18 books like The Thirty-Nine Steps

What to read after The Thirty-Nine Steps — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh · 1945 · ★ 4.0 · 327p · ≈ 10h · Challenging The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles… Shares: Community pick

Mr. Standfast John Buchan · 1918 · ★ 3.9 · 319p · ≈ 10h · Challenging Published in 1919, Mr. Standfast is a thriller set in the latter half of the First World War, and the third of John Buchan’s books to feature Richard Hannay. Richard Hannay is called back from serving in France to take part in a secret mission: searching for a German agent. Hannay disguises himself as a pacifist and travels through England and Scotland to track down the spy at the center of a web… Shares: Hannay, Richard Hannay, World War I, Intelligence service

The three hostages John Buchan · 1924 · ★ 3.8 · 292p · ≈ 9h · Challenging Major General Sir Richard Hannay thought that his life of adventure and danger was behind him with the end of the Great War. He was wrong. When an old colleague comes asking for help, Hannay has to come out of retirement to battle a secret society that has kidnapped three innocents to advance their schemes. Hannay, aided by his intrepid wife Mary and his old friends, plunges into a pool of… Shares: Hannay, Richard Hannay, Intelligence service, Missing persons

Greenmantle John Buchan · 1915 · ★ 3.7 · 243p · ≈ 8h · Challenging In Greenmantle (1916) Richard Hannay, hero of The Thirty-Nine Steps, travels across war-torn Europe in search of a German plot and an Islamic Messiah. He is joined by three more of Buchan's heroes: Peter Pienaar, the old Boer Scout; John S. Blenkiron, the American determined to fight the Kaiser; and Sandy Arbuthnot, Greenmantle himself, modelled on Lawrence of Arabia. The intrepid four move in… Shares: Hannay, Richard Hannay, World War I, Intelligence service

The Runagates Club John Buchan · 1928 · 342p · ≈ 11h · Challenging John Buchan’s The Runagates Club is a classic of British interwar short fiction. These twelve stories appeared from 1913 to 1927, when he was at the peak of his powers, and feature Richard Hannay, Edward Leithen, and many newcomers to the Buchan canon. John Buchan designed The Runagates Club as a showcase for the best of his 1920s magazine fiction. He repurposed these stories with new… Shares: World War I, Intelligence service, World War, Great Britain

In Secret Robert W. Chambers · 1919 · 246p · ≈ 8h · Challenging The case in question concerned a letter in a yellow envelope, which was dumped along with other incoming mail upon one of the many long tables where hundreds of women and scores of men sat opening and reading thousands of letters for the Bureau of P. C. - whatever that may mean. Shares: World War I, World War, Thriller

The appetite of tyranny Gilbert Keith Chesterton · 1915 · 46p · ≈ 1h · Challenging The mere facts of the story are about the present European conflagration, includes other short works and essays. Shares: World War I, World War

The dark forest Hugh Walpole · 1916 · 324p · ≈ 10h · Challenging John Durward and John Trenchard are two Englishmen who join a company of Russian doctors, nurses, and orderlies working on the Russian side of the Eastern Front at the height of World War I. Durward, the primary narrator, is a detached and seemingly-objective observer of events; his friend Trenchard is a dreamy, clumsy, and naive man whose fiancee, Marie Ivanova, is serving alongside him as a… Shares: World War I, World War

I Spy Natalie Sumner Lincoln · 1916 · 221p · ≈ 7h · Challenging The allied forces, English and French, had been bent backward day by day, until it seemed as if Paris was fairly within the Germans' grasp. Bent indeed, but never broken, and with the turning of the tide the Allied line had rushed forward, and France breathed again. Shares: World War, Thriller

