The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan

"I realised that I was bottled as sure as a pickled herring, and that there was only one way out. I had to die. If my pursuers knew I was dead they would go to sleep again."

Richard Hannay returns to England from South Africa to start a new life, but he gets caught up in a plot to ruin the British war effort (the First World War). Soon Hannay has to flee from his pursuers and has to fight for his life while trying to reveal the cipher code that will uncover the plot.

The Thirty-Nine Steps is a suspense-filled thriller (the first of three by John Buchan) featuring Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and an astonishing habit of getting himself out of sticky circumstances.

The novel formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, notably Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 adaptation, a 1959 color remake, a more faithful 1978 version, and a 2008 version for British television.

You can view more about this title at the CruGuru website. It is available from Amazon.com. ISBN: 978-1-920265-62-5