Book Review – 39 Steps

39 Steps by John Bucan (1915) – After many years in Rhodesia Richard Hannay returns to London to begin a new phase in his life.  Shortly thereafter he meets an American named Scudder who claims to be dead.  Scudder faked his own death to escape a group of anarchists who are trying to force all of Europe into war.  Hannay lets Scudder stay in his apartment.  The following morning Scudder is dead and Hannay is on the run.  The killers, German spies known as the Black Stone, pursue Hannay into Scotland.  The pursuit will lead them over the hills of Scotland, back to London and finally to a confrontation at sea.

Written as something to do while Buchan was recovering from an illness, “39 Steps” has become a classic in the spy genre and one of the first popular versions of the “man on the run” novel.  The Hannay character was popular enough that he appears in four other novels.  This one has been made into movies on multiple occasions, the best known of them by Alfred Hitchcock.  Most of the movies bear little resemblance to the book.

And that’s really too bad.  The book stands up very nicely after all these years.  In our more cynical age, Hannay’s pure patriotism may seem a little dated but it comes across as honest for the character.  Buchan does a really nice job with what he referred to as a “shocker”.  His writing career began in 1910 and he shows some polish here.  Buchan also served as a correspondent for The Times and wrote for the British Propaganda Bureau during the First World War.  This story has some fun and interesting twists as the story powers along.

Buchan himself was an interesting person.  He was a politician, diplomat, writer and served as Governor General of Canada as Baron Tweedsmuir of Elsfield.  He continued to write both fiction and history throughout his life and was a prominent member of the Church of Scotland.

Movie fans may feel tempted to read the book based on their love of one of the movies (Hitchcock’s, unsurprisingly, is probably the best and certainly the best known) but be warned – the stories are very different.  The good news that each of them are certainly worth your time.

Rating – **** Recommended