John Macnab is a 1925 novel by John Buchan (author of The Thirty-Nine Steps). It's the second book in the Edward Leithen series.
Sir Edward Leithen is bored with life in general. So are his friends, John Palliser-Yeates and Charles, Earl of Lamancha. A story told by a mutual friend gives the three of them an idea: they'll stay in the Scottish Highlands, send challenges to their neighbours using the alias "John Macnab", and attempt to poach from their neighbours without being caught.
The book was adapted into a 1976 TV series. Two sequels and a retelling have been written by different authors, one of which is a crossover with The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Contains examples of:
- Accent Slip-Up: This nearly gets Sir Edward caught. He's pretending to be a tramp and speaking with a suitably lower-class accent, but when Agatha visits him he accidentally reverts to his natural Eton-educated accent. Then he has to pretend to be a former Etonian fallen on hard times.
- Character Overlap: Archie Roylance is a friend of both Charles Lamancha and Richard Hannay, having previously appeared in Mr. Standfast. Sir Edward and Hannay are members of the same club.
- Collective Identity: "John Macnab" doesn't exist. It's an alias invented by Charles and also used by John and Sir Edward.
- In Which a Trope Is Described: Two of the chapter titles follow this pattern: "Chapter 1: In Which Three Gentlemen Confess Their Ennui", and "Chapter 10: In Which Crime is Added to Crime".
- Non Standard Prescription: The book opens with a doctor suggesting that Sir Edward "steal a horse in some part of the world where a horse-thief is usually hanged" as a cure for his boredom. The conversation when he mentions this to some friends leads to the actual plot of the story.
- Protagonist Title: Played with. John Macnab doesn't exist, but the alias is used by all three of the protagonists.
- Rich Boredom: All three of the protagonists are suffering from it in the first chapter. Sir Edward describes it as going on strike against their privileges.
- Roguish Poacher: The three protagonists collectively become this as a means of alleviating boredom; they send letters to owners or tenants of three Highland estates declaring their intention to poach a deer or a salmon from their land and then deliver the carcass to them without getting caught, thus setting up the main plot.
- "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The book ends with a brief description of how the story was kept out of the papers and what happened to the main characters in the months after the events of the novel.
- You Don't Want to Catch This: Archie wraps his face up because he has a toothache. Then some unwanted visitors call and ask what's wrong with his face. He sees a way to get rid of them and claims he's developing smallpox. They leave immediately. This backfires on him, though, when they report a case of smallpox to the local medical officers.
