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The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan

I suggested this book to the group. I read it in a day or so whilst on holiday in Scotland (did I mention I have been to Scotland recently?) after which my hubby picked up the book and read it himself. This is a rare thing indeed. Not only did he read IT ALL he ENJOYED it. Well, if it's good enough for hubby its good enough for the group so suggest it I did!

I think the general requirement for this book is to just go with it, don't question too thoroughly the premise for Hannay to go running off round the countryside, don't try to work out exactly how many miles he was supposed to have covered in a day or the convenience of him bumping in to an acquaintance in the middle of nowhere. If you do you are only going to be disappointed.

I love this style of book - pre-war (first) full of gentlemen retreating to smoking rooms, having supper in 'the Club' and referring to everyone as 'old chap'. Each chapter almost read like a short story with its own set of characters and location (granted this is not necessary a positive for those unenthusiastic about short stories).

Ok so the ending was a little bit silly, surely Hannay would have recognised the 'chaps' who had chased him relentlessly for so long, surely the government would not have left the saving of Europe to one man they hardly knew, even if he was the 'right sort of chap' and the convenience of finding THE thirty nine steps out of all the possibilities! However I must stop myself and refer to my previous writings - if I try to question it too thoroughly I'm only going to start finding holes and I don't want to as I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As Buchan perfectly describes it "the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible". I couldn't describe this book better so I wont.

We gave it 6.5 with very wide ranging scores, some simply couldn't get past the improbability of it, those who could loved it. What a fab book cover by the way, probably my favourite since The Axeman's Jazz.




Next book is Broken Silence by Danielle Ramsay - a book with a local setting!

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