A lot of people tell me that agents hate prologues but as far as I am concerned, I don't see how they hurt. I have a prologue in my novel and it's actual a crucual part to the novel as it is a murder and links automatically back to the main character. For me as long as it fits into the story it shouldn't be a problem. The same goes for epilogues. A lot of people use epilogues these days without calling them epilogues. They just make them a really short chapter of sorts.