Enjoyable, fast read, fun characters facing real problems, lively pace, what’s not to like in a book? Add to that a nod to the Greek stories of Medea, Tantalus, Thyestes and even Attila the Hun’s wife and the fairy tale of the Seven Swans, and you have a winner. The Sword-Edged Blonde: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel is the first book in a series of fantasy/private eye novels by Alex Bledsoe.
Synopsis
The Sword-Edged Blonde: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel starts with Eddie LaCrosse getting hired to find and retrieve a princess who supposedly ran away to experience life (aka, lust), but who in fact was running to her real father to escape her supposed father, the king. It was complicated and had nothing to do with the rest of the story except it put Eddie in the way to respond to his oldest friend, King Phil’s, request for help.
King Phil married a mystery woman, the blonde in the title, a few years back, had a child with her, but the queen was found locked in the baby’s nursery with a pot of boiling human-looking parts and strange symbols on the floor.
I knew this story. I couldn’t recall where I read about a queen accused of murdering her own child other than the Greek myths of Medea and Tantalus, and the Seven Swans fairy story about the queen falsely accused of killing her child, but it is sure-fire horrible crime to kick off the investigation.
Eddie quickly discovers that the “baby” in the pot who was buried in the royal tombs as the prince is actually a monkey. Eddie needs everyone to think the queen is guilty so he can track down the real villain. Eventually he retraces his steps from a long-ago journey, tracks down the queen’s arch enemy and manages a happy ending.
The plot moves quickly and the fantasy is believable. I didn’t feel trapped in a never-ending saga or tedious world building, both of which are all too common in first books in fantasy series.
Characters
Eddie was great and I enjoyed the other minor characters like King Phil and the queen Rhiannon/maybe-goddess Epona and Eddie’s traveling companions. Even the villains were well done, believable people.
Bledsoe created an interesting, three-dimensional person, threw him into a crazy situation and let him go. We learned a lot about Eddie by his occasional reminiscences and by watching him be the clever gumshoe.
Setting, Backstory and Humor
Eddie’s world is a blend of today and imagination. His Kingdom of Arentia is believable as are some of the other places. Bledsoe basically took our world but with a dose of magic, realistic politics and swords and made it a believable backdrop. That proved a worthy shortcut because we didn’t have to wade through world building and explanations of the current politics and magical systems. Instead it was presented matter of fact, as Eddie’s world.
I really liked the fact Bledsoe used real names for people and short, easy names for places. King Phil, Eddie, Janet, so much better than the usual made-up, grandiose names with strange consonants or apostrophes. It helped make the backstory fun and easy to follow.
Eddie has a complicated history of his own. Originally heir to the LaCrosse barony and Crown Prince Phil’s best friend and planned-to-be husband to Princess Janet, he made a stupid mistake that cost Princess Janet her life and Eddie his self-respect. He eventually worked it out but took the final step only near the end of this novel when he had to compare what he had done with what the villains did.
I didn’t quite follow why Eddie chose to leave Arentia at the end and go back to being a sword jockey (aka, fighter/PI/whatever-else-you-need-and-can-pay-for), except it set up future novels with the same character. Of course you can’t go home again exactly, but you can forgive yourself and pick up responsibilities from your family and king. Instead Eddie makes his own responsibilities.
The book has some humorous scenes and dialogue that makes you smile, but it’s not a comic. It reminded me a lot of the Garrett novels by Glen Cook, great dialogue, interesting setting, realistic and likable characters.
Overall
I enjoyed this so much I requested Blensoe’s latest, He Drank, and Saw the Spider: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel and stayed up a little late to finish in one evening. It too was pretty good, but I will take a break for a while before reading the others in the series.
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