The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan

The Thirty-nine Steps tells the story of spies in the run up to the fist World War. Richard Hannay has moved to Britain from South Africa and, having been there a couple of months is very bored. Luckily, the man in the flat above him has secret information about European politics and is being chased by some German and British spies. His neighbour tells Hannay what he knows and says he must reveal what he knows at the correct time. The neighbour gets killed and Hannay must go on the run. He goes to Scotland where he is helped by locals to avoid his pursuers. He survives by sheer luck and travels to London to deliver his information. Together they set up an operation to catch the spies before they can escape.

Richard Hannay is a fun character to spend time with. He’s pretty savvy and uses disguises and the help of others to avoid those who are after him. He’s a bit reminiscent of James Bond but has to rely on instinct rather than being told what to do. All the characters he meets along the way are nearly all nice and willing to help. They, like Hannay, are happy for a bit of excitement in their lives and will probably dine out on the story for a while after. The baddies are masters of disguise and incredibly clever. As much as Hannay does to try and confuse him, they manage to figure out where he is and come straight after him. The only thing I had a problem with was that there were no female characters. There doesn’t seem to be a particular reason for this; perhaps it was the time it was written or it may be that Buchan was only writing for a male audience.

The book is very short, only 112 pages, but there is a lot crammed in to that space. Each chapter is its own little story; he meets someone new in each one who either helps or hinders him. The exceptions are the last couple of chapters when Hannay is back in London, which builds up to the finale. I could vividly picture the Scottish countryside that is the setting for most of the book. It’s a dramatic landscape to go with the drama unfolding which is a nice connection. There was plenty of description in Scotland but not so much in London so that was more difficult to picture. I think this was partly because Buchan spent more time in Scotland than England. To a certain extent, the main character takes some autobiographical points from Buchan himself.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this book but I really did. The fast pace of the book made you want to keep reading. A problem I did have with the plot a bit is that I didn’t really understand what significance the secrets had and who exactly was after Hannay and why. But I don’t think that mattered too much as the important thing was that he was on the run alone and several people were chasing him so the odds weren’t in his favour. Despite being written one hundred years ago, the language is quite modern and easy to understand; so this would be a good classic to start with. The ending is unresolved so you the reader has to decide what happened and how it affected the grand scheme of things when World War One occurred anyway. This is a quick, fun read and I’d be curious to read some of the others in the series to see what topics he covers.

Overall rating 3 out of 5.