The Thirty-Nine Steps
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season116 pages, about 2 hours: half the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbRichard Hannay is bored in London until his neighbor Scudder asks to hide in his flat.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 10 reviews from critics and book blogs, 8 credit the plot and 2 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesSimon Caterson, in Quadrant, calls it brisk next to The Riddle of the Sands and more broadly appealing than Rogue Male.
The case for it
on the prose and pacing
“good strong prose, briefly sketched but believable characters, continuously escalating tension, and perfect pacing”
a book blog on the tension
“there’s a constant tension hanging over Hannay as he goes on the lam”
a book blog on the prose
“The prose is crisp and clean, thrilling and witty, human and sustained.”
a book blog on its brevity
“I am always especially attracted to its brevity and concise storytelling”
Clay Stafford · Killer Nashville, 2021
The case against
on the absence of women
“This is emphatically a man’s world.”
a book blog on the antisemitism
“I detected more than a few hints of anti-Semitism and some gross racial profiling throughout”
a book blog on the conspiracy plot
“The framing story of the conspiracy I found frankly incomprehensible for the most part”
four stars · a book blog on the coincidences
“there is a reliance on sheer coincidence that is heavy even by popular thriller standards”
Simon Caterson · Quadrant, 2015
