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Alex Bledsoe
Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland and twenty minutes from Nutbush. He’s been a reporter, editor, photographer and door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman. He now lives in a Wisconsin town famous for trolls and mustard, he writes before six in the morning, and he tries to teach his two sons to act like they’ve been to town before. Read some of Mr. Bledsoe’s short stories and learn about his writing plans at his website or his blog. Here’s Rob’s interview with Alex Bledsoe.
The Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries
The Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries — (2007-2012) Publisher: It should have been a case like any other: a missing princess, a king willing to pay in gold for her return. But before he realizes it, private investigator Eddie LaCrosse, a slightly shopworn sword jockey with a talent for discretion and detection, is swept up in a web of mystery and deceit involving a brutally murdered royal heir, a queen accused of an unspeakable crime and the tragic past he thought he’d left behind. First in a series of hard-boiled fantasy detective novels, in the vein of Glen Cook’s Garrett series.
A foaming tankard for public libraries. If mine hadn't featured Alex Bledsoe's engrossing debut novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde, I doubt I'd have ever discovered it.
Granted, I only discovered it because of the quasi-garish cover and title (neither of which has much to do with the actual story), picking it up just to shake my head at one more piece of fantasy trash. But then I read the cover blurbs from Charles de Lint and Orson Scott Card, which were positive enough to overcome my natural revulsion to pulp detective stories in fantasy settings (which usually aren't half as clever as their creators think). The author should buy them tankards, too.
I picked up Alex Bledsoe's The Sword-Edged Blonde because it had just been released on audiobook and I was looking for something short, different, and fun. The Sword-Edged Blonde was exactly what I needed.
Eddie LaCrosse used to be a rich kid, but a tragic event drove him away from his past life and now he's a loner. He works as a detective, and he's really good at it. So, his old best friend, King Phil, hires him to solve a murder. Eddie soon realizes that the mystery is somehow tied up with his own past, so he finds himself confronting his most unpleasant memories as he tries to solve the strange case.
Eddie LaCrosse makes a great hero. He's a nobleman's son, so he's educated and has manners, he worked as a mercenary after he ran away from home, so he's an accomplished fighter, and now he's an aging ... Read More
Ex-mercenary Eddie LaCrosse is a private investigator in a small backwater town, where he has taken refuge in hopes of escaping his mysterious and tragic past. He’s just wrapping up a case when he’s approached by a secret agent with a message. King Phillip of Arentia needs an expert to investigate the brutal death of his infant son, who was supposedly killed by his mother and Phillip’s wife, Rhiannon. The king needs the best, which means Eddie LaCrosse. However, Eddie is also the King’s childhood friend.
If this synopsis sounds like a hard-boiled P.I. thriller to you, you’d be dead-on, except this one is set in a sword & sorcery tale. It’s Sam Spade with a sword and leather tunic instead of a gun and raincoat.
I’d never have given The Sword-Edged Blonde a shot if Kat and Rob hadn’t written such good reviews about it. While I do love... Read More
"Every instinct screamed that this damsel was trouble the same way a hurricane was rain."
Even so, when Laura Lesperitt dashes out in front of his horse one moonlit night, in the middle of nowhere, grizzled sword-jockey Eddie LaCrosse offers to help her. But before Eddie even knows what the trouble is, Laura's on the wrong side of death's river, and he's going under. With the help of his equally tough and tender girlfriend, Liz, Eddie tries to get back on his feet and into the heart of a mystery that brings together the roughest criminals in Eddie's (Southern-flavored) backwater town of Neceda, misplaced royalty, and bizarre tales of mythical beasts.
Burn Me Deadly (the second of the Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries) is a worthy follow-up to The Sword-Edged Blonde by the talent... Read More
Ah, the combination of Alex Bledsoe (the author), Eddie LaCrosse (the hero) and Stefan Rudnicki (the reader) — it doesn’t get much better than that!
