The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
After spending years in South Africa, Richard Hannay has recently returned to England and is utterly dissatisfied with his life there. But then, only days after a chance contact with an American who had informed him of an assassination plot that might have disastrous international repercussions, a murder occurs in his apartment. Hannay is on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all of his grit and cunning to keep one step ahead of his pursuers. He is an apparent suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers.
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
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The writing style of Buchan is decent. He doesn’t use as much detail as Richard Adams does in “The Plague Dogs,” another British chase novel, but he also doesn’t match Adams’ storytelling prowess here. The same kind of emotional connection that one has with a comic book character is present as the reader witnesses Hannay survive one close call after another (including blowing up a small building while he was inside). Even still, he continues to retain our attention because we find ourselves wondering what he will get into and out of next.
Speculating Buchan’s overarching goals for this book is fascinating. It was written at a time when conditions on the Western Front were dire, German Zeppelins were laying the groundwork for the upcoming war’s Blitz, and the likelihood of victory was far from certain. Since Buchan was involved in the intelligence operation at the time, it’s probable that there are still some unrevealed secrets in this tale. It might have merely been propaganda, intended to boost morale on both the home front and among France’s allies. The assassination of a public figure and the suggestion of a war-starting plot behind it, as well as the allusion to a true historical event, are very loose analogies to real occurrences.
