11 SEPTEMBER 1959, Page 27

Death and the Visiting Firemen. By H. R. F. Keating.

(Gol lanes, I 5s.) Preposterously contrived and ludicrously mannered fantasy in which Levantine travel-agent gets his by pistol-shot from an olde-worlde stage-coach which has been public- relationsly commissioned to convey from South- ampton to London the delegates from the Ameri- can Institution for the Investigation of Incen- diarism, Inc. Plot even sillier than the prose style, which is based on following every snatch of dialogue with machine-gun rattle of verbless com- ment. Meaningless routine. Heavy on the nerves. Characters incredible. Book unfinishable.