So what is Devlin's Luck about? It's a story of a man broken by tragedy who desires nothing more than to make amends for a past tragedy and die with dignity. At the beginning of the book, Devlin arrives in Kingsholm, the capital of the Kingdom of Jorsk, to take the office of Chosen One. It's a bit hard to explain what the Chosen One is, but essentially, they're the kingdom's official problem solver. If something needs to be investigated, for example, the Chosen One could be dispatched to do it. The same goes with quests and any situation that may require their services. The position itself was quite prestigious in days past, being equal to King's Champion and subservient only to the ruling monarch.
But those days are long gone. By the time Devlin arrives to take the oath, the office has declined into largely a ceremonial position so undesirable that the kingdom has to offer ten gold disks¹ in order to get anyone to take the job. Why? The office is seen as certain death because all of Devlin's immediate predecessors have lasted less than a year, each typically dying during or after their first quest.
And that's exactly why Devlin wants the job. As I said, Devlin is a man broken by tragedy. I don't count it as a spoiler since you find it out pretty early, but Dev's grief stems from his wife, their daughter, his brother and his son being killed by creatures called banecats. Even though he avenged them by hunting down and killing the banecats, he still blames himself both for their deaths and not being there to defend them. By the time he recovered from fighting the banecats and returned to civilization, he found himself named kinslayer by his sister-in-law and forsaken by all of his kin, a major thing in his people's culture. He goes into exile shortly thereafter and literally walks all the way to Kingsholm to become the Chosen One.
