Showing results for title "The Thirty-Nine Steps", by author "John Buchan" in International Mystery & Crime

Richard Hannay is bored—until his neighbor shows up with a wild story of espionage, an impending war, and a mysterious organization called the 39 Steps. Hours later, the man is dead, and Hannay is the prime suspect. Framed for murder and hunted by both the police and a deadly network of spies, Hannay races across the Scottish countryside, decoding clues, dodging capture, and trying to stop a conspiracy that threatens the fate of Britain itself. Fast-paced, sharp, and endlessly gripping, The 39 Steps is the original man-on-the-run thriller—a template for everything from Hitchcock to Bond.

The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is an adventure novel in the espionage genre by the Scottish author John Buchan. A classic of the genre, it is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an action hero with a knack for getting himself out of difficult situations. The Thirty-Nine Steps is a prototypical "innocent man on the run" adventure. Hanney lets a neighbor stay with him, who is being followed by an anarchist gang trying to steal British military plans. Then the neighbor is murdered in his apartment....