THE 39 STEPS (Spy Thriller): A Sinister Assassination Plot & A Gripping Tale of Love, Action and Adventure

By John Buchan

In this adventure espionage classic Richard Hannay is buttonholed by an American stranger who knows of an anarchist plot to assassinate the Greek Premier during his forthcoming visit to London. It is now up to Hannay to save the day and stop Europe from destabilising. Major-General Sir Richard Hannay is a character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and based on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War. John Buchan (1875-1940) was a Scottish novelist and historian and also served as Canada's Governor General. His 100 works include nearly thirty novels, seven collections of short stories and biographies. But, the most famous of his books were the adventure and spy thrillers and it is for these that he is now best remembered.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Musaicum Books
• Release date: Jun 21, 2017
• ISBN: 9788075833501

John Buchan

John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. He was born in Perth, an eldest son, and studied at Glasgow and Oxford. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor and they subsequently had four children. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George's Director of Information and Conservative MP, Buchan moved to Canada in 1935. He served as Governor General there until his death in 1940. Hew Strachan is Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford; his research interests include military history from the 18th century to date, including contemporary strategic studies, but with particular interest in the First World War and in the history of the British Army.

Book preview

J.B.

CHAPTER 1

THE MAN WHO DIED

Table of Contents

I returned from the City about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty well disgusted with life. I had been three months in the Old Country, and was fed up with it. If anyone had told me a year ago that I would have been feeling like that I should have laughed at him; but there was the fact. The weather made me liverish, the talk of the ordinary Englishman made me sick, I couldn’t get enough exercise, and the amusements of London seemed as flat as soda-water that has been standing in the sun. ‘Richard Hannay,’ I kept telling myself, ‘you have got into the wrong ditch, my friend, and you had better climb out.’ It made me bite my lips to think of the plans I had been building up those last years in Bulawayo. I had got my pile—not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself. My father had brought me out from Scotland at the age of six, and I had never been home since; so England was a sort of Arabian Nights to me, and I counted on stopping there for the rest of my days.

But from the first I was disappointed with it. In about a week I was tired of seeing sights, and in less than a month I had had enough of restaurants and theatres and race-meetings. I had no real pal to go about with, which probably explains things. Plenty of people invited me to their houses, but they didn’t seem much interested in me. They would fling me a question or two about South Africa, and then get on their own affairs. A lot of Imperialist ladies asked me to tea to meet schoolmasters from New Zealand and editors from Vancouver, and that was the dismalest business of all. Here was I, thirty-seven years old, sound in wind and limb, with enough money to have a good time, yawning my head off all day. I had just about settled to clear out and get back to the veld, for I was the best bored man in the United Kingdom.

That afternoon I had been worrying my brokers about investments to give my mind something to work on, and on my way home I turned into my club—rather a pot-house, which took in Colonial members. I had a long drink, and read the evening papers. They were full of the row in the Near East, and there was an article about Karolides, the Greek Premier. I rather fancied the chap. From all accounts he seemed the one big man in the show; and he played a straight game too, which was more than could be said for most of them. I gathered that they hated him pretty blackly in Berlin and Vienna, but that we were going to stick by him, and one paper said that he was the only barrier between Europe and Armageddon. I remember wondering if I could get a job in those parts. It struck me that Albania was the sort of place that might keep a man from yawning.

About six o’clock I went home, dressed, dined at theCafé Royal, and turned into a music-hall. It was a silly show, all capering women and monkey-faced men, and I did not stay long. The night was fine and clear as I walked back to the flat I had hired near Portland Place. The crowd surged past me on the pavements, busy and chattering, and I envied the people for having something to do. These shop-girls and clerks and dandies and policemen had some interest in life that kept them going. I gave half-a-crown to a beggar because I saw him yawn; he was a fellow-sufferer. At Oxford Circus I looked up into the spring sky and I made a vow. I would give the Old Country another day to fit me into something; if nothing happened, I would take the next boat for the Cape.

My flat was the first floor in a new block behind Langham Place. There was a common staircase, with a porter and a liftman at the entrance, but there was no restaurant or anything of that sort, and each flat was quite shut off from the others. I hate servants on the premises, so I had a fellow to look after me who came in by the day. He arrived before eight o’clock every morning and used to depart at seven, for I never dined at home.

