You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
Oh, boy, did I enjoy reading this book! Eddie LaCrosse is a detective who works in a fantasy world with a lot of place names that sound suspiciously like Wisconsin communities. There is a great blend of action, plot, and humor. I am looking forward to reading more of Bledsoe's books.
Sword Jockey Eddie LaCrosse is hired to find his old buddy's missing kid. And man, can Eddie get himself into a mess without hardly trying...
3.5 stars.
Everyone's been describing it as a noir PI novel mixed with swords and horses. And it was--with horses in trees, a king named Phil, sordid secrets and some moments of real humor.
And some touching scenes and some weird moments.
Everyone's been describing it as a noir PI novel mixed with swords and horses. And it was--with horses in trees, a king named Phil, sordid secrets and some moments of real humor.
And some touching scenes and some weird moments.
Read it a long time ago. Think I liked it but can’t remember.
In the kingdom of Arentia the reigning Queen has just been charged with murdering her son (and royal heir) in a particularly brutal way. King Phillip doesn't want to believe that his wife is capable of such violence but is very low on options. Queen Rhiannon was found in a locked room surrounded by blood and bones after all. The king can only think of one person he trusts enough to look into this horrific crime, his old friend Eddie LaCrosse. Eddie has spent years running from a painful past and now, reluctantly, heads back to the last place he wants to be to help out his friend.
What follows is a reasonably interesting locked-room mystery. Most places will describe this story as a: " hardboiled noir in a fantasy world". While that is pretty close to what it is, i felt that it wasn't as hardboiled as I was led to believe. Oh sure a lot of terrible things happen in this book and the backstory for our main character Eddie is pretty dark the horrors were really low key. Perhaps I'm just so used to everything that happens because of my reading habits. It did read very "realistic" and there was all the good things I like about Hardboiled detective fiction such as corrupt officials and detectives with very gray moralities.
That's not to say i didn't like it. Quite the opposite actually. I felt that the story set up the vaguely medieval fantasy setting well and the characters were all pretty well drawn. The mystery held my interest and had some good twists in there that surprised me. It also got pretty mystical and magical which did surprise me, as I wasn't informed ahead of time that the book contained such things. I liked it though! It's good to be surprised once in a while, there's nothing worse than being bored by a book.
The characters are all pretty well drawn. Eddie LaCrosse, our main character, is a little flat in this first book. He is hard-edged and cynical....but only mostly in his own head. He truly cares about others and works hard to protect them and fight for the truth. His angsty back story is dark but thankfully doesn't consume the whole story or make his too depressing to read about.
The women in this story.....are less well drawn. I felt they were mostly one-dimensional and mostly there to be tragic or sexy or tragically sexy. There are some exceptions, but not very many. My hope is that in future stories that this gets better.
Overall, I'd recommend these stories to read. They won't set the world on fire with a mind blowing tale, but they are really fun fast reads. The main character is interesting with an interesting backstory that doesn't drag down the plot and the mystery is interesting with some good twists.
What follows is a reasonably interesting locked-room mystery. Most places will describe this story as a: " hardboiled noir in a fantasy world". While that is pretty close to what it is, i felt that it wasn't as hardboiled as I was led to believe. Oh sure a lot of terrible things happen in this book and the backstory for our main character Eddie is pretty dark the horrors were really low key. Perhaps I'm just so used to everything that happens because of my reading habits. It did read very "realistic" and there was all the good things I like about Hardboiled detective fiction such as corrupt officials and detectives with very gray moralities.
That's not to say i didn't like it. Quite the opposite actually. I felt that the story set up the vaguely medieval fantasy setting well and the characters were all pretty well drawn. The mystery held my interest and had some good twists in there that surprised me. It also got pretty mystical and magical which did surprise me, as I wasn't informed ahead of time that the book contained such things. I liked it though! It's good to be surprised once in a while, there's nothing worse than being bored by a book.
The characters are all pretty well drawn. Eddie LaCrosse, our main character, is a little flat in this first book. He is hard-edged and cynical....but only mostly in his own head. He truly cares about others and works hard to protect them and fight for the truth. His angsty back story is dark but thankfully doesn't consume the whole story or make his too depressing to read about.
