There is a good mystery and a good story in The Sword-Edged Blonde
The mystery itself was intriguing enough to hold my attention, and investigator Eddie LaCrosse is a likeable character. Like all true heroes, he puts aside his personal preferences and gets the job done, no matter how difficult or how much pain it may cause him personally. Of course, one of the drawbacks of heroes is that they are generally quite human and in this case LaCrosse spent a bit too much time agonizing over past mistakes. Since most of those people were dead, I quickly reached the point of “let’s move on, shall we?” For me, the book only came alive when LaCrosse was doing something interesting in the present as he explored the clues from his past to solve the mystery of exactly who/what/where and if a murder had occurred.
This is a fantasy novel at heart, but it has the pulp feel of a private investigator in a medieval setting. Recommended for readers who like extensive world-building, a bit of luck from the goddess, and a decent mystery; while not minding scenes from the past supplying most of the clues for a mystery that must be solved in the present. [Sounds a bit complicated for my feeble brain. ~ Charles 
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Is it time for me to give Maria a hard time? Oh yes.
So Maria you are looking for action, action, action? In this type of story where the current mystery is linked to parts of the past, that past is important. Plus it gives the reader more insight into the hows and whys of the main character – how he got to be the way he is today.
As far as the main character’s agonizing over past mistakes – I’m having a hard time thinking of decent, caring and interesting main characters who don’t. We all do it. Well, those of us who have made mistakes in the past. I suppose perfect people wouldn’t need to.
Thanks for the review! I’m glad that you liked the story overall, this dragon enjoyed the book very much.
Ha! I knew you’d have something to say about this review…since you rec’d the book!
I know Eddie had to agonize over his past mistakes, but I didn’t want to *read* about it every few pages.
As for the how and why, it really was done very cleverly. That said, I found it boring in parts. When you know the guy is going to live through the action because he is “reliving” it, it takes just a tad bit away from the “action” and danger.
I also felt he made one big change in the story with his backstory. For 3/4 of the book he talked about the attack on the love of his life. He described it. He talked about how and why. Then toward the end, he made that little adjustment to the “story” to make it even “worse.” That annoyed the crap out of me. Yeah, we all gloss over the worst of the details to survive, but it felt like the last little bit of sympathy had to be wrung out of the situation so the “ante was upped.” Look, she was dead. There isn’t any good way to GET dead. He didn’t kill her so all the rest of the circumstances were noise. Could it have been avoided? Maybe–but he spent the whole book regretting it in one fashion or another so there was really no need to go for that last, “BUT REALLY IT WAS EVEN WORSE!”
I did like the character though. He had morals and he busted his butt to solve the case. I hope the next one he’s looking forward rather than back.