to mention several comics into the bargain.

A few of those books you will already have seen reviews for here – others will be added in the next couple of days.

Aside from the festivities themselves, the other highlight of my trip was finding some used book stores that actually stocked some vintage crime novels. I posted the photo below of some of my haul – the discovery of a set of three pristine Levin paperbacks was particularly pleasing to me, and while I have been able to buy Carrs through AbeBooks, it was nice to see a few actually on the shelves in person. Unfortunately the only one I didn’t already have was The Hollow Man but still…

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aidan Brack (@mysteriesahoy)

The flight home was exhausting and honestly I think I will be spending most of the week recovering, not least from the repeated kicking my back received the whole way back. Still, Seattle looked pretty cool from my all-too-brief time there and we hope to make it back there again someday.

Happily a surprise awaited me when I collected my held mail – my latest Coffee and Crime subscription box. If you are curious what was contained within, I once again opened the box up on camera.

As always I was thrilled with the contents – particularly the selection from one of crime fiction’s more divisive figures. Expect reviews of these in the next few weeks!

The Coffee and Crime subscription box is a venture by Kate at CrossExaminingCrime where the recipient receives a box containing two vintage crime novels (in very good condition) and other assorted goodies that crime fiction fans will enjoy. You can find out more details about the box itself and the various subscription offers at Kate’s Etsy store.

It has only been a couple of weeks since I opened my first Coffee and Crime subscription box on camera but I came home to find bookpost waiting for me and I couldn’t resist doing it all over again.

The Coffee and Crime subscription box is a venture by Kate at CrossExaminingCrime where the recipient receives a box containing two vintage crime novels (in very good condition) and other assorted goodies that crime fiction fans will enjoy. You can find out more details about the box itself and the various subscription offers at Kate’s Etsy store.

I paid full price for my own three month subscription and I have really enjoyed the surprise of discovering just what lies inside the boxes. Last month’s authors were both pretty much unknown to me and so far I have already tucked into (and loved) the spy thriller by Holly Roth. As you will see, I was much better acquainted with both of the authors – enough that I could actually comment a little about them.

Once again I was very happy with the package overall though I think my favorite surprise was the postcard. Which reminds me that I really ought to get around to writing (or perhaps talking about) that series of films in more detail…

Notes

My review of Holly Roth’s The Sleeper.

You can see my thoughts on the Elizabeth Daly novels I have read so far here.

Thoughts on the Ellery Queen novels.