The 39 Steps, part 1!

Tea, Tonic & Toxin

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Welcome to the Tea, Tonic & Toxin book club and podcast! We’re reading and discussing the best mysteries and detective stories ever written.

The Thirty-Nine Steps, published in 1915, is one of the most popular espionage thrillers ever written. The action-packed story begins in May 1914. One day, our protagonist, Richard Hannay, finds a man named Franklin Scudder at the door of his London flat. Scudder is a freelance spy who has secret information about an assassination plot that could lead to a world war. Days later, Scudder is murdered in Hannay’s flat.

Fearing for his life, Hannay goes on the run. His goal: Stay one step ahead of both the police and the spies who will stop at nothing to find him.
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.
A Real Page Turner: Sudden surprises, rapid scene shifts, and changes of location, all elements of any number of spy thrillers like The Bourne Identity and detective on the run stories like Poker Face.

The Brink of War: The book starts in May 1914. In the book’s dedication, author John Buchan says he has “long cherished an affection for that elementary type of tale which Americans call the ‘dime novel,’ and which we know as the ‘shocker’ – the romance where the incidents defy the probabilities, and march just inside the borders of the possible.” He also notes, “these days … the wildest fictions are so much less improbable than the facts.”

Moral Code – It’s a story of good and evil where a brave man unselfishly risks his life to honor a dead man and a patriotic cause. Richard Hannay says, “I am an ordinary sort of fellow, not braver than other people, but I hate to see a good man downed, and that long knife would not be the end of Scudder if I could play the game in his place.”

Yearning for Adventure: Richard Hannay, a 37-year-old Scotsman raised in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), returns to an England, where he quickly becomes bored. He envies shop-girls and clerks and policemen for having something to do.

Then Something Happens – The occupant of the flat upstairs, a Kentucky man named Franklin Scudder, tells of a well-financed anarchic conspiracy.

Escape from Boredom: Richard Hannay is happy to be on the run. “It was going to be a giddy hunt, and it was queer how the prospect comforted me. I had been slack so long that almost any chance of activity was welcome.” He feels lighthearted and childlike, relishing the intrigue. From that point on, it’s nonstop action – trains, stolen cars, bicycles, running on foot …
Hiding in Plain Sight – He hides out in a dovecote, as his enemies would assume he had made for open country and search for him on the moors.

The Milk of Human Kindness – When things look bleak, Richard Hannay finds sanctuary and unexpected allies. Goodhearted souls feed, clothe, a

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