The title The Bloodletter's Daughter and appropriate cover art immediately intrigued me, however, the backcover blurb promised so much that was undelivered. Prologues are usually ignored by readers. Readers want to cut to the chase, at least this reader does. Chapter one
…more lacked the hook of a great opening. Stability plus inciting incident equals instability, followed by a struggle to resolve instability, and return to stability. That is the currently accepted literary standard for opening scenes. Today, that first introduction of the stability of the protagonist's world may be as short as two sentences. In chapter one, Lafferty's generalized weather report and endless backstory about a (literally) dirty old man playing with himself while ogling a naked teenage bathhouse girl is not my idea of an inciting incident and really put me off. Had I not agreed to review this book, I would have put it down here. Although Linda Lafferty is obviously talented I can not in good conscience recommend this book. (less)
