The UK imprint, Crime Classics, is no more…

Crime Classics was an imprint (???) of UK publisher Agora books. They e-published mostly lesser-known Golden Age UK authors, like George Bellairs, Helen McCloy, and Henrietta Hamilton. And they had some better known authors too, like Michael Innes and Nicholas Blake. They sometimes even found (as with Hamilton) previously unpublished material and would work with the family to get it into shape to be published.

Today, however, I received this email from them:

Hello Crime Classics Readers,
We hope you’re enjoying the summery weather and reading a cracking cozy crime novel.
We’re sad to say, though, that this will be the last communication you’ll receive from us here. We’ve had some behind the scenes changes, but we wanted to share our sincerest gratitude to you all for helping us build such an amazing community of classic crime readers and lovers. We’ve appreciated chatting with you, hearing recommendations from you, and are so grateful to you for letting us drop in from time to time to do the same.

We’ve had such a wonderful experience and hope you have too.

On to the next great mystery,

The Team at Crime Classics

Which is not cryptic at all…

When I spot-checked some of their books at Kindle US and UK, some of them now seem to be missing the e-book versions (e.g. the Henrietta Hamilton and Nicholas Blake ones), and some seemed to still be available (George Bellairs). The differences may have to do with different contracts, or something ??? But since I usually didn’t pay a ton of attention to whether something was a “Crime Classics” book or an “Agora” title, I’m not sure I can really draw any real conclusions. Anyway, if you had a favorite Crime Classics author, and hadn’t pulled the trigger yet on a purchase or two, you might want to do so…:)

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