| HANNAY | Protagonist and narrator of John Buchan's 1915 novel The 39 Steps (6) |
| STEPS | Buchan's 1915 novel has 39 of them (5) |
| HOLDEN | Protagonist and narrator of the 1951 J. D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye (6,9) |
| CAULFIELD | Protagonist and narrator of the 1951 J. D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye (6,9) |
| BUCHAN | John ___, author of 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps (6) |
| HUCKLEBERRYFINN | Protagonist and narrator of the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
| FINN | Surname of the protagonist and narrator of an 1884 Mark Twain novel (4) |
| EVERDEEN | Katniss, main protagonist and narrator of The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (8) |
| PIP | Nickname of Philip Pirrip, protagonist and narrator of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (3) |
| LUPITA | Nyong'o who played the protagonist (and antagonist) in Us |
| MANTLE | Under the crust, Buchan's was green (6) |
| EMILES | "South Pacific" protagonist and namesakes |
| THIRTYNINESTEPS | The first of John Buchan's novels to feature Richard Hannay, 'The -' (6-4,5) |
| UNSEEN | Like puppeteers and narrators, often |
| RYDER | Charles -; protagonist and narrator in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (5) |
| HAWKINS | Jim -; protagonist and narrator in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (7) |
| ERICTHOMPSON | Script-writer and narrator of The Magic Roundabout based on the original French visuals (4,8) |
| STEP | One of John Buchan's thirty-nine? (4) |
| JOHNBUCHAN | Author of 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps (4,6) |
| THIRTYNINE | Number of steps in John Buchan's WWI spy thriller (6-4) |
