Terrier

Terrier by Tamora Pierce

The Lower City beat is a tough one for a cop in Corus, the kingdom of Tortall's capital city. Rats (thieves) walk every street. Sixteen-year-old Beka Cooper grew up in those slums. She knows what it's like to be poor and desperate. That's why she wants to be a Dog, one of Corus' police guards. They patrol the streets, nab Rats, break up fights and generally keep the peace. They also take bribes, within prescribed limits, chief of which is the Happy Bag, given by the Rogue, the king of the thieves.

Beka, a ward of the Lord Provost who governs the kingdom's Dogs, could have her pick of jobs, but she wants to work in the Lower City where she spent the first eight years of her life, before Lord Gershom took her in. She's determined to succeed and has Lord Gershom's support, even if his wife and her siblings are against it. He pairs her with Goodwin and Tunstall, two of the city's best, for her "Puppy" year. Beka, given the nickname Terrier for her tenacity, is armed with more than determination. She has the magical ability to hear the souls of the dead and a supernatural cat named Pounce. When the ghosts, who are carried by pigeons, speak of killings in the Lower City, Beka and her partners invesigate. Soon it begins to look as though the child murders, the disappearance of several poor laborers and a new cache of fire opals on the black market, may all