The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

It is 1914.  Europe is on the brink of war.  Richard Hannay, an engineer who has just returned to London from Rhodesia, meets a  mysterious stranger who says he has information vital to continued peace in Europe; however, within a few days Hannay is on the run, suspected of murdering the stranger.  He is pursued across Scotland by both the police and a shadowy organisation called the Black Stone.  Can Hannay avoid capture or death before he can deliver the stranger's evidence to the British Foreign Office?

I enjoyed this book.  Buchan has no problems setting the scene and then getting the action going.  And it goes and it goes.  Buchan has a wonderful talent for narration and description - and his ability to describe landscapes briefly but evocatively is second to none.  Plotting, ahem!  The plot has holes large enough to drive a steam train through.  Still, the whole point of this kind of book is to thrill, and it helps to have a healthy ability to suspend your disbelief.  If you want logic, read Bertrand Russell.

The Thirty-Nine Steps was written in 1915.  Some of the language is less than politically correct and a bit shocking to post-holocaust sensibilities; other than this, Buchan is able to use language with a great facility to turn his tale into a riveting page-turner.

I have seen several of the film versions of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  My favourite is the 1935 version starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  Although its plot diverges in many ways from that of the book, I can thoroughly recommend it as a piece of suspenseful entertainment.