I was just fitting my key into the door when I noticed a man at my elbow. I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me start. He was a slim man, with a short brown beard and small, gimlety blue eyes. I recognized him as the occupant of a flat on the top floor, with whom I had passed the time of day on the stairs.

‘Can I speak to you?’ he said. ‘May I come in for a minute?’ He was steadying his voice with an effort, and his hand was pawing my arm.

I got my door open and motioned him in. No sooner was he over the threshold than he made a dash for my back room, where I used to smoke and write my letters. Then he bolted back.

‘Is the door locked?’ he asked feverishly, and he fastened the chain with his own hand.

‘I’m very sorry,’ he said humbly. ‘It’s a mighty liberty, but you looked the kind of man who would understand. I’ve had you in my mind all this week when things got troublesome. Say, will you do me a good turn?’

‘I’ll listen to you,’ I said. ‘That’s all I’ll promise.’ I was getting worried by the antics of this nervous little chap.

There was a tray of drinks on a table beside him, from which he filled himself a stiff whisky-and-soda. He drank it off in three gulps, and cracked the glass as he set it down.

‘Pardon,’ he said, ‘I’m a bit rattled tonight. You see, I happen at this moment to be dead.’

I sat down in an armchair and lit my pipe.

‘What does it feel like?’ I asked. I was pretty certain that I had to deal with a madman.

A smile flickered over his drawn face. ‘I’m not mad— yet. Say, Sir, I’ve been watching you, and I reckon you’re a cool customer. I reckon, too, you’re an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold hand. I’m going to confide in you. I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.’

‘Get on with your yarn,’ I said, ‘and I’ll tell you.’

He seemed to brace himself for a great effort, and then started on the queerest rigmarole. I didn’t get hold of it at first, and I had to stop and ask him questions. But here is the gist of it:

He was an American, from Kentucky, and after college, being pretty well off, he had started out to see the world. He wrote a bit, and acted as war correspondent for a Chicago paper, and spent a year or two in South-Eastern Europe. I gathered that he was a fine linguist, and had got to know pretty well the society in those parts. He spoke familiarly of many names that I remembered to have seen in the newspapers.

He had played about with politics, he told me, at first for the interest of them, and then because he couldn’t help himself. I read him as a sharp, restless fellow, who always wanted to get down to the roots of things. He got a little further down than he wanted.

I am giving you what he told me as well as I could make it out. Away behind all the Governments and the armies there was a big subterranean movement going on, engineered by very dangerous people. He had come on it by accident; it fascinated him; he went further, and then he got caught. I gathered that most of the people in it were the sort of educated anarchists that make revolutions, but that beside them there were financiers who were playing for money. A clever man can make big profits on a falling market, and it suited the book of both classes to set Europe by the ears.

He told me some queer things that explained a lot that had puzzled me—things that happened in the Balkan War, how one state suddenly came out on top, why alliances were made and broken, why certain men disappeared, and where the sinews of war came from. The aim of the whole conspiracy was to get Russia and Germany at loggerheads.

When I asked why, he said that the anarchist lot thought it would give them their chance. Everything would be in the melting-pot, and they looked to see a new world emerge. The capitalists would rake in the shekels, and make fortunes by buying up wreckage. Capital, he said, had no conscience and no fatherland. Besides, the Jew was behind it, and the Jew hated Russia worse than hell.

‘Do you wonder?’ he cried. ‘For three hundred years they have been persecuted, and this is the return match for the pogroms. The Jew is everywhere, but you have to go far down the backstairs to find him. Take any big Teutonic business concern. If you have dealings with it the first man you meet is Prince von und zu Something, an elegant young man who talks Eton-and-Harrow English. But he cuts no ice. If your business is big, you get behind him and find a prognathous Westphalian with a retreating brow and the manners of a hog. He is the German business man that gives your English papers the shakes. But if you’re on the biggest kind of job and are bound to get to the real boss, ten to one you are brought up against a little white-faced Jew in a bath-chair with an eye like a rattlesnake. Yes, Sir, he is the man who is ruling the world just now, and he has his knife in the Empire of the Tzar, because his aunt was outraged and his father flogged in some one-horse location on the Volga.’

