The Mystery & Thriller Club > Reviews (14)

I've been a member with the M&T guild for about 5 years on and off.

In that time I've got scores of books from them and I've been happy with it about 99% of the time.

The introductory offers vary depending on if you've been a member before (If you have they often try to tempt you back with a great offer such as 6 books for a penny etc) or where you get the advert from.

The offers range from four to six books for a few pence to five for a quid each etc. It is worth keeping an eye out until you see an offer you think you would really benefit from.

Once you have joined you are committed to buying (Normally) anywhere in between four and six books (All depends on what offer you took. Read the small print when applying).

It can take from two to four weeks for your books to be delivered.

Once you have joined you will be sent a Club Magazine once a month with details of all the new books on offer.

Along with this you will be sent a letter detailing your account activity and at the bottom will be an Editors Choice.

You can accept or reject this in a number of ways.

If you want to cancel it you can put a cross in the box and send it back. You can cancel it on the website, or you can call their order line and cancel it (Press this button for this and that one for that etc).

If you want to keep it you can do much the same as cancelling it (Just give it a tick rather than a cross on the form) or you can just not send the form back and they will despatch it to you.

This has a few disadvantages;

1) If you forget you could end up with two books you don't want.
2) It is ALAWYS two books. These plus P&P normally amount to about £20. It can be a bit of a nasty surprise.
3) Often times you will only want one of them anyway!

This is only a minor point though; If unlike me you can remember to cancel it it's not too much of a problem.

If you want to arrange a collection it is a case of calling the orderline and giving your details. A courier will then pick it up.

This can be a problem though as it doesn’t give you a time of pickup; so if you miss them it's a bit of a pain going through the rigmarole of booking them again.

One point to note about these book clubs is the fact that to keep costs down you don't get full size books.

They are called Club Editions and are about half the size of a normal hardback (The paperbacks are the same size as normal).

Whilst this is not a huge problem some people don't like them and they are certainly not as valuable in future times as a full size copy.

The paper used for some of these books can at times be a bit flimsy and grainy I find.

Again, it's not a huge problem but it can make the print a little less clear so anyone with bad eyes might have more trouble with them.

I would say that if you want to build up your collection of books quickly and cheaply this is one of the best ways to do it.

If you want complete quality and an "Original" copy then this isn't for you.