Review: London Bridges

"London is a town for fog, mist swirling up from the river, the darkness between streetlights. But, although it is never summer in the London of the imagination, the streets are as answerable to sunlight and long evenings as those of any capital in Europe. There are hot, still, August nights in Mayfair, and on such a night, Jeanene Malone had just found out about the Greek optative."

And Jeanene Malone wonders what an up-market Greek couple are doing in Mayfair, buying powerful drugs for their Scottish uncle with a prescription from Fife...

This book has evil lawyers, good lawyers, evil Greeks, religious Greek, good Greeks, a homoerotic poem which exists only in one 6th century manuscript, a treasure lost in the London Blitz, a Scottish recluse, an Australian student and part-time pharmacist, a gay lecturer in Greek literature, Margaret Allingham's Inspector Luke's daughter all grown up, and more.

About the only thing it hasn't got is many bridges, but it does have a suitably historical excuse for its title.

The core of the book is the attempt of a trio of lawyers to defraud a Greek monastery out of a large tract of prime London property, by the simple expedient of murdering the only other person who knows about it, and the efforts of a group of friends to thwart their wickedness. Well, it would be if the friends all knew each other; there's very much a sense of different people having one piece each of a jigsaw, and you're sort of waiting for them to start talking to each other.

Very occasionally the writing is too clever ("Southall, a small Indian town"), but not often enough to be irritating; generally it's elegant and engaging. The good people are real, and the bad people are understandable (if loathsome).

For some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to put a Daily Telegraph quote comparing 'London Bridges' to the film 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'. I'm sure this was a good idea at the time, but it stopped me opening, let alone buying the book for several weeks.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Rik Shepherd - RAM

Book Review: London Bridges