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"Witty, worldly, learned, and richly redolent of the obscurer byways of the old City, London Bridges is an intellectual feast" Literary Review

Jane Stevenson's collection of four novellas, Several Deceptions, was one of the critical successes of 1999 - 'refreshingly, unapologedcally erudite, said The Observer; the Times Literary Supplement,, declared it "An enjoyable display of deadly wit given with a relaxed literary confidence . . . here is a gossipy, smart, critical, intellectual, high spirited and literate voice'.

In London Bridges, her first novel, Stevenson puts these same qualities -erudition, wit, charm and magnetic storytelling - to work to evoke the mood and sheer enjoyability of classic English detective fiction.

The setting is contemporary London, the cast of characters huge, the plot extremely involved. A young lawyer comes across a treasure lost in the Blitz, and is tempted into a series of crimes which end eventually in murder. Meanwhile, a very contemporary cast of characters assembles to confound him. The denouement of the plot occurs in the Cotswolds, and involves Greek monks, New Age bikers and the source of the Thames, but before we get there, there is humour, satire, social observation, and occasional moments of pathos.

"A compelling eccentric, erudite tale of contemporary and historical detection...a genuine and original talent" The Times