Burn Me Deadly is the sequel to The Sword-Edged Blonde, which I adored, and since Mr. Bledsoe has been picked up by Tor, I’m guessing I’m not the only one who felt that way.... Read More
"I remembered the way her hair smelled as she wrenched my fingers back into place."
While drinking a beer with his girlfriend on a snowy day in Angelina’s Tavern, middle-aged sword-jockey Eddie LaCrosse gets a strange delivery: a coffin. This unusual event sparks some interest in Angelina’s lethargic patrons, and soon they’re all gathered around while Eddie regales them with the story of how he came to be the recipient of such an odd gift and, more importantly, who’s in it.
If you haven’t read one of Alex Bledsoe’s Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries yet, go ahead and try this one — you don’t need to have read The Sword-Edged Blonde or Burn Me Deadly to enjoy Dark Jenny (though I should say that I liked the plots of th... Read More
Wake of the Bloody Angel is the fourth novel in Alex Bledsoe’s EDDIE LACROSSE MYSTERIES series. Like its predecessors, it crosses traditional noir crime fiction with well-known tropes from fantasy literature. Not an easy thing to do well, I’d think, but Alex Bledsoe makes it work. In the previous novels, we’ve met some manifestation of Epona the horse goddess, Rhiannon from the Mabinogi, dragons, and the Arthurian Legends. I’m not going to tell you who/what we meet in Wake of the Bloody Angel because that would spoil the big mystery — I’ll just say I didn’t see it coming.
This time, Eddie is hired by Angelina, the beautiful middle-aged woman who owns the tavern below Eddie’s office, to find her old lover — a pirate she hasn’t seen in 20 years. Eddie and Jane, a buxom swordswoman who’s an ex-pirate-tur... Read More
Tufa — (2011- ) Publisher: No one knows where the Tufa came from, or how they ended up in the mountains of East Tennessee before the first Europeans arrived. Yet there they were and there they remain, dark-haired and enigmatic, allegedly unware of their own origins. But there are clues in their music, and those with the truest Tufa blood know the songs that allow them to fly on the night wind…
The Tufa are a clan of black-haired natives who live in the Smoky Mountains. They keep to themselves, stay close to home, and have some strange beliefs and mysterious habits. Much to the disappointment of Craig Chess, the enthusiastic young Methodist preacher, every single one of them refuses to come to church.
Chess gets to know the Tufa a little better when Private Bronwyn Hyatt returns to Cloud County as a war hero. She was captured and tortured in Iraq and has come home to recover. All of America is worshipping Bronwyn, but the Tufa don’t seem impressed. They’re much more concerned about the death omens they’ve been noticing recently and the ghost that’s been waiting for Bronwyn. A death in the Hyatt family could affect the entire future of the Tufa tribe. Will Bronwyn step up and take her place in the Tufa clan, or will she continue to be the rebellious troublemaker she was befor... Read More
“…One night you’ll go outside, look up at the sky, and either hear the hum or feel the shiver. If it’s the shiver… well, you’re still kin and I love you, but it means you’ll never be a real Tufa. If it’s the hum, though, you’ll feel the stirrin’ of your wings.”
The Hum and the Shiver is the first thing I’ve read by Alex Bledsoe and I look forward to seeing more of Cloud County, Tennessee, and the Tufa.
The music seduced me, I’ll admit it. I was willing to wink at a few plot issues and some character issues, because the book is filled with such sweet, wild music.
