The first book in the series is The Sword-Edged Blonde, which I haven't read, but while in some book series it increases your enjoyment if you read them in chronological order, I don't think that is the case with Burn Me Deadly. It stands on its own.
Burn Me Deadly is an unusual title for a heroic fantasy novel, you're perhaps saying to yourself. Actually, the title, and indeed the book itself, is an homage to a classic 1950s film noir, Kiss Me Deadly, a movie which starred Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, the detective of Mickey Spillane.
The Ralph Meeker film opens with Mike Hammer driving down a deserted country road. Suddenly a woman runs out in front of him, begging for help. Mike agrees to give her a lift to the nearest town, and points out that he's a private detective and can help her. She doesn't think he can..and indeed, a few minutes later another car runs him off the road. Mike is knocked unconscious, the girl is kidnapped, and later on is found murdered, after having been tortued, apparently in an attempt to make her reveal information -- which she does not do before her death. Mike Hammer vows to find out who is responsible for her death, and what she knew that was work killing for.
If you know the Meeker film, you know what that is...if you don't know what it is, I'm not going to tell you. It won't spoil Burn Me Deadly for you if you know, indeed it might even heighten your enjoyment of the book, as you wonder what it is author Bledsoe can use in a fantasy-world setting to match what the "secret" is in the 1950s film noir.
I enjoyed Burn Me Deadly for the most part. I liked the parallels with the movie - indeed, that's why I bought the book, to see what those parallels would be, and if the author could pull them off.
What I didn't like about the book is the "voice" that is used. The action takes place in a heroic-fantasy world, with knights, and kings and queens, and peasants...and other things, and yet every character talks as if he lives in New York in the 20th century. It's very disconcerting...almost as disconcerting as the aliens in the movie Planet 51 being so much like earth in the 1970s, complete with stoned rock guitarists and peace protesters!
It wouldn't have been necessary to use the overly poetic voice that sword & sorcery books like The Lord of the Rings used, of course, but some kind of acknowledgement that the characters were in a medievel world would have been nice.
Of course, by using the voice he does, Bledsoe is able to inject some subtle humor into the book.
There's also a tense mystery, appealing characters - for all his hard-boiledness, LaCrosse is a film noir hero after all - he's got his code, which he adheres to. Of course, since it's a modern-day book, his side-kick is an independent woman who can hold her own in a sword fight, unlike the old-fashioned heroines who merely cower in corners while the detective and villalin duke it out with her as the prize... but I have no problem with that.
Here's a couple of paragraphs from the book:
The next day I left the hospital. My ribs had pretty much healed, and the huge bandage around my head had diminished to a single circlet mainly protecting the thick scab under my hair. Mother Bennings said it could go, too, whenever I felt like it. My head still hurt and my side ached, but I could rest at home just as well. Besides, those blank white walls were starting to get to me.
My belongings, including my Jackblade-KG model sword, were returned to me when I checked out. So the guy with the dragon boots hadn't kept it; he meant for my death to look like an accident, as if I'd simply ridden off the cliff in the darkness.I checked it over, includinbg the stiletto hidden in the hilt, but it was undamaged and had not been sabotaged. I did not buckle the scabard around my waist, it had done me no good at all the last time I'd worn it.
If you're a fan of hard-boiled mysteries, with just traces of fantasy, you'll enjoy this book.
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