Still suspecting him as a murderer, they chase him back to Sir Walter’s house. After Hannay leaves Bullivant’s house, the police spot him. Bullivant promises to deal with the matter. Hannay returns to London to meet his Foreign Office contact, Sir Walter Bullivant. Luckily, the room they lock him in contains explosives, and he blasts himself out. He also meets a local landowner who believes his story and writes an introductory letter to a contact at the Foreign Office.Įventually, the Black Stone captures Hannay. Every time they get close, Hannay has a lucky escape.

The phrase “The Thirty-Nine Steps” is prominent in the notebook, but without explanation.Īn aeroplane pursues Hannay, as do the police and the Black Stone’s men. The Black Stone are responsible for enabling the attack by stealing a document showing the Royal Navy’s dispositions. It describes a German plan to start the coming war with a bolt-from-the-blue attack on the Royal Navy. He escapes from his flat dressed as a milkman and takes the train to Scotland. Reasoning that the police will arrest him for the murder, Hannay decides to go into hiding in his native Scotland. He fears the Black Stone will come for him next, as the murdered man had given him a notebook for safe-keeping before his death. Hannay lets the man hide in his flat, but later finds him murdered. Hannay meets a man who claims to be investigating a German spy ring known as the Black Stone. Richard Hannay returns to London, having made his fortune in Africa. It is 1914, just before the outbreak of World War One. (For more on loglines see The Killogator Logline Formula) The Thirty-Nine Steps: Plot Summary The prime suspect for the murder, he goes on the run, and must evade capture, clear his name and save his country. Just before the First World War, a Scottish adventurer finds a dead man in his flat, murdered by a German spy ring. (For more on titles, see How to Choose a Title For Your Novel) The Thirty-Nine Steps: Logline

Referencing one of the archetypes of the story in the title is a classic title generation technique.

The protagonist’s goal is to discover what ‘the thirty-nine steps’ are. To view them, just select/highlight them. Warning: Major spoilers are blacked out like this secret. Critics regularly vote it one of the top ten spy thrillers of all time. The Thirty-Nine Steps, written by John Buchan and published in 1915, was one of the first “conspiracy” spy thrillers.

The thirty nine steps book summary