I could not help saying that his Jew-anarchists seemed to have got left behind a little.

‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘They won up to a point, but they struck a bigger thing than money, a thing that couldn’t be bought, the old elemental fighting instincts of man. If you’re going to be killed you invent some kind of flag and country to fight for, and if you survive you get to love the thing. Those foolish devils of soldiers have found something they care for, and that has upset the pretty plan laid in Berlin and Vienna. But my friends haven’t played their last card by a long sight. They’ve gotten the ace up their sleeves, and unless I can keep alive for a month they are going to play it and win.’

‘But I thought you were dead,’ I put in.

‘Mors janua vitae,’ he smiled. (I recognized the quotation: it was about all the Latin I knew.) ‘I’m coming to that, but I’ve got to put you wise about a lot of things first. If you read your newspaper, I guess you know the name of Constantine Karolides?’

I sat up at that, for I had been reading about him that very afternoon.

‘He is the man that has wrecked all their games. He is the one big brain in the whole show, and he happens also to be an honest man. Therefore he has been marked down these twelve months past. I found that out—not that it was difficult, for any fool could guess as much. But I found out the way they were going to get him, and that knowledge was deadly. That’s why I have had to decease.’

He had another drink, and I mixed it for him myself, for I was getting interested in the beggar.

‘They can’t get him in his own land, for he

Reviews for THE 39 STEPS (Spy Thriller)

[mkfs-354306 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An enjoyable yarn about a man on the run.

While this could easily have been a dated pre-War thriller, its self-consciousness ("I say sir, the story you tell sounds like one of those Haggard novels!") endears it to the modern reader.

[col2910_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Synopsis/blurb................John Buchan wrote "The Thirty-Nine Steps" while he was seriously ill at the beginning of World War I. In it, he introduces his most famous hero, Richard Hannay, who, despite claiming to be an "ordinary fellow", is caught up in the dramatic race against a plot to devastate the British war effort. Hannay is hunted across the Scottish moors by police and a pitiless enemy in the corridors of Whitehall and, finally, at the site of the mysterious 39 steps. The best-known of Buchan's thrillers, this novel has been continuously in print since first publication and has been filmed three times. Other Buchan "World Classics" include "Witchwood" and "Greenmantle".My take......I doubt I will be providing much original thought on this classic book which was published 99 years ago. It has 460 reviews on Amazon UK – soon to be 461, and nearly 10,000 ratings on Goodreads.The Thirty-Nine Steps introduces us to Richard Hannay, who subsequently figures in 4 more novels by Buchan, none of which I have read. They are;2. Greenmantle (1916)3. Mr Standfast (1918)4. The Three Hostages (1924)5. The Island of Sheep (1936)As an aside, the time-span between the 4th and 5th books is interesting, I wonder why? Saying that - Buchan did live an interesting and full life...at various times....Unionist MP, Governor of Canada, Government War propagandist, Army enlistment, diplomatic service in South Africa, church elder, novelist. We open and Hannay is restless and in need of an adventure to stimulate him. One soon arrives in the appearance of a stranger who enlists Hannay’s help in hiding him. The man, Scudder has faked his death and tells Hannay he is being followed by a German gang of spies. Scudder confides that he has uncovered a plot to kill the Greek Premier and also that there is a scheme afoot to steal British plans that have been prepared in the event of an outbreak of war. Scudder is discovered murdered the next day in Hannay’s flat and Richard, a likely suspect in the murder flees, managing to evade the Germans who are watching him. A sense of obligation and duty compels Hannay to try and thwart the assassination attempt. With three weeks to lay low until the events Scudder has outlined are scheduled to begin, Hannay takes a train to Scotland to kill time. Having taking Scudder’s notebook when fleeing London and deciphered his coded notes, these appear to contradict what Scudder previously told him. Over the next week or two he is relentlessly pursued both by aeroplane and car, by both the Germans and the police, still anxious to arrest Hannay for murder. His adventures see him posing as a road-mender at one time and unbelievably making a political speech for a prospective politician, Sir Harry at a rally. Having taken Harry into his confidence, Harry fortuitously has a relative in the Foreign Office and writes Hannay a letter of introduction. Still on the run, Hannay survives being taken prisoner by the enemy. After managing to escape, Richard returns to London and contacts Harry’s relative – Sir Walter Bullivant; unburdening himself of his secrets. The Greek PM still gets assassinated. Our erstwhile hero still feels there is more at risk and gatecrashes a meeting at Bullivant’s house where he catches a glimpse of one of his Scottish pursuers in disguise. Hannay’s adversary is now in possession of material damaging to Britain’s war plans.Hannay works with British military leaders to discover the significance of Scudder’s phrase – The Thirty Nine-Steps in a bid to save the day.Overall verdict – I really liked this one. It felt a bit like a Boys Own adventure and to be honest there’s a place in my reading schedule for books of this type occasionally. One criticism would be that Buchan does seem to rely on some rather unlikely coincidences to help Hannay (and the author?) out of a jam at times. Last minor gripe would be the one of language with references made to “the Jew” and a “Jewish plot.” I wouldn’t dare to tar Buchan with an anti-semite brush, but 100 years after this was written it sits a little bit uncomfortably with me. Happily, reading this managed to tick a number of boxes for me. I have a couple of signed-up for challenges that this meets the criteria for, plus one of my own.Read Scotland – tick.Vintage Mystery – Golden – tick (not quite sure which box on my bingo card I will be ticking just yet)Espionage Challenge – tickIn addition, my son’s Christmas present to both my wife and me were tickets to see the West End production of The Thirty-Nine Steps last Saturday, something I will briefly cover in my next blog post. I managed to read the book before seeing the show, spoilsport that I am.4 from 5I do have a paperback copy of this around the house somewhere, but couldn’t locate it, so I got a free version from Amazon UK for my kindle. There are a couple of other Buchan/Hannay books on the site available for nowt, so I now have Greenmantle and Mr Standfast waiting.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I had read this years ago, but I literally didn't remember one word of it. According to the preface, it was written as a lark by a gentleman who had been ill and became bored reading dime novels. He thought he could write his own and went on to write several more. As a first effort, it was far more than just serviceable. It was entertaining and a bit suspenseful. You definitely could identify with the protagonist Richard Hannay. I look forward to reading Buchan's later Hannay works.

