Just about everything happens in this admirably paced and remarkably short (for fantasy) novel. When I started reading the first book in the series I thought it might be quite a cozy tale, but boy was I wrong! There is plenty of blood in here as the title suggests, and Francis is certainly not afraid to tell it how it is, delivering a robust, action-packed story. At times the pace almost seems too frenetic, and at the end I was left wondering what would happen next - is there to be a fourth book? The characters mature in here, and Francis seems to have decided that this type of fantasy is what she wants to write, rather than what was suggested by the earliest book. It is a style that suits her well, and although this is a sword and sorcery yarn with plenty of both, I didn’t keep thinking of Tolkein while I was reading it. Whatever she writes next, I will be reading.