It reminded Bronwyn how glorious being a Tufa could be. The music formed around them like a physical entity dancing on sparkling wings. And then they, too, danced on wings that left trails of sparkles in the air as the swooped and twirled in time to the tune, merging... Read More
Memphis Vampires — (2009-2010) Available for download at Audible.com. From Author’s website: When smooth continental vampire Rudolfo Zginski is staked in 1915, it should be the end of him. But he resurrects in Memphis sixty years later to find a world he must quickly master, and more peril than he ever expected. In addition to the automobiles, polyester fashions and racial tensions of 1975, he encounters four new vampires who know their nature only from the movies, and must evade a trap set for him half a century earlier that might ensnare them all…
Firefly Witch — (Began in 2012) Publisher: In these three short stories a small-town reporter meets a beautiful witch who shows him how mysterious, and dangerous, the world can truly be. When small-town reporter Ry Tully meets the woman of his dreams, he has no idea what he’s getting into. Tanna is blind, but when fireflies are around, she can see. She’s a graduate student in parapsychology, and psychic herself. She’s also a second-degree Wiccan priestess — a witch. And her primary duty is to help those in need, whether living, dead, or otherwise. Will Ry be able to forge a relationship with a woman so different from anyone he’s known? Will Tanna rise to the challenges of both her new love, and her chosen path? And will the dark corners of the world be ready for the Firefly Witch?
Retired reviewer Robert Rhodes recently had a chat with Alex Bledsoe, author of the Eddie LaCrosse Mysteries and the Memphis Vampires novels. His third Eddie LaCrosse novel, Dark Jenny, will be available in print (Tor) and audio (Blackstone Audio) next week. Tor has generously offered a couple of copies of Dark Jenny for FanLit readers who live in the United States. If you'd like one, just leave a comment below and we'll randomly choose two winners. Be sure to check back next Tuesday to see if you're a winner.
Robert Rhodes: I've had the pleasure of reading ( Read More
We often post our chats with authors on Tuesdays, but we're trying something new today. Instead of asking one author several questions, we've asked several authors just one question. Please leave a comment and let us know how you like this format. We'll choose one commenter to win a copy of Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver on audio CDs (or something else from our stacks).
Question: Which speculative fiction writer has had the greatest influence on your own writing style and what, specifically, do you find most inspirational about that writer’s style?
Alex Bledsoe: I'll be a guest of honor at HalCon in Halifax, Nova Scotia this October 26-28. My third FIREFLY WITCH three-story chapbook, Back Atcha, is now available. My short story "Sprig" will be in an upcoming issue of Apex. I'll have a Christmas collection of three stories, including a TU...Read More
We recently asked a few of your favorite authors to recommend some books they've recently enjoyed.
Gail Carriger: I grew up reading Mercedes Lackey's VALDEMAR books but I only recently discovered that she's been editing and producing an ongoing series of anthologies set in the same universe. I've been slowly making my way through all 7 of these books. Since I've limited time, it's nice to read something that isn't a major commitment. It's snack-size reading, just one short story whenever I'm able. Many of them feature on-going characters and I'm a particular fan of Sarah A. Hoyt and Kate Paulk's Ree & Jem whose journey starts in the third anthology, Crossroads.
I've never read it either, but it's always struck me (from reviews) as maybe trying a little too hard to be Jacqueline Carey. The whole "Let me tell you about my humble beginnings" thing is exactly how Kushiel's Dart starts. […]
Exile: The OUTCAST CHRONICLES mature and deepen: Exile by Rowena Cory Daniells
Exile, the second book in Rowena Cory Daniells’s OUTCAST CHRONICLES, simultaneously raises the stakes and deepens the narrative that began in the first installment, Be...
The Boolean Gate: Mark Twain saves the world?: The Boolean Gate by Walter Jon Williams
Walter Jon Williams’ The Boolean Gate is a story about the famous friendship between Sam Clemens / Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. Clemens was fascinated with T...
Spicy Slipstream Stories: If you love pulps…: Spicy Slipstream Stories edited by Nick Namatas & Jay Lake
Slipstream, for me, is a type of fiction that is bizarre and confusing and defies expectations. That's not a bad thing, mind you, but ...
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Alex Bledsoe grew up in west Tennessee an hour north of Graceland and twenty minutes from 
The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe
The Sword-Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe
Exile: The OUTCAST CHRONICLES mature and deepen
The Boolean Gate: Mark Twain saves the world?
Spicy Slipstream Stories: If you love pulps…