[meredy_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Six-word review: Preposterous spy story furnishes lightweight diversion.Extended review:I'd call this very short novel a goofy romp, secret codes and murders and conspiracies and all. The wonder of it is that after a century it still has an audience. And it has.My only prior acquaintance with this yarn was the 1935 Hitchcock movie, which turns out not to have much in common with the novel. I recently read the author's first, Prester John, and this does have a lot in common with that, not surprisingly. In his dedication he affectionately likens it to the then-familiar American genre "the dime novel," what we would probably now call pulp fiction: sensational thrillers without much meat to them that deliver easy escapist entertainment.Published early in the second year of the first World War, the story takes place in the months leading up to it, when suspicion, fear, and paranoia on an international scale must have been very high indeed. The hero, Richard Hannay, is a daring adventurer who takes up the challenge of a spy mission after an agent is killed in his apartment. His escapades across the English countryside are as boldly executed as they are reliant on surpassingly mad coincidence and what must be an entire pantheon of friendly, or at least highly amused, deities. There is something of substance here, though, and it may be in part the hero's frank appetite for action, in part the sustained theme of imposture and disguise. There is also the better-than-competent prose, ensuring that despite the laughable improbabilities of plot, it remains exciting and absorbing. If you're in the right mood for it, it'll give you a few cheerful hours.

[musicmom41 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A good yarn—the basic plot was similar to the Hitchcock movie but the particulars were quite different. The title makes sense in the novel—it refers to a place that has exactly 39 steps. In the movie the clumsy attempt at explaining the title never did make sense. In the book—no girl (the original murder was of a man staying with Hannay and no girl handcuffed to him on his flight) and no Music Hall Show. The art of disguise plays a big role in this novel—for both sides. I wonder if I can still enjoy the movie? Maybe I should just consider them 2 different stories and enjoy them both.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Even though I've always enjoyed espionage novels, for some reason I had never read Buchan's classic. I had only experienced it through the Hitchcock movie. With a new version airing on PBS's Masterpiece in a couple of weeks, I decided to do what I should have done a long time ago: read the book. Even though I had recently seen the Hitchcock version on TV, the movie plot had been altered enough that it didn't serve as a spoiler for the action in the book. I didn't have any more idea of what was coming next than the first person narrator did. If anything, I probably felt more dread than the narrator did. As the action started in May of 1914, he only feared what might happen given the current state of world affairs. I knew what happened just weeks later in the summer of 1914 that launched the world into a Great War. Buchan doesn't waste a lot of words in telling this story, so reading it doesn't involve a huge time commitment. I would encourage all mystery, thriller, and espionage fans to read this classic of the genre.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

