The Sword-Edged Blonde: An Eddie LaCrosse Novel

I picked up Alex Bledsoe's The Sword-Edged Blonde because it had just been released on audiobook and I was looking for something short, different, and fun. The Sword-Edged Blonde was exactly what I needed. Eddie LaCrosse used to be a rich kid, but a tragic event drove him away from his past life and now he's a loner. He works as a detective, and he's really good at it. So, his old best friend, King Phil, hires him to solve a murder. Eddie soon realizes that the mystery is somehow tied up with his own past, so he finds himself confronting his most unpleasant memories as he tries to solve the strange case. Eddie LaCrosse makes a great hero. He's a nobleman's son, so he's educated and has manners, he worked as a mercenary after he ran away from home, so he's an accomplished fighter, and now he's an aging rough-edged noir-style detective who doesn't take crap from anyone. But as the mystery and his past unfold, we find out that he's certainly not invulnerable. The setting of The Sword-Edged Blonde was unusual. The lack of electricity, cars, and guns suggests an early time, but the character names (Janet, Stephanie, Kathy) seem out of place, as do words like "debutante" and model names for swords (The Edgemaster Series 3). This type of quirkiness is fine with me -- I needed a break from the usual medieval-style fantasy. Mr. Bledsoe's writing style was refreshing and had just the right feel for a noir detective story. It was clear and vivid and the dialogue sounded perfectly realistic -- I was impressed with this caliber of writing coming from a new novelist (though, Mr Bledsoe has previously published dozens of short stories). The plot of The Sword-Edged Blonde was fast and never lagged. Past and present were intermingled effectively. There were a few too many coincidences for my taste (it only mollified me slightly that Eddie acknowledged some of them as coincidences), and there were a couple of times when Eddie should have asked a certain question or done something a bit more logical and less dangerous (but that wouldn't have been as exciting). The story was compelling enough that I'm forgiving Mr. Bledsoe for these things, but I'm knocking off half a star. : ) I listened to The Sword-Edged Blonde on audiobook. The reader, Stefan Rudnicki was excellent. He has just the right voice for Eddie LaCrosse -- strong and rough, yet sensitive at just the right times. I'm certain that he added to my enjoyment of this story. I'll be keeping my eyes open for more Stefan Rudnicki narrations. I will definitely be picking up the next Eddie LaCrosse novel and I am hopeful that we'll be hearing a lot more from this author. Alex Bledsoe is a natural storyteller.

Eddie LaCrosse is your typical hard-boiled detective, tough-talking, smart, somewhat world-weary and cynical, but his heart is in the right place. Instead of packing heat, he's toting a sword. His office is over a tavern and he's just got a job to find a runaway daughter of a local king. That case is quickly solved and even more quickly hijacked by a more pressing call for Eddie's services. An old friend, the king of a neighboring realm, needs Eddie to help clear the Queen's name after she's been found bloody and unconscious by the remains of her child. Aside from the hook of having a sword-jockey for a PI-type protagonist, the tale is otherwise a nice, solid fantasy with a mystery plot. More Sword than Sorcery, though: there are mages about, but Eddie's case involves a mysterious Goddess and a curse, a twisted criminal king-pin and murder and revenge. The style remains that of an old-fashioned film-noir mystery. Eddie plays it straight. He's got a past he needs to deal with as he returns to his old haunts. There are some well-handled flash-backs integrated into the present, and lots of action, drama, questionable women and plenty of bad guys to fight, making for quite a good read.

I love mystery novels. I love fantasy novels. But my favorite genre is the combination of the two, and those are hard to come by. Even more difficult to find is a well-written fantasy/mystery hybrid that tells a good story. If you're looking for that sort of thing, voila!: you've found it! I work in a library and I recommended this book to several mystery readers...the kind who don't normally read fantasy novels. So far, everyone I've recommended this to has loved it. So here's what I told them: Read this book. Think of it as a Sam Spade/L.A. noir type detective, but with a sword instead of a gun, with a horse instead of a car, with an office over a tavern instead of an office over a bar. Read this book! You won't regret it.

The Sword-Edged Blonde came in a box of many Nightshade books. For authors I'm not familiar with, I rely on interesting covers and good jacket descriptions. After checking out the horrible cover (the twins on the reclining maiden put me right off), and wincing over the book's title, I read the recommendations on the back cover. All the right keywords were there to entice me: sword, action, detective, noir, mystery, comedy. I started reading, and quickly decided Bledsoe's novel was definitely not a comedy. Although there are wry touches, the solid storytelling, interesting characters, and subtle unfolding of main character Eddie LaCrosse's world kept me immersed in the story from page one until the end. There's mystery, romance, tragedy, revenge, poor decisions, sacrifice and consolation. In short, a perfectly seasoned story regardless of genre. I've seen this novel likened to the stories by Leiber, and Glen Cook. A touch of Simon R Green came to mind as well. Bledsoe has his own voice --the fantasy and magic are there, the mystery is there, but what's most important is the characters that inhabit his world. The story in brief: Sword jockey and private investigator Eddie LaCrosse is summoned back to his childhood home to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the current queen, who has been accused of murdering her own child. The investigation takes him over roads that lead to terrible events in his own past.

I read this book in a single sitting. The fantasy is lightly done. The(sword and knife) fighting is believable. The story has enough twists and turns for any detective novel. I don't want to give anything away. Read the novel. It's a suberb blending of two genres with great characters.