The Thirty-One Kings

by Robert J Harris

Overview

June, 1940. Richard Hannay has returned.As German troops pour across France, the veteran soldier and adventurer Richard Hannay is called back into duty. In Paris, an individual code named “Roland” has disappeared and is assumed to be in the hands of Nazi agents. Only Roland knows the secret of the 31 Kings, a secret upon which the future of Europe depends. Hannay is dispatched to Paris to find Roland before the Germans overrun the city. On a hazardous journey across the battlefields of France, Hannay is joined by old friends and new allies as he confronts a ruthless foe who will stop at nothing to destroy him.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681779195
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/04/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robert J. Harris has written numerous books with HarperCollins, including Leonardo and the Death Machine, Will Shakespeare and the Pirate's Fire, and, most recently, The Gravedigger's Club, first in a new series of mysteries starring a young Arthur Conan Doyle. Robert is also the designer of the bestselling fantasy board game Talisman. He lives in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

09/15/2018
It's 1940, and there's a war on. A pilot's enigmatic dying words about "London trails…latest Dickens…missing pages…" trigger a frenetic search for the elusive 31 kings. That's more than enough to nudge Richard Hannay out of what would seem a well-deserved retirement more than 100 years after his introduction in John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) and 83 years after Hitchcock's classic screen adaptation of 1935. Harris is obviously familiar with all earlier incarnations, but this can stand on its own sturdy legs. The resurrected Hannay is thrust into a world teetering on disaster as Paris is on the brink of capitulation, and only he and the Die-Hards, a ragtag assortment of Glasgow patriots, can hope to prevent it. Have you been feeling as skittish as a kitten in a room full of rocking chairs lately? Help is at hand. This tale of derring-do featuring a bang-up battle against the diabolical Boche can soothe those jimjams. VERDICT Following last year's successful films Dunkirk and Darkest Hour, this novel offers a similar escape into a cushy featherbed of certitudes where steely goodhearted lads square off against evil. Exhibit A for anyone complaining they don't write them like that anymore.—Bob Lunn, Kansas City, MO

Library Journal

07/09/2018
Heavy melodrama mars this disappointing continuation of John Buchan’s early-20th-century Richard Hannay thrillers from British author Harris (The Gravedigger’s Club). In June 1940, the former British operative is chafing in retirement, improbably having trouble offering his services, but his time on the sidelines doesn’t last long. While on a walking tour of Scotland, Hannay and his wife, Mary, try to aid a pilot whose biplane crashes near them. The pilot recognizes Hannay and imparts a cryptic message: “London trails... latest Dickens... missing page.” With his dying breath, he implores Hannay to find “the thirty-one kings.” Hannay follows the clues to a London bookstore, Traill’s, where an old American friend, John Blenkiron, reveals that some men are conspiring to topple Churchill so as to facilitate reaching an accommodation with Hitler. In order to foil the plot, Hannay must travel to France in search of a Mr. Roland, who has information on the kings that could change “the whole future of the war.” Overheated prose doesn’t help (“Your death will be slow and ignominious. You will breathe out your last in solitary darkness, knowing that your rashness carried you straight into my waiting hands”). Those unfamiliar with Buchan’s originals won’t be inspired to seek them out. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The plot whips along, embellished by dogfights, perilous car journeys, personal vendettas, and plenty of derring-do—plus a whiff of enjoyable parody to lend an edge. I was beguiled.

The Daily Mail (London)

A little bit of James Bond, a smattering of Indiana Jones, and perhaps even a bit of Buckaroo Bonzai—clever, well-plotted, and big fun.

BookPage

Riveting. Daring measures and hairbreadth escapes are the rule in this first-person chronicle. The can-do spirit of Mr. Harris’s book evokes a time when it seemed the fate of the world might hinge on the acts of a handful of brave souls. The Thirty-One Kings is old-fashioned in many ways—which is what makes it such a reassuring pleasure to read.

Wall Street Journal

This fast-moving tale will delight Buchan fans. Gripping and fun; it will encourage devotees to return to Buchan and newcomers to seek him out.

Country Life Magazine

Fans of John Buchan will be wooed by this new adventure. Harris’s new World War II story picks up the threads of Buchan's last novel, Sick Heart River, and cleverly weaves them into this thrilling tale.

The Sunday Post (Scotland)

Harris does a fine job integrating characters from Buchan’s works, imagining the way they might have aged and grown. The plotline is as one would imagine the next Hannay story might have been, had Buchan written it. Harris knows his history, and he knows his Buchan. This is a fine, fast, exciting read. Recommended.

Historical Novels Review

A loving tribute to Buchan and thoroughly good fun.

Allan Massie

Riveting. Daring measures and hairbreadth escapes are the rule in this first-person chronicle. The can-do spirit of Mr. Harris’s book evokes a time when it seemed the fate of the world might hinge on the acts of a handful of brave souls. The Thirty-One Kings is old-fashioned in many ways—which is what makes it such a reassuring pleasure to read.

Wall Street Journal