Jon Nixon reviewed The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan
Review of 'The Thirty-nine Steps' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
Totally ludicrous "boys own" adventure. The writing style flows nicely but the characters are all stereotypes, none of them have any common sense, and the plot is full of holes.
If a stranger comes to you and says, "I've disfigured a corpse and left it in my room so everyone will think I'm dead. Can I stay with you for a while?" What do you do? Of course you invite him in and become firm friends. After that things start to get less believable.
The new friend gets murdered so the hero goes on the run to scotland. There he happens to walk into the home of one of the murderers. Well I guess there were only 3 million people in scotland when this was written so the odds of that happening were shorter back then.
The baddy is no smarter than the hero. He locks him up in a …
Totally ludicrous "boys own" adventure. The writing style flows nicely but the characters are all stereotypes, none of them have any common sense, and the plot is full of holes.
If a stranger comes to you and says, "I've disfigured a corpse and left it in my room so everyone will think I'm dead. Can I stay with you for a while?" What do you do? Of course you invite him in and become firm friends. After that things start to get less believable.
The new friend gets murdered so the hero goes on the run to scotland. There he happens to walk into the home of one of the murderers. Well I guess there were only 3 million people in scotland when this was written so the odds of that happening were shorter back then.
The baddy is no smarter than the hero. He locks him up in a store room full of explosives so he' able to blow his way out.
All the way through the novel, the hero gets helped by people who trust him even though he's being hunted by the police. Finally, at the end of the book, the authorities seem perfectly happy to let him take charge of their anti terrorist operation even though he's just a civilian.
Nice and short. A flowing style. But completely daft and of it's time.