The wind-borne stink, though, was real enough. She’d never smelled it before herself, but had heard her mother’s vivid description of it, and recognized it instantly—the smell of a slaver, anchored offshore.
Is this lazy writing, or a clever way to get out of the trouble of describing the stink? I can’t really “picture” the smell in my mind, but I can infer some smells from prior knowledge. Lazy writing? It’s not evocative enough, but it plays up character relationships.
