Swords Are My Business

In 2007, Alex Bledsoe introduced the world to Eddie LaCrosse, the hard-boiled but soft-hearted detective known as a "sword jockey" who, for twenty-five gold pieces a day, plus expenses, will take on any case short of murder for hire. Like Philip Marlowe in shining armor or Sam Spade with a sword, Eddie goes down his mean medieval streets trying to walk the straight and narrow in a crooked, twisting fantasy world. Over the course of four novels, LaCrosse has encountered dragons, pirates, sea monsters, goddesses, ghosts, and magic, all the while keeping his cool and doing what's right. In this collection you'll receive the complete text of the first four Eddie LaCrosse novels. The Sword-Edged Blonde When a childhood friend, now a king, asks Eddie's help in clearing his queen of a murder charge, Eddie's long-buried past refuses to stay hidden. Burn Me Deadly Someone will go to any lengths, including torture and murder, to locate the last remaining dragon eggs. But dragons aren't real, are they? Dark Jenny A poisoned apple sets off political turmoil that threatens to destroy an entire Camelot-like kingdom, and take Eddie with it. Wake of the Bloody Angel Eddie searches for the vanished pirate Black Edward Tew and his legendary treasure, but even the help of a tough former pirate queen may not be enough to save him from what he finds. Swords Are My Business also includes a sample of the fifth Eddie LaCrosse novel, He Drank, and Saw the Spider. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

An epic novel steeped in action, intrigue, and romance. July 1187: the forces of the Muslim sultan known as Saladin have defeated the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, allowing Saladin to achieve his lifelong ambition of recapturing the Holy City for Islam. This sets the stage for the Third Crusade: the confrontation between Saladin and the legendary Christian warrior, Richard the Lionheart. Both men believe they are destined by God to lead their holy armies to complete victory. Richard, a legendary warrior with a keen military mind, finds his vow to retake Jerusalem complicated by infighting over succession to the British throne, a rivalry with the French king, and a choice between two potential queens. Meanwhile, Saladin struggles to keep his fractious forces together while remaining true to the noblest principles of Islam. These events are also portrayed through the eyes of two common men: Pierre of Botron is a Christian knight who is captured on the battlefield and subjected to the indignity of slavery. Rashid of Yenbo is a Muslim trader who finds prosperity in Saladin's triumphs. The relationship between Rashid and Pierre offers the possibility that people of good will can overcome polarizing conflicts. As events build toward the Battle of Jaffa, one of the most well-known conflicts of the Crusades, the fates of the characters depend on the choices they make between the compassionate and fanatical aspects of their faiths. The Swords of Faith offers an eye-opening comparison and contrast of the tenets of Christianity and Islam, insights that reverberate into the present day.

Will is a young man helping his father. He searches for the wood to make the bows and arrows in their shop. He has secretly made a special bow to hunt the giant-armored boars that sometimes kill livestock and people. Hoping to get the beautiful Ann to take notice. One day he returns to find his village burning and the people slaughtered by giants in full armor riding huge horses also in armor. The men, women, and children are all dead. The giants took only the women of childbearing age. Will manages to save Tema, and they set out to rescue Ann, Tema’s older sister. This is the beginning of a fascinating journey through a land of mountains, rivers, valleys, and seas. Will and Tema encounter, together and singly, peoples and creatures of many types and dispositions. They make fast friends, many enemies, and loyal subjects.

What happens when the world’s worst shrew meets the world’s most formidable warrior? Answer: Mirrored Sword, a comedy as black as the Plague, as turbulent as the Wars of the Roses. She is an aspiring painter and devoted Yorkist. He is the legendary but ageing Beast of Ferrybridge – a Lancastrian stalwart! Rebellion in Lincolnshire throws them together, the Yorkist king keeps them together, and thus they must work out their destinies and England’s, in an epic story that combines laughter and tears, romance and adventure, history and make-believe, high art and vulgar entertainment: a medieval banquet, loaded with surprises, colourful characters and poetic justice. Part One, The Dance, is a journey from Lincolnshire to London, where he goes in search of a fool brother, and she goes in quest of a royal romance, the story careering through a series of revealing encounters, climaxing in treachery and mayhem at Baynard Castle, the king’s London home. Part Two, The Tour, is their return journey from London to Lincolnshire, as companions and fellow travellers of the king, when their previous encounters are even more revealing in reverse order, ending in a rising tide of bloodshed and revenge, malice and pure evil, hope and desperate self-belief, deep in the fens. The narrative represents the viewpoints of eight different characters in Part One, but Part Two concentrates on the viewpoints of just two, the hero and heroine, as they struggle to shake off, manipulate, dominate, understand and maybe accept each other. Themes include conflicting loyalties and challenging relationships associated with lovers, friends, family, pets, and political allies. Chapters are presented as 31 calendar dates in the year 1470. Front matter includes a decorative map of medieval England, showing the towns visited. Readers can track different points of view by means of a chart, bolded names heading different sections, and headers on alternate pages.

Hero's children's chivalry and tenderness, love hate and loathe the sorrows and joys. A son of a great family of soldiers had once been carefree and unrestrained. He had roamed the Qin and the Huai, and had bathed in flowers and flowers. In one night, he had become destitute and had no one to return. His experience and experience had given him a miserable fate. The exquisite flute of the Floating Blood Sword and the blood moon made him feel embarrassed.

Such a blasphemous bastardisation of a word, 'Commonwealth'. 'Common' meaning of, or to, everyone regardless of place or estate and 'wealth' meaning relating to weal - wholeness, prosperity, health and success. the Puritans calling the theological tyranny of all aspects of England after the regicide the 'Commonwealth' is almost the closest to the ultimate debasement of English common parlance I can imagine. But not quite. I consider marginally worse their use of 'Protectorate'. You don't 'protect' rabbits by putting the most vicious and nasty weasel you can possibly breed down the warren-holes. It was bad enough the war between 'forty-two and 'forty-six lacerated England corporate in all aspects to a perilous degree. Even the most hideous wounds, if clean, can scab and scar over and the body become hale, if scarred, again. Sometimes surprisingly quickly. Take my word of honour as an ex-Officer for it. During my time soldiering I saw scores of such miraculous cases. But although that war wounded England grievous, it was the toxin of Puritanism so thoroughly rubbed into the gaping injuries during the wounding that turned England corporally and spiritually septic for over a decade thereafter. I pen these words with relief that the 'Commonwealth' and 'Protectorate' are now dead. Puritans are now selling up their property and leaving the country as despised and ostracised scum by the boat-load, with the generality spitting at their backs as they leave. the Americas are welcome to those that are commissioning the voyage boats and I'm glad the Shipwrights are profiting from their emergency fabrication. I hope the foundling Colonies have some use for the manure, for the meadows of England don't.