The Burning Shore Wilbur Smith · 1998 · 636p · ≈ 21h · Moderate 'Smith will take you on an exciting, taut and thrilling journey you will never forget' - Sun'With Wilbur Smith the action is never further than the turn of a page' - Independent'No one does adventure quite like Smith' - Daily Mirror LOVE IN A TIME OF WAR. HOPE IN A TIME OF CRISIS. One of the greatest fighter pilots of the Great War, Michael Courtney, is saved by the French noblewoman Centaine… Shares: World War I, World War

Cry, The Beloved Country Alan Paton · 1940 · ★ 3.9 · 258p · ≈ 8h · Challenging This book is the most famous and important novel in South Africa's history, and an immediate worldwide bestseller when it was published in 1948. Alan Paton's impassioned novel about a black man's country under white man's law is a work of searing beauty. The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, " We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from… Shares: Textbooks for foreign speakers, English language

The Doomsday Key James Rollins · 2009 · ★ 4.4 · 431p · ≈ 14h · Moderate James Rollins, the New York Times bestselling master of nail-biting suspense and historical mystery, combines cutting-edge biotechnology with a centuries-old secret in an apocalyptic story that reveals where humankind is truly headedThe Doomsday KeyAt Princeton University, a famed geneticist dies inside a biohazard lab. In Rome, a Vatican archaeologist is found dead in St. Peter's Basilica. In… Shares: Secret societies, Thriller

City of gold Len Deighton · 1992 · ★ 3.6 · 576p · ≈ 19h · Moderate "The pace of the story is compulsive . . . it is a real pleasure to be swallowed up in Deighton's description of wartime Cairo."—Daily TelegraphJanuary 1942. Rommel, the fabled "Desert Fox," has pushed back the British Army three hundred miles in a matter of weeks. His seemingly invincible Afrika Korps is at the gates of Egypt, soon to threaten Cairo itself. And Rommel has a spy in the city—a… Shares: World War, Spy Fiction

Watchman (Crime Club) Ian Rankin · 1988 · ★ 4.0 · 272p · ≈ 9h · Moderate From #1 international bestseller Ian Rankin, an unlucky spy gets one last chance at redemption. Miles Flint is a spy who has been making some serious mistakes. His last assignment led to the death of a foreign official in London, and after getting too close to his current subject he wound up in police custody. But something is wrong at the agency that has nothing to do with Miles' errors. Why did… Shares: Intelligence service, Spy Fiction, Thriller

Palace of Treason Jason Matthews · 2015 · ★ 4.2 · 480p · ≈ 16h · Moderate 843 pages (large print) ; 23 cm Shares: Spy Fiction, Thriller

COLD John Gardner · 1996 · ★ 3.5 · 235p · ≈ 7h · Moderate James Bond is on a mission that will become an obsession. It starts the night Flight 229 is torn apart at Washington airport, killing 435 passengers. But the victim who matters to Bond is the Principessa Sukie Tempesta: once his lover, still his friend. The search for Sukie's killers will turn out to be the most complex and demanding assignment of Bond's career. Across continents and through… Shares: Secret societies, Intelligence service, Great Britain, Thriller

Horizon, a novel Helen MacInnes · 1946 · 192p · ≈ 6h · Challenging A wartime story of conflicting emotions and loyalties. Some Tyrolean citizens, north and south, sick of being under Italian rule, look to the Nazi invasion as a liberation, their promises of freedom as something worth fighting for. Other wiser heads, including liberated POW Roy know the Nazi's treachery. Roy is holed up for 8 months in a family home as liaison between the local resistance and… Shares: World War, Spy Fiction, Thriller

Thunderball Ian Fleming · 1961 · ★ 3.8 · 344p · ≈ 11h · Moderate "When a stranger arrives in the Bahamas, the locals barely turn their heads, seeing another ex-pat with money to burn at the casino tables. But James Bond has more than money on his mind; he's got less than a week to find two stolen atom bombs hidden among the coral reefs. While acting the playboy, Bond meets Domino, sultry plaything of secretive treasure hunter Emilio Largo. In getting close to… Shares: Intelligence service, Great Britain, Spy Fiction, Thriller

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