The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan is probably one of the earliest “thrillers”. In the introduction to the book in my Collins Classics edition it is mentioned that Buchan himself called this book a “Shocker”. And it is one. Great pace in the narrative, spare language and crackling dialogues. The book is a slim volume and is more of a novella than a full-blown novel. But it can hold you through its pages and the character of Richard Hannay is a memorable one.

John Buchan wrote and published this book at the start of World War 1 in 1915. It was the time when the Empire of the British crown was spread across the known world. We meet Hannay, a mid thirties, originally Scottish, but lately a world citizen, gentleman who is bored of his life in London. During his past, he had led an adventurous life in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and had made a tidy fortune. In his words –

“I had got my pile – not one of the big ones, but good enough for me; and I had figured out all kinds of ways of enjoying myself.”

However, the city life bored him and he decided to give it another day. And if nothing exciting happened, he will leave town. And then, excitement.

He meets a man called Scudder, and one line spoken by Scudder sets the mood for the rest of the book. Scudder says –

“I’ve been watching you, and I reckon you’re a cool customer. I reckon, too, you’re an honest man, and not afraid of playing a bold hand. I’m going to confide in you. I need help worse than any man ever needed it, and I want to know if I can count you in.”

Hannay says – “Get on with your yarn, and I’ll tell you.”

Buchan establishes Hannay’s credentials as the hero of the story through Scudder’s observation. Hannay is cool customer, honest and can play a bold hand. And then when Hannay responds, that response drips with “cool”.

In this book of ten chapters, the first chapter is used to setup the scene and kickstart the chase. Something big is afoot, the Germans have plans to start a war and probably invade Brittain. The first chapter is aptly titled – The Man who Died. It ends with –

“I snapped the switch, but there was nobody there. Then I saw something in the far corner which made me drop my cigar and fall into a cold sweat.

My guest was lying sprawled on his back. There was a long knife through his heart which skewered him to the floor.”

The chase begins then. Hannay decides to protect the secret and try to complete whatever Scudder wanted to do. And he decides to run. Being Scottish, he choses to run north and there Buchan successfully transports you to the world of lochs, glens, burns, rolling hills and bogs. I have been to Scotland once. Buchan wrote this book around a century prior to my visit and still there were certain visuals that I could imagine visiting during my trip. I can imagine some of these places to be the same at the time of Hannay. Below are some images of Scottish landscape from my trip. I can imagine Hannay trekking through these while being on the run.

For the first few chapters of the book, whenever Hannay is to get in a pickle, something fortuitous happens and that saves him. An inn-keeper, a road worker, a herder, a political heir; someone comes to his rescue. So, when he walks into a secluded house and meets an elderly, erudite gentleman, you think this is another saviour. Instead he comes face to face with the villain of the story. This is the chapter where Buchan held me by my collar and gave me a shake. The story is not “Lucky Richard Hannay”, rather it is “adventure of Richard Hannay”; he seemed to say.

The book is fun to read and you will think that so many of the plot devices used in this early thriller are still in use today. I recommend this book to you for both sheer reading pleasure and the literary discovery of the thriller genre.