A review by verkisto
He Drank, and Saw the Spider by Alex Bledsoe
3.0
For all the issues I've had with the Eddie LaCrosse series, I think it's safe to say that I'm a fan, both of the series and of the author. The stories are well-told, gripping, and engrossing, and even if they aren't perfect stories, they're fun reads, and that's enough for these kinds of stories. I can tear through them in a day or two, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series (and the Tufa series, and whatever else he writes).
The structure of this book is a little strange, as it starts out with a flashback from sixteen years before, and then jumps forward to Eddie's current time. This wouldn't be problematic in and of itself, but when we pick the story back up in the current time, part of the mystery is answered by the details we just read about, and Eddie even makes some parenthetical asides about how he should have clued in on some of the answers based on what he had already told us. Those parts were jarring, and removed the tension of that part of the mystery. I felt like the story would have had a more dramatic punch if he had somehow woven the first part of the book in with the main narrative. Luckily, that wasn't the only mystery, as the question of who Isidore really was still carried the rest of the book.
Part of the story wrapped up too neatly, without much explanation. It worked well enough, but it felt a little too much like a deus ex machina ending. There was a hint early on at how that part of the story might end, but then it was pretty much ignored until it was needed at the very end of the story, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, though it did seem too easy.
I'm not sure if this is my favorite Eddie LaCrosse book (that honor goes to either Burn Me Deadly or Wake of the Bloody Angel), but it's still a solid read, and right in line with the previous volumes in the series. It's a given that anyone who liked the first four should read this one, too.
The structure of this book is a little strange, as it starts out with a flashback from sixteen years before, and then jumps forward to Eddie's current time. This wouldn't be problematic in and of itself, but when we pick the story back up in the current time, part of the mystery is answered by the details we just read about, and Eddie even makes some parenthetical asides about how he should have clued in on some of the answers based on what he had already told us. Those parts were jarring, and removed the tension of that part of the mystery. I felt like the story would have had a more dramatic punch if he had somehow woven the first part of the book in with the main narrative. Luckily, that wasn't the only mystery, as the question of who Isidore really was still carried the rest of the book.
Part of the story wrapped up too neatly, without much explanation. It worked well enough, but it felt a little too much like a deus ex machina ending. There was a hint early on at how that part of the story might end, but then it was pretty much ignored until it was needed at the very end of the story, so it wasn't entirely unexpected, though it did seem too easy.
I'm not sure if this is my favorite Eddie LaCrosse book (that honor goes to either Burn Me Deadly or Wake of the Bloody Angel), but it's still a solid read, and right in line with the previous volumes in the series. It's a given that anyone who liked the first four should read this one, too.