Send a text

When a freelance spy is murdered in Richard Hannay’s London flat, Richard Hannay goes on the run. Fearing for his life, his goal is to stay one step ahead of both the police and the spies who will stop at nothing to find him.

What are the thirty-nine steps, and can Richard Hannay manage to stay one step ahead of his pursuers? 

Published in 1915, The Thirty-Nine Steps is one of the most popular espionage thrillers ever written.

Read: Buy it used, read it for free, or get it on Amazon. (Reading time: ~4 hours)

Reflect: Check out the conversation starters below.

We're excited to welcome Wendi Anderson as our guest. Wendi is a senior business analyst and an avid outdoor enthusiast. She loves mountain biking, hiking & paddleboarding. In fact, one of her favorite activities is jogging up Green Mountain, elevation 6,800 feet, which isjust steps outside her home in lovely Golden, Colorado. When she's not exploring the great outdoors, watching horror movies, or reading Stephen King novels, she's hanging at home with her husband, two kids and two dogs. 

An Ordinary Man as Hero: “Here was I, a very ordinary fellow, with no particular brains, and yet I was convinced that somehow I was needed to help this business through—that without me it would all go to blazes. I told myself it was sheer silly conceit, that … the cleverest people living, with all the might of the British Empire at their back, had the job in hand.”

Not Sherlock: Richard Hannay says, “I wasn’t any kind of Sherlock Holmes. But I have always fancied I had a kind of instinct … I used to use my brains as far as they went, and after they came to a blank wall I guessed, and I usually found my guesses pretty right.”

Scotland Is Dreamy: “We rumbled slowly into a land of little wooded glens and then to a great wide moorland place, gleaming with lochs, with high blue hills showing northwards.” I’m ready to board a plane — how about you?

Tea, Tonic, and Toxin is a book club and podcast for people who love mysteries, thrillers, introspection, and good conversation. Each month, your hosts, Sarah Harrison and Carolyn Daughters, will discuss a game-changing mystery or thriller from the 19th and 20th centuries. Together, we’ll see firsthand how the genre evolved.

Along the way, we’ll entertain ideas, prospects, theories, doubts, and grudges, along with the occasional guest. And we hope to entertain you, dear friend. We want you to experience the joys of reading some of the best mysteries and thrillers ever written.

Support the show

https://www.instagram.com/teatonicandtoxin/
https://www.facebook.com/teatonicandtoxin
https://www.teatonicandtoxin.com

Stay mysterious...