Burn Me Deadly by Alex Bledsoe

Warning: Spoilers Below

There was a much larger gap between reading the first and second books in the Eddie LaCrosse series than appears on my blog. I only recently moved over the review from the first from Goodreads, although I wrote it months ago. And the second book came around on my friend's Kindle (yes, I still have it - let me know if you want it back!). So in reality, there was a large gap, although to the Internet it doesn't look like it.

But that's only for people who are worrisomely interested in my reading habits. What about the book? I'm happy to report that the second entry into this fantasy noir series is just as much fun as the first. I can't say that it's mind-boggling, but I was always eager to pick it up and read a few pages more. It's entertaining and light and the world Bledsoe has created is a new take on an old genre.

Eddie LaCrosse is still up to his old tricks as a sword swinger for hire. But as he travels home one night, a bruised and bloodied young woman stumbles out of the woods right in front of his horse. When he tries to get her back to town, they are both captured, and he wakes up at the bottom of a cliff, dropped there by people who presumed it would kill him.

Well, when someone kills someone you'd taken under your protection, no good sword jockey could let it go. Soon he is plunged into a world of underworld bosses, dragon worshippers, absentee heirs to the throne, and the fact that his lover appears to be lying to him. What's an honest guy supposed to do? Particularly when he keeps getting the shit beaten out of him?

Imperial investigators are also sniffing around suspiciously, and the stables of a friend burn down mysteriously. With the friend inside. The body count rises. And there are stories of dragons flying overhead. Eddie scoffs.

These books are fun and enjoyable, and Eddie an appealing hero. The only quibble I have is that this is the second book in a row when the resolution has been that the supernatural Eddie has scoffed at turns out to be true after all. It's not a bad resolution, but twice is enough. If Eddie's going to keep being incredulous, at some point, he needs to turn out to be right. Or he just needs to accept that strange stuff is real. We're getting into a Scully problem, here.

But that's a small matter compared to how much enjoyment I have gotten out of the first two books in the series. I look forward to the second, although there will be another pause before I get there. I don't know that I'd want to chug these books. But sipping them every once in a while seems just about right.