Burn Me Deadly, by Alex Bledsoe
This is the second book detailing the adventures of Eddie LaCrosse. The first was The Sword-Edged Blonde which I enjoyed and I would say Bledsoe has topped that one here, I am looking forward to the third in the chronicles Dark Jenny but that is quite a ways away considering Burn Me Deadly was only released last week.
Eddies story told from his perspective is a blending of heroic fantasy and noir detective. I am a fan of both though not so well read in noir as Bledsoe, but I do love Dashiell Hammetts classics-The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, etc. Set in a relative backwater town in a renaissance world (I found things too well kept to be medieval fantasy) Eddie literally has a deadly mystery thrust upon him by almost running down a girl fleeing through the woods away from some sinister men.
Fast paced and edgy, Bledsoe delivers some great characters that reflect on things many of us know very well. Regardless of station and time people are the same as they ever were-hopes and fears-doubts and faith. Lots of twists and turns like the good old suspense tales this is a prime book to read first person perspective with because we find things out side by side with Eddie-perhaps even before. I don't want to give away too much about the story at all but I think several of my readers would enjoy this. Dragon worshippers come to town and are up to no good but we all know dragons don't exist right? I also got a kick out of the dragon worshippers mention of the legendary beast's of yore-true dragon fans will recognize them.
All in all it was a great read. I was hardly able to put the book down once I started. You can see Alex's blog and book trailer here.
6 comments:
I can't believe I am getting so many hits and not a single comment.
They are on my "want to buy them for the to-be-read pile" list.
I hear that. When my wife asks what I want for Christmas my only real answer is books. I read fast but the to-be-read pile is like its own rapidly expanding universe.
The Sword-Edged Blonde has definitely piqued my interest and I am seriously considering buying it. I haven't read much noir, though, I'm more familiar with film noir. Well, okay, I've seen a few Humphrey Bogart movies, let's put it that way. But I'm always eager to expand my horizons.
p.s. - if you really enjoy the noir aspect mixed with fantasy, then if you haven't, you should give some of Glen Cook's "Garrett P.I." series a try.
Paul
Glen Cook is on several of my to read piles-I'll remember the Garret P.I. series in my haunts.
Melanie-I still haven't gotten around to Rothfuss yet so I don't yet know what to gauge Bledsoe against as far as that goes but he is definetly not so graphic as Abercrombie.
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