The Sword-Edged Blonde
The Eddie LaCrosse series, Book 1
Alex Bledsoe
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy/Mystery
***+ (Okay/Good)
DESCRIPTION: Eddie LaCrosse wasn't always a sword-jockey for hire out of a mudhole of a town on the outskirts of nowhere, but there's a reason he turned his back on his home and history. Now, he's content to slide past his prime years working out of his little office above a tavern, solving problems for clients at a rate of 25 gold pieces a day (plus expenses). He's on the trail of a missing princess who had reputedly fallen in with a rough crowd when Eddie is approached by a stranger with ties to his past, bearing an invitation he can't refuse.
Phil was Eddie's best friend when one was just a crown prince and the other a son of a baron - but Eddie walked away from that life after a tragedy shattered their world. Now a king, Phil reaches out to his old friend with a desperate request. His wife, Queen Rhiannon, has been accused of a gruesome crime that reeks of dark magic, one that claimed the life of their infant son. But Phil cannot believe that she did it. He begs Eddie to investigate and find out what happened, and why. Little does the sword-jockey suspect just what a dark and winding road this investigation will take him down, one that leads back to the horrors of his own past and traumas he has done his best to forget, but which fester to this day.
REVIEW: Part fantasy, part mystery, The Sword-Edged Blonde strikes a balance between two genres in a story that sometimes feels a little too throwback for its own good. Eddie LaCrosse is somewhere between a private investigator and sword for hire, haunted by a traumatic past, though he still retains enough of a moral compass to sometimes bend the parameters of his jobs in the name of greater justice. The world he inhabits is fairly standard old-school fantasy fare, with fractious kingdoms and seedy taverns and winding back alleys and the glint of blades in the night, if with no actual magic... at least, not at first. Eddie himself doesn't actually believe in magic or the land's numerous gods - or that's what he tells himself, despite some peculiar instances in his past. It hardly needs to be mentioned that, by taking the job of clearing the queen's name on behalf of his childhood friend, Eddie is forced to confront that past and face truths he'd rather not admit to himself. The investigation is at least as much about flashbacks and his own personal history as it is about following a tricky trail of clues and hunches deep into society's darkest corners, starting with the mysterious and unknown origins of Queen Rhiannon and why someone would potentially frame her for murder. Along the way (past and present), he deals with various characters of often-questionable motives and morality... and more than one woman who falls into tired stereotyped roles; even though Eddie claims to be not particularly sex-driven, he can't seem to help evaluating females by attractiveness, and they seem prone to finding him alluring. Skirting spoilers, there is a certain preternatural element that, despite Eddie's denials, becomes more prevalent and harder to dismiss as the tale unwinds, seemingly centered around Eddie in particular. After numerous setbacks and beatdowns, he finally wends his way to the culprit and unravels the mystery. For the most part, it works, though I admit to being subtly irritated by the prevalence of "male gaze", even on the supposedly strong women Eddie encounters. That, and a sense that one or two elements of the wrap-up felt a little out of nowhere (and one or two other elements felt underexplored), were just enough to hold it back in the ratings, but only barely.
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