July 15, 2013

Read This!: The Thirty-Nine Steps

By John Buchan

Challenge: Classics list
I picked this book because I thought I remembered a movie named this that I had seen that involved some mist and a mysterious occurrence.   It also was one of the classics on the list that I had not read.
Richard Hannay is a transplanted South African in London pre-WWI who has a strange man approach him, tell him some political intrigue, hide in his house for a few days, and then get murdered.   Fearing he’ll be accused of the crime and carrying this political secret, Hannay goes on the run. 
Frankly, I expected more from this novel.  I mean it was on a list of classics.  But, I found it to be draggy with not a lot of plot.  There were way too many coincidences as well.  Like some guy Hannay knows just happens to be driving down the road at that moment?  What?  I also was waiting for a big reveal and felt it fell short.  I finished and thought, “That was it?????”.  Lame.  It wasn’t bad enough for me to not recommend but there are other much better books that you can read, so read those instead of this.

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