I Read Books: The 39 Steps
This book has pace, is full of incident and, set in the summer of 1914, has the shadow of war to add urgency to the spy plot. It’s also very silly with coincidences galore, and a plot that depends on people not recognising the villains and the important clues being in the notebook of a murdered conspiracy theorist who blames everything on the Jews.
In other words a lot of fun, a lot of annoyances, and very much of its time.
Read This: For a pacey, slightly old-fashioned thriller
Don’t Read This: For watertight plotting.
Out of copyright: Hence available to read for free online.
In Local News: The 39 Steps were at a house Buchan rented in Broadstairs while convalescing; his young daughter who was just learning numbers would count them on the way up and the way down.
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