Thanks to Kimberley for this guest review of our August Classic!
“Contrary to general belief, I was not a murderer, but I had become an unholy liar, a shameless imposter, and a highwayman with a marked taste for expensive motor cars”
Richard Hannay has just returned to England after years in South Africa and is thoroughly bored with his life in London. But then a murder is committed in his flat, just days after a chance encounter with an American who had told him about an assassination plot which could have dire international consequences. An obvious suspect for the police and an easy target for the killers, Hannay goes on the run in his native Scotland where he will need all his courage and ingenuity to stay one step ahead of his pursuers.
The Thirty-Nine Steps is not a book I would have picked up at a store and brought home with me, if I’m being truly honest. However, since I had the opportunity to read it, I’m actually really grateful I did. This is a short classic novel that packs a punch, it felt like I was on the run the entire time with Hannay as it never really lets up.
Reading the Thirty-Nine Steps is fun and exciting, which is what I was hoping for out of a mad chase throughout the English countryside. Watching Hannay escaping time and time again until a thrilling confrontation and conclusion is quite exhilarating when you allow yourself to be caught up in it, which I was.
There’s reverse psychology, the usurping of identities, and the classic case of lost evidence to keep things exciting. No longer bored of London life, he’s certainly found some much needed entertainment as Hannay pretends to be a milkman, a lower class burn on the train, and a few other identities that he honestly has way too much fun with. He meets plenty of gullible people who never seem to question him too hard and who happen to be the people he needs - talk about the right place, right time.
The novel is set pre-World War I and I think it would have been quite a thrilling adventure in its day. While I can understand that some of the concepts are a little outdated and perhaps that could be a distraction from the excitement of the story for some, I found it a great little read.