The Sword-Edged Blonde

He reached for something inside his jacket. Instantly my sword came out and at his throat again. "Slow, buddy," I warned. "No hurry now."
"Okay, okay," he said easily. With two fingers, he withdrew a tightly rolled parchment, sealed with wax. "I'm just the messenger."
I recognized the seal, and blood pounded in my ears as I broke it...The message was short and, like all the best messages, left the reader with only one course of action. I rolled it up and stuck it in my bags.
"I ought to say no," I told the young solider... I gestured towards the moonlit road ahead. "Lead on, then, Mr. Anders."
"Sir Michael", he corrected with another grin. "But you can call me Mike."

And so Baron Edward LaCrosse of Arentia is on the case. His old pal Phil, show more that's King Philip actually, needs his help in the worst way and he can't say no. Maybe it's because Eddie feels guilty about how he left things when Phil's sister was killed. Maybe it's because the new Queen looks vaguely familiar to him. Eddie knows deep down that something's not right in the kingdom. No amount of gold is going to cover his expenses this time, this case is going to require some of his own blood.

Last month, fellow LTer majkia wrote "Private dick with sword. How can that go wrong!" I was instantly intrigued. Noir mixed with fantasy, would that work? It does! It's kings and castles meets gangsters and dames. It's all that you love about both genres, together. Bledsoe really has something here. I could not tear myself away, it was a one-sitting-read. Can't wait 'til the next. show less

~3.5.
Eddie LaCrosse has been on the run from his past for years, slumming it in backwater towns and trying--mainly unsuccessfully--to make a reasonably ethical living as a private detective and sword for hire. However, when an old friend, King Phil, seeks him out, Eddie travels back to his old kingdom to help. Phil is certainly in need of assistance: his beautiful wife Rhiannon has been accused of murdering their young son, and as she was caught literally red-handed, there seems little doubt of her guilt. Yet matters are made even more complex when Eddie thinks he recognizes Rhiannon and she maintains ignorance due to a mysterious amnesia. Eddie straps on his sword--an old Fireblade Warrior three-footer--and sets out on a quest to show more uncover Rhiannon's past in the hope of saving her future.

The Sword-Edged Blonde is fun and light, a noir pastiche set in a Celtic-mythology-based alternate world. My favourite aspect of it was the mythology it invoked: the basic story is a retelling and enhancement of one of the branches of Y Mabinogi from Welsh mythology. It's actually one of my favourite stories: the tale of Pwyll (which means "thought"), his wife Rhiannon, and her apparent murder of their baby son (named Pryderi, which means "worry.") It's a great story to retrofit into a comic mystery, as the original story is bizarre, funny, and chock-filled with puns. (Yes, Pryderi is intended to be "worry son of thought.") I have a special fondness for the oft-overlooked Welsh mythology and therefore loved Bledsoe's retake on the classic tale. I think I gave it an extra point in my rating solely because of its allusions to Y Mabinogi, because otherwise, I have rather mixed emotions about the story. The plot is very light; not only does it fail to invoke any complex or interesting themes, but it actually must be read at the farce level: the sheer number of casual deaths, as well as certain other aspects, are extremely troubling if considered more seriously. For example, there is a scene in which Eddie meets up with a pair of inbred hicks; the scene is so unrelated to the remainder of the plot that I can only imagine it was intended as rather gory comic relief.hover for spoiler I think much of the humour is supposed to be derived from stereotypes and situations involving "rednecks," gays, dwarves, etc, and it irritated rather than amused me. I also had some issues with the flow of the plot itself, especially the ending, which seemed to me to be an inexpertly-tacked-on afterthought. hover for spoiler

