John Buchan

The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan

John Buchan's all-time classic spy thriller!May 1914. Richard Hannay returns to his new home, a flat in London, after living in Rhodesia, to begin a new life. One night he is buttonholed by a stranger, a well-travelled American, who claims to be in fear for his life. The man appears to know of an anarchist plot to destabilise Europe, beginning with a plan to assassinate the Greek Premier, Constantine Karolides, during his forthcoming visit to London. The man reveals his name to be Franklin P. Scudder, a freelance spy, and remarks that he is dead, which holds Hannay's attention. Scudder explains that he has faked his own death to avert suspicion. Scudder claims to be following a ring of German spies called the Black Stone who are trying to steal British plans for the outbreak of war. Hannay lets Scudder hide in his flat, and sure enough the next day another man is discovered having apparently committed suicide in the same building. A couple of days later Hannay returns home to find Scudder dead with a knife through his heart ..."The Thirty-Nine Steps" is one of the earliest examples of the "man-on-the-run" thriller archetype subsequently adopted by film makers as a much-used plot device. In "The Thirty-Nine Steps," Buchan holds up Richard Hannay as an example to his readers of an ordinary man who puts his country's interests before his own safety. The story was a great success with the men in the First World War trenches.