At the beginning of this book there is a note from the author to a friend: MY DEAR TOMMY You and I have long cherished an affection for that elementary type of tale which Americans call the 'dime novel' and which we know as the 'shocker' -- the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible. During an illness last winter I exhausted my store of those aids to cheerfulness, and was driven to write one for myself. This little volume is the result, and I should like to put your name on it in memory of our long friendship, in the days when the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts. J.B. And so that is the genesis of one of the first spy novels. It is set in Britain just before World War I. A middle-aged man, Hannoy, has made his fortune in Africa and is living in London and getting thoroughly bored with his new life. Then his sedate existence is overturned when his upstairs neighbour asks for help. He claims to be in fear of his life because he has learned some information about Germany's intentions to start a war. Hannoy allows him to stay in his flat and listens to his tale but is sceptical about it. Then he comes home one night and finds his house guest stabbed to death. He realizes he will be next so he flees to Scotland where he manages to stay one step ahead of German agents and British police by effecting a number of disguises. He has managed to decipher the little black book his guest had always carried with him but he is still unclear as to the event which the spy said would take place on June 15th. The clue is in the phrase "Thirty-nine Steps" and once that is figured out the German plot can be foiled. This reminded me quite a bit of H. Rider Haggard's classic King Solomon's Mines which I read last year. Male-dominated adventure yarn but fun to read.

[davethewebb_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book. Doesn't seem unrealistic, although the hero is on the verge of failure most of the time. Keeps up the suspense admirably.

[aront-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I heard this book read as an audio book on the best audio books' classic tales podcast. That's the only thing that made it bearable (check out the podcast it's excellent). Well the mercifully short ending helped. The fact that Hitchcock managed to make this into a fantastic film proves once again that books and their films are as closely related as a man and his fifth cousin twice removed.

[troyka-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

very hard going when trying to understand dialect. it made it a chore for me, but its still a good book, just not dyslexia friendly.

[wendyrey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An early version of the spy thriller.The hero and the story races round pre first world UK, from the south of England to the Scottish borders, pursued by the forces of evil - in this case Imperial German plotters and spies - through a series of implausibly lucky encounters and events. Boys Own stuff but a good read.

[sasham-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun adventure story full of the close encounters and unlikely coincidences that make great fiction

[nmhale_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This adventure story is probably best known for its various movie adaptations, including Hitchcock's famous version. However, the story is significantly different. The main character has a different background and characterization, and the adventure is very focused on a rugged escapade in nature and matching wits against criminals.In essence, the story is about a young English Riched Hannay who is finding life in England unbearably stifling after his South African residence. This ennui is eradicated when a man living in a different floor in his building and asks for help. The American man reveals that he has stumbled upon an intricate plot to destabilize European government and power structure, starting with an attack against the British government. The man learned about a group of German spies called the Black Stone and he has been working on uncovering and thwarting them. He even faked his own death to throw his enemies off track. He has recently seen a dangerous adversary in town, however, and fears that he may be killed before he finishes his mission. He shows Richard his notebook full of encrypted clues, and asks for the favor of staying in Richard's flat for a few days.Richard thinks the man is a bit mad, but he allows him to stay with him.

[rlangston-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A slight disappointment given this book is on so many "must read" lists. More Ian Fleming than John le Carre, with a shallow plot and even shallower protagonist. That said, the book was written in 1915 and arguably established the genre.