The women in this story.....are less well drawn. I felt they were mostly one-dimensional and mostly there to be tragic or sexy or tragically sexy. There are some exceptions, but not very many. My hope is that in future stories that this gets better.
Overall, I'd recommend these stories to read. They won't set the world on fire with a mind blowing tale, but they are really fun fast reads. The main character is interesting with an interesting backstory that doesn't drag down the plot and the mystery is interesting with some good twists.
I actually enjoyed this book. It was a quick easy read and really kept me guessing. I am actually looking forward to the rest of the series.
This is an odd mash-up of Hard-boiled Detective fiction and classic sword & sorcery Fantasy, which I suppose was inevitable. We’ve already had hundreds of versions combining Urban Fantasy and Mystery, Superhero and Mystery, and Contemporary Fantasy and Mystery, so it stands to reason something like this would inevitably come into being. Even if no one wrote it, I’d think it would arise from spontaneous generation.
This employs pretty much every trope of the Hard-Boiled Detective story: the beautiful dame who is really a femme fatale, the hard-drinking, world-weary detective with a dark secret, the office above a bar, getting clonked on the head and waking tied to a bed, double-crosses, etc. Except it’s set in a magical medieval world. Bledsoe has basically crossed out “revolver” and “Pontiac” and written in “dagger” and “horse”.
And it actually kinda works, simply because it’s so silly. The mystery itself is no great shakes. I was never trying to guess the outcome because of the odd mix of genres, but I’m not sure I would have been able to, given the clues.
Ultimately I felt it was weird but okay. The gravelly-voiced narration was serviceable, and apt, given the Sam Spade-ness of it all.
This employs pretty much every trope of the Hard-Boiled Detective story: the beautiful dame who is really a femme fatale, the hard-drinking, world-weary detective with a dark secret, the office above a bar, getting clonked on the head and waking tied to a bed, double-crosses, etc. Except it’s set in a magical medieval world. Bledsoe has basically crossed out “revolver” and “Pontiac” and written in “dagger” and “horse”.
And it actually kinda works, simply because it’s so silly. The mystery itself is no great shakes. I was never trying to guess the outcome because of the odd mix of genres, but I’m not sure I would have been able to, given the clues.
Ultimately I felt it was weird but okay. The gravelly-voiced narration was serviceable, and apt, given the Sam Spade-ness of it all.
I originally started reading this as something light to read in between heavy, dark, deep books. But then I found that I just couldn't put it down and had to keep going til it was over.
A brilliant blend of medieval fantasy and noir detective this book really hit the right marks for me. The witty, self-deprecating, flawed and human detective/swordsman was such a great main character I easily fell behind him. The main story, while predictable, was entertaining and gripping the whole way though.
Another review I read mentioned inconsistencies, like a name-tag on a waitress, but they weren't mistakes but intentional anachronisms that really gave this book a sense of the familiar mixed with fantasy. These little humourous details that shouldn't exist in the setting of the world but work perfectly. Reminds me a lot of Douglas Adams more subtle humour. The best humour is most often that which isn't pushed into the audiences face.
A great book I must now get my hands on the sequel.
A brilliant blend of medieval fantasy and noir detective this book really hit the right marks for me. The witty, self-deprecating, flawed and human detective/swordsman was such a great main character I easily fell behind him. The main story, while predictable, was entertaining and gripping the whole way though.
Another review I read mentioned inconsistencies, like a name-tag on a waitress, but they weren't mistakes but intentional anachronisms that really gave this book a sense of the familiar mixed with fantasy. These little humourous details that shouldn't exist in the setting of the world but work perfectly. Reminds me a lot of Douglas Adams more subtle humour. The best humour is most often that which isn't pushed into the audiences face.
A great book I must now get my hands on the sequel.
I've been putting off reading this for a while and I wish I hadn't because it turned out to be a rather lovely adventure. This book is all about the storyline, it had enough interest and suspense to keep me reading and guessing. As others have mentioned it is a combo of the fantasy and mystery genres.
5 star - Perfect
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish
4 star - i would recommend
3 star - good
2 star - struggled to complete
1 star - could not finish