The Thirty Nine Steps

A Richard Hannay Thriller, Book 1

By: John Buchan

Narrated by: Peter Joyce

Among the first espionage thrillers and an acknowledged classic, The Thirty-Nine Steps well deserves its accolades as one of the best adventure stories of all time. Leaving aside the improbable denouement, the fast paced, brilliantly conceived narrative still excites and carries one along with the sheer suspense of the manhunt - a recurring theme in literature - and Hannay’s struggle against the evil that is the ‘Black Stone'.

May 1914: Europe is close to war and spies are everywhere. Richard Hannay has arrived back in London to begin a new life, when a spy called Scudder asks for help to uncover a German plot to murder the Greek prime minister in London and to steal British plans for the outbreak of war. He claims to be following a ring of German spies called the Black Stone. A few days later, Scudder is murdered. Hannay is forced to continue Scudder’s work and is chased across Scotland both by police and German spies. The solution to the mysterious phrase 'Thirty-Nine Steps' is a thread that runs through the whole story.

About Assembled Stories: Over the years the national press have reviewed Assembled Stories titles as ‘excellent’, ‘remarkable’, ‘entrancing’, ‘superb’, ‘magic for sure’, ‘masterly’, ‘wonderful’, ‘a class act’ and ‘a splendid example of audio at its best’.

©1993 John Buchan (P)2007 Assembled Stories

Critic reviews

"Peter Joyce is the most remarkable one-man band in audiobook publishing. Joyce, an experienced actor, reads them all himself." ( The Independent)

exciting plot, but not the telling

On first "reading," the story/plot is fabulous (I see why it inspired several film adaptations),and I felt positively thrilled at the end, but the telling itself seemed so lackluster that I had to force myself to keep listening at several points. The narrator certainly wasn't the problem. His performance was excellent!

I know the book is in an older style, but that has never bothered me in other older adventure stories. Perhaps knowing it and books like it influenced Tolkein and his "Inklings," and the fact that it has been listed among the most beloved British books of all time, my expectations were so high, it caused the disappointment.

I'm glad I read it from a literary history point of view, though, and I'll probably listen again to see if my mood today affected my enjoyment. I'm also going to check out radio drama and film versions of the story. However, I just wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.

A good story, a flawless interpretation, and a suspenseful end.

A flawless performance of a good, classic spy romance.
It shows its age a bit in the sometimes (for me) too detailed descriptions of the irish landscape. Some words referring to the peasant lifestyle sent this non-native scrambling after their meaning, and the otherwise nonstop action sometimes slowed to a crawl. The fact that I interrupted its listening daily after listening to small portions may be the culprit, though it picked up pace towards the end, making it worth it.

Pleasant Accident

This was an oops.
I was intending to get Greenmantle by De Lint, but Audible did not have it and had Buchan's which I did not notice (how many Greenmantles does one expect). I did notice it was book two, so got this (book one of the Richard Hannay series).

This is far from the perfect suspense novel. It has numerous unlikely encounters to move the story yet I enjoyed the action, characters dynamics, and pre-WWI history.

Although this was not the series I intended, I also enjoyed Greenmantle (Buchan) and may finish this series of five.

The narration was excellent for the novel. Perhaps overplayed, but it was appropriate for the story.

A Fun Listen

If you like a visit to England and Scotland (circa 1914) and don't concern yourself too much with the plot, you'll enjoy this. But, you'll get even more pleasure is you can find Alfred Hitchcock's 39 Steps. It's wonderful.

Interesting museum piece

Well read. But the story itself hasn't aged well. Still, nice to know what was popular at the time and may have influenced writers like Christie and Sayers.