This compilation of stories brings the reader directly into the atmosphere of the earliest of gentlemen's clubs as they were after the First World War. The Runagates Club is peopled by various main characters from John Buchan's other novels. The premise of this collection is that, once a month, a member of the Club (a 1930s London dining club for gentlemen) takes his turn to entertain the company with a narrative. These twelve compact tales run the gamut of what John Buchan is good at writing: psychological intrigue, fleet-footed escapes, as well as brushes with the terrifying power of pagan ritual, no longer hoary with age. Colored by military experience and wide-ranging travel descriptions, these tales vividly evoke locations and time settings very distant from the present. The stories which skirt the supernatural are made more striking by the crisp, commonsense language used to describe scenes and events reeking of unnatural power. The premises of some of these stories are based on opinions of race and character as inherited stereotypes, which mix oddly with today's philosophies of equality and political correctness. At the same time, these premises give these stories a backdrop of moral certainty against which Buchan paints colorful and fantastic adventures. These short and exciting episodes provide a rich escape into hair-raising events described in the dimly-lit comfort of intelligent companionship. For those readers familiar with Buchan's longer novels, this work provides an extra episode in the lives of the various heroes, which is satisfying to those who have become attached to the likes of Sandy Arbuthnot, Lord Lamancha, and Lord Burminster.
Christine Drews February 2001
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