[atimco-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The introduction to this slim little volume promised me that I was about to embark on a suspenseful and gripping ride. Unfortunately, whenever a book is hyped this way there is the chance that false expectations will be raised, and so it turned out. Though The Thirty-Nine Steps is known as a classic "shocker," I was left waiting for shocks that didn't come.It's 1914, and Richard Hannay has just returned to England after "making his pile" in Rhodesia when his apartment is invaded by a man who claims to be dead. Well, he isn't really dead, of course, but Franklin P. Scudder has found it expedient to fake his own death in order to avoid the real thing. Scudder is a freelance spy who's just caught on to something really big, and powerful people are after him. When they do catch up with the little man and make it look like Hannay committed the murder, our hero decides to carry on Scudder's mission himself. Thus begins a wild chase through the countryside as Hannay runs for his life and tries to figure out Scudder's little black book along the way.There are a couple things that didn't work for me. First, there is the problem of the whole worldwide conspiracy. Buchan's treatment of the subject is far better than, say, Agatha Christie's in her dreadful Passenger to Frankfurt (a book I couldn't even finish). But it never felt very real to me. Second, most of the story is taken up with the dogged pursuit our narrator is attempting to escape. I gather that this is the bulk of the suspense, but somehow it just didn't grip me. Most of the ways Hannay escapes hinge on someone being willing to trade clothes with him or a fortuitous coincidence that prevents his being seen. When he does walk right into the enemy's lair and is taken prisoner, they put him in a storeroom that contain lignite (a form of dynamite), which, due to his time spent mining in Rhodesia, he knows how to use to free himself. Hannay also just happens to recognize the man who was posing as Lord Alloa, thus uncovering the government leak, and when he needs to get rid of his stolen car he accidentally but conveniently crashes it into a ravine (himself escaping unscathed).Buchan was well aware of the crazy improbability of these events and didn't care — to him the excitement was the main thing. And a lot of readers have agreed with him. I wish I could, but I just never felt the intensity other readers ascribe to the book.One thing Buchan does very well is the portrayal of the villains once we finally catch up to them at the very end. They are the most superb actors and understand a fine point: it is only amateurs who try to look different. Professionals look the same but are different, and so escape detection. It's an interesting theory and a bit more sophisticated than Christie's masks and such that appear in her stories of false identities.Twice now I've compared Buchan favorably to Christie, but so far (not having read either author's entire oeuvre) I prefer Christie's work. Apparently The Thirty-Nine Steps was quite a hit with soldiers in the trenches during the first World War, and I can see why. A lone man, motivated by loyalty to his country, takes on the most powerful secret group in the world — and wins. A week after successfully preventing a major tactical leak, Hannay joins the army as a captain. He is made to order as a hero for the World War I soldier! I wish I could have enjoyed this more. Lesson learned: next time I'll skip the introduction and get right to the tale.

[onlyhope1912 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very exciting book about a man accused of a murdering the only person who knew the secrets of the black stone and the thirty nine steps. Running from the police and the German spies, he tries to decipher a notebook written in code. This book is one exciting adventure to another, as he runs for his life. Can he manage to save England from the black stone and find the 39 steps before it's too late?

[lisamorr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bored Richard Hannay has already had enough of London, after returning from a life abroad. But then a neighbor drops by and Richard's life becomes very exciting, very fast. The coincidences are unbelievable at times in this espionage thriller as Richard becomes embroiled in trying to stop a secret plot to undermine the British war effort as Europe marches towards WW1. Still it was a fun ride as Richard races across Scotland by train, car and on foot as he tries to shake his pursuers and expose the plot.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure story and is probably what John Buchan is most known for even though he was a well recognized historian, accepted a peerage as Lord Tweedsmuir and served as a governor-general of Canada. This short adventure thriller is famous for it’s “man-on-the-run” action story and for the many films it has inspired.The story opens with Richard Hannay, an Englishman who grew up in South Africa, finding his life in London rather boring and so is very open to becoming involved in uncovering an anarchist plot when he is approached by a nervous American. This American all too soon turns up dead and left in Hannay’s apartment. Now implicated in murder, Hannay decides to travel to Scotland to hide from both the British police and a very powerful German spy ring until the appropriate authorities can be advised of the situation. The story moves quickly as Hannay relies on the help of various people that he meets in the Scottish highlands and ultimately he turns the tables on the spies by helping to hunt them down.The Thirty-Nine Steps is a very quick read and has the hero dashing around in the heather and peat bogs of the Scottish Highlands for most of the book. Set in the weeks prior to the opening of World War I, the author captures the nationalistic feelings and the political blunders that help to set up this occurrence. Although somewhat dated, I enjoyed this story.

[ricday_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Classic. One of the first crime novels I can recall reading and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

[haloedrain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was expecting more of a thriller, but after a while I stopped worrying about Hannay because the author keeps throwing him exactly what he needs, no matter how improbable.

[elliepotten · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Richard Hannay is bored out of his skull in London, and about ready to head abroad again in search of a more diverting life. But lo! In the first of many amazing coincidences, his American neighbour accosts him in the hallway that very day and begs him for help. He has discovered a cunning plot to start a war between Germany and Russia, and since he knows too much, the men in question want him dead.A day or two later, when Hannay finds said neighbour on his smoking room floor with a knife through his heart, he realises he must run - so run he does! With the police behind him for murder, and the warmongers out to stop him hijacking their plans at any cost, the book becomes a helter-skelter race against time as Hannay fights to stay alive long enough to act on his late friend's information and stop the dastardly German plot.There's a whole lot of running across moors and splashing through streams, improvised disguises and quick thinking, and, of course, hiding from that iconic aeroplane full of baddies. Buchan wrote that he meant this to be a "shocker' - the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible' - and that is exactly what he delivers. It is fast and absorbing, faintly amusing and utterly absurd at times - and well worth a couple of hours of guilty-pleasure reading time!

[391_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I LOVED this book. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read.

[cwflatt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

fun clean tale of adventure.

[kvrfan9 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those rare instances where the movie was definitely better than the book. I can't remember much from the Hitchcock version, but PBS Masterpiece broadcast an updated version of The 39 Steps which was engaging, witty, and fun.

The original source material has plenty of movement--it certainly doesn't bother with character--but it strangely lacks much excitement. Though fully the first half of the story involves one long chase, the circumstances are reported so matter-of-factly that they lack any tension.

The 39 Steps, written in 1915, is recognized as the book that launched the whole genre of spy thrillers. As such, it is to be respected for its historical import. But as a "good read" almost a century later, I would search for an alternative among its many descendents.

[encephalical · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I commend Keegan's introduction to the Penguin Classics edition for not only not containing any spoliers, but for calling out those which do.

[jdholiday_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love this book! I grew up watching the Million Dollars Movies on TV with my mother and one of the greatest movies to this day, I think, is The Thirty-nine Steps, Produced by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Donat (1905 to 1958) and Madeline Carroll (1906 to 1987.) So I was in for an awakening when I read the original book by John Buchan (1875 to 1940.) In The Thirty-nine Steps written is 1915 you follow Richard Hannay, who must decipher a murdered man's code book while threading through a maze of murder and mystery from England to Scotland and back again. You fall in love with the Scottish countryside as Hannay evades the German spies leading to the first World War and British police who think he has murdered the one man who knows how Germany will destroy the Britsh navy. With its 113 pages, The Thirty-nine Steps is a quick and wonderful read!

[booksfordinner · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed this a lot. The old style adventure/chase/thriller kind of book where the protagonist is helped by an endless parade of lucky breaks is always fun; reading one written by A writer like John Buchan makes it much more so.

[julesjones_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Written in 1915 and definitely of its time regarding social attitudes, but enormous fun.

[wildbill_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very entertaining Sunday morning read. I read this once before long ago but I kept getting the ending mixed up with the movie version. A pre-WW I suspense espionage that introduced the character Richard Hannay. The story involves someone getting caught up in an espionage plot somewhat like Eric Ambler's stories. The difference is that here there is a definite good guy and bad guy and the good guy wins. The book is well written and I recommend it as an entertaining story.

[maggiecraig_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Re-read this classic tale of adventure and derring-do a few months ago. Still think it's a terrific yarn in its depiction of one man being hunted through the moors and hills of Galloway in south-west Scotland, pursued by the agents of a foreign power. We're building up to World War I, and tensions in Europe are rising.There's the occasional throwaway remark illustrating the casual prejudices of the time which can bring the modern reader up short but there's much to admire too, particularly the terrific sense of place and the great characterisation.