25 MAY 1934, Page 34

THE ROAD TO NOWHERE -

By Maurice Walsh -

Mr. Walsh's latest book (W. and R. Chambers, 75. 6d.) is a tale of Irish tinkers, in .which the hero is a Scot, who joins them for a while, as many disappointed and embittered folk are said to join the Foreign- legion to find adventure and forgetfulness. Since The Key Above the Door, with which he achieved popularity, Mr. Walsh has returned to live in his native Ireland, and his style has become more closely knit and unsentimental. His gipsy characters are drawn with admirable economy and virility, and his narrative moves swiftly and convincingly. Several of these characters are very much more vivid than the people in his earlier books : James Coffey and his wife, Maag Carty, Shamus Og, their wild son and his little brother, Daheen, are all very much alive, while there is something mysterious and irresistible in Elspeth Trant, the Irish American heroine of the tale. This is an exciting yarn of adventure, with a grand description of a fight at an Irish horse fair, free of tiresome irrelevances and full of authentic Open-air atmosphere;