He Drank, and Saw the Spider is the fifth book in the Eddie LaCrosse series.
It starts with a flashback to Eddie's mercenary years, when he saved a baby girl with a strange tattoo (and who tattoos a baby?) He left her with a peasant family and moved on. Now, in the present, he returns to the same area (accompanied by his girlfriend, who was out of focus for the previous two books). Curious as to what happened to the child, he goes looking for her — and finds that she is somehow tangled up in all manner of local intrigue, what with feuding (and mentally unstable) monarchs, an incognito prince, sorcery, and the like. Despite originally having been quite keen to ditch the girl and leave, he now finds himself feeling obliged to help her out.
He Drank, and Saw the Spider provides examples of:
- Distinguishing Mark: The baby girl Eddie saved had a tattoo, which naturally serves as a pointer to her background. The question of what kind of person would inflict a tattoo on a baby is not ignored.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: granted, good people still die and go through emotional wringer along the way, but pretty much everyone who surives is in a better place by the end than they were at the start.
- Parental Substitute: After finding and saving a baby girl in the forest, Eddie wants to find a family to look after her, but is pretty determined that it not be him, since he has mercenary work to think of. He is therefore quite keen to off-load the child. Fortunately for everyone involved, a proper adoptive family is indeed found, and Isidore grows up Happily Adopted.Eddie: Well, she’s a local girl now. See ya. [starts for door]
Audrey: You just wait right there, young man. This child may not have sprung from your loins, but that doesn’t mean she’s not your responsibility.
Eddie: [insisting] Yes, it does.
Audrey: Look at her. You want her to go back to the people who used her like a sheet of vellum? Who the hell’s going to take care of her if you don’t?
Eddie: You?