Evaluating the story at a very light, superficial level, however, there were other aspects I appreciated. I liked Eddie himself; I thought he had an entertaining voice and an interesting backstory. I read a lot of books in this genre, so I'm automatically predisposed to like any detective who isn't tall, dark, and ruggedly handsome; Eddie's rotund form and lack of youth made for a pleasing change. The medieval world combined with noir pastiche was very reminiscent of Glen Cook's Garrett, PI series. The major differences I saw were in tone (I think this was intended to be even more of a lighthearted farce than the Garrett books) and Bledsoe's incorporation of various myths into his story. I very much enjoyed the allusions to various legends; for example, one of the characters is identified by a specially-shaped birthmark on her thigh, which to me invoked the various Greek myths in which gods disguised as humans were marked in the same fashion. (I have no idea why the Greeks had such a fascination with birthmarks on thighs, but it comes up in more than one story.) Bledsoe also invokes the myths of Circe and Epona, and melds these various legends into an interesting and coherent whole. Although the story is not particularly groundbreaking and the story and characters rather superficial, The Sword-Edged Blonde makes for a fast and funny read. If you share my fondness for the generally unappreciated Welsh myths, you're sure to enjoy this entertaining retelling of the Pryderi story.

Dda iawn, neu efallai eithaf da, dw i ddim yn siwr. show less

Loved this book – quite unexpectedly. Its cover art is atrocious, probably the worst I’ve ever seen in fantasy fiction, and I’d never have picked it up if not for Mike’s review here on GR.
The story is a blend of an old-fashioned mystery and a swashbuckling sword and sorcery adventure. And the hero is the one to match: a private detective Eddie LaCrosse, gruff, middle aged and slightly overweight, who lives in a vaguely medieval fantasy town. If you transplanted Sam Spade into a fantasy tale – he would be Eddie. Or would he? Like in any good mystery, nothing and nobody is as it seems in this engrossing novel.
As any PI story, it starts with a case: a random princess has gone missing. In the process of his investigation, Eddie show more is sucked back into his tragic youth, the events so painful he doesn’t want to remember them. But he has no choice. His childhood friend asked for his help, and Eddie must dig deep into his troubled past to find the solution to his pal’s plight.
The story moves very fast, not letting the reader catch his breath. The clues pile up, but Eddie must, however reluctantly, retrace his steps into the years long gone to discover the truth.
The novel is tightly focused, written in one consistent POV – Eddie’s. The reader is always aware of the protagonist’s inner thoughts, but sometimes the author intentionally throws a red herring into the reader’s path, concealing some clues and making us guess. That is occasionally irritating. Other than this one flaw, I can’t complain.
The narrative is solid, the dialog alive, and the descriptions vivid. I can see everything through Eddie’s eyes: the squalor of the cities, the gorgeous mountains, the beautiful women, the dirty urchins. Everything is in the details, as always. For example: our unwilling hero doesn’t like horses, empathically and loudly. As horses are the main transportation unit in many a fantasy tale, this little quirk must be the first in my fantasy reading. With a pinch of humor tossed into the mix, this largely unknown book has become one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in a while.
I’ll definitely read another book of this author. show less

3.5 stars.

So, when I was asked to make the "member's selection" for April 2012 in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Group, I decided that I wanted to find something different from the standard fare. Something that was accessible as well, and it would be nice if it was actually good.

I had recently read [b:The Hum and the Shiver|10942400|The Hum and the Shiver|Alex Bledsoe|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317794029s/10942400.jpg|15859687] by the author and found it to be an excellent book. It hit all the requirements I was looking for, actually. It had been recommended to me by Ala, another member of the above mentioned group. So that's where I narrowed my search. I could have easily picked TH&TS, and it would have been fine, but I wanted to read show more another cool new book.

So I found this one, Bledsoe's first novel and the first in his Eddie LaCrosse series. I read the blurb and thought it might work. A quick, light read that had shades of Jim Butcher and the Urban Fantasy craze, as well as the more traditional fantasy fare.

What I got was different than expected. It fit all those things, but was something else. It was almost like Elmore Leonard had decided to write a fantasy story. A pure noir driven mystery with a gun sword for hire with lots of sexy women thrown into the action. Wow. Very cool. With all the twists and turns I'd expect from such a marriage.

So is born, Sword Noir. And it's a pretty fun ride. show less

from my blog at https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/the-sword-edged-blonde-by-alex-bledso...

Well, that was a surprise.



by Justin Sweet

(Cover) (title) = Pass. Except that too many book-world friends read and enjoyed it, so I thought it was worth a try. Still, I cringed: this is a cover made for the e-reader. You know, the picture you don’t want any of your friends to see, because then they’d ask the obvious, and you’d have to explain how the blonde woman with the large bosom and missing legs was witnessing three mysterious men with swords hover around her (obvious much?) were clearly debating which one of them was going to cut off their own legs so that the mad doctor could suture them to her knees instead.

That’s my show more interpretation, at least.

The cover might have put me in a bad place, because I think around chapter two, I wondered if I was even in the mood to finish. It turns out, the first three chapters are somewhat of a blind, a prelude to the character of Eddie and his cases. Thankfully, the real story takes off after Eddie completes the current commission.

A mix of noir and fantasy, I feel like Bledscoe is still finding his stride, a sort of Terry Pratchett style of noir. Initially, plot, characters, dialogue–all written straight noir trope, plopped down into a generic but well-described fantasy setting. Characters named “Eddie,” “Kenny,” “Rachel,” and “Mike Anders,” talking about military school, an architect girlfriend–it’s more than a bit disconcerting after coming from writers who craft fantasy worlds like travel guides. At least, I assumed it was a tongue-in-cheek style until we start digging into Eddie’s emotional history. As Eddie tracks down the solution to a grisly murder, he winds through his own troubled history.

As an aside: must Bledscoe have named towns Neceda (real name: Necedah), Muscodia (real name: Muscoda) and Boscobel (real name: Boscobel)? These are real places in Wisconsin, and are infinitely distracting to the one twentieth of the U.S. population that lives there. The first two likely reflect corrupted Native American place names, so they don’t particularly set well with the Eddies and Mikes of the naming world. But hey–I guess I can admire the commitment to copying from the modern world.

What saved it for me was the emotional core of the story, the gooey center of self discovery and a sort of wistful romance. There’s also an element of mythology which I rather enjoyed but is incompletely explained for those who like a lot of detail. Taking pains to not spoil, I’ll note that the mythology component explained a lot of me that made potentially problematic females characterization and action more acceptable. The villain was ominous and a decent foil.

When I picked this one up from the library, I thought I was reading a fantasy. It turned into a noir mystery, and then evolved into a hero’s quest for redemption and discovery. And not a legless woman in the bunch. Just goes to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover. show less

The Sword-Edged Blonde does something new and interesting - it merges two genres I love - fantasy and mystery - and spins them together in a highly fun and unique way. With a main character like investigator Eddie LaCrosse, who manages to inject a bit of wry, world-weary humor into a dark toned and murder-filled novel, there's a lot to enjoy in this first of a newish series. Both the fantasy aspects and the 'whodunit' more than hold up under the pressure of three hundred pages of revenge, fallen Goddess, and surprise revelations. Neatly and engrossingly told, this debut novel is hard to put down as the reader and Eddie race to figure out what happened to both Prince Pridiri and Epona Gray.

I'm a big fan of the way Alex Bledsoe writes show more about this alternate but familiar world, filled with 'sword jockeys', exiled nobility, and magic. Though I had never heard of him before Audra's wonderful review of this exact book, he steadily impressed me with his original storytelling ability and talent for crafting concrete, realistic, and flawed characters. Bledsoe also has an adept way of setting the scene - from the first sentence of the novel ("Spring came down hard that year. And I do mean hard, like the fist of some drunken pike poker with too much fury and not enough ale, whose wife just left him for some wandering minstrel and whose commanding officer absconded with his pay."), the voice of protagonist Eddie is uniquely his own and captivating, as is the imagined world he lives in. Consider me a fan of this author just after this first novel - I can only hope the rest of this semi-medieval fantasy series lives up to the standard of The Sword-Edged Blonde.

Main character Eddie is my favorite part of this slightly supernatural mix of mystery and fantasy. He's presented as a wholly flawed man with a dark and mysterious past all his own. Though the focus of the novel is more on unraveling the twisty web of political intrigue and revenge around Arentia's royal family, the tidbits that sneak out about Eddie's personal history added ever more depth to the hard-bitten and snarky man. I also loved his sense of humor from the outset. ("Okay. I'd found a clue. But it told me nothing. Actually, it took away some certainties, so it was more of an anti-clue. Eddie LaCrosse, reverse investigator." and "Always pay the insurance" - Eddie's version of the double tap.) If hardboiled, noir detective types are something you enjoy reading about, don't let the slight fantastical elements of The Sword-Edged Blonde scare you away. Lies, vendettas, secrets, twists, turns, and murder - all are part and parcel in this able and talented swordsman's daily excursions.

I vastly enjoyed the world Bledsoe has crafted. With obvious nods to the genres he melds so well, there is a bit of exposition to get through in the first hundred or so pages before the story really takes off. I'm not one to nitpick fantasy exposition as long as it's done as well as it is here. It/the flashbacks to Eddie's former life didn't choke up the storyline, but managed to actually add to the complete feel of the story/world created. I loved the infusion of Celtic and Welsh mythologies - fantasy as a genre tends to stick to mining the same ground for inspiration of gods and goddesses, and it's always refreshing to read a new take on the same old same old. The mystery element gets a bit muddled when the odd, remote character of Epona is introduced, but Bledsoe happily manages to clear it up with ease soon after.

I do have a few caveats, despite how thoroughly I got sucked into Eddie's story and world. I got a bit tired of how many women were blonde and attractive in this novel - there were so many mentioned that I lost count. There are many token women characters and none of them are characterized to the same degree as Eddie - which bothered me more and more as the trend continued throughout the novel. I also have slight issues with just who the woman appearing to Eddie at the end is, because it can come across a bit like women are replaceable versions of one another in this world. It's a minor complaint, but I wasn't happy with how that particular plotline was executed.

The Sword -Edged Blonde boasts a well-crafted mystery, a likeable if gruff and imperfect lead, a solid plot, and several truly unexpected twists and revelations. While the females of this world could do with some time and work, it is main character Eddie who commands attention and keeps the fun coming. There's tons more good than bad to be found in this first novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience with The Sword-Edged Blonde. It's a "tongue in cheek" look at sword noir, and it works well across the board; inventive, fun, if superficial. I am a fan, and upon finishing, I was eager and excited to see what this author has cooked up for the second novel in the series, Burn Me Deadly. show less

This genre-melding fantasy novel has it all: gruff PI lead, whitewashed mock-medieval setting, possibly supernatural influences, political intrigue, PG-13 level attention to breasts, and lots of wry snark. I loved every page.

Deep this is not, but fun, it is. Set in a series of fantasy kingdoms, all ambigu-medieval in feel (swords, horses, pre-gunpowder weapons, mercantile economy, kings), the novel follows Eddie LaCrosse, a former mercenary turned independent contractor, who is asked to investigate a scandalous murder mystery in his home kingdom. The case brings back some of the most painful memories of his past, and unsurprisingly, those fraught events still impact the present.

The mystery isn't a mystery meant to be solved by the show more reader; we just trail along with Eddie, which is fine by me (I never like to solve the mystery anyway). There's a fair amount of flashback and back story to set up Eddie and his world, which I liked it, but it made for a rather introspective action thriller. The characters aren't enormously deep but I don't come for that in books like this; Bledsoe uses stock shorthand from the PI and noir genre which is amusing and fun when paired with medieval fantasy shorthand. The plot has everything from open nods to Chandler (a character named Canino) as well as literal translations of Welsh/Celtic myth (with Epona/Rhiannon). There's plenty of bodies, the women are always admiring of our hero, and breaks and coincidences help the story along as needed.

The irreverently snarky tone is what I loved about this book; it was like The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. meets A Knight's Tale (minus the anachronistic soundtrack). The very obvious nod to Hammett and Chandler is seen right in the novel's opening, and I loved the usual merging of genres. If you're not for tongue-in-cheek, mixed genre homages, this probably isn't your book. (My wife didn't get past five pages and she's still huffy about this one. Women.) But I liked this book for what it was -- breezy, brazen, banter-y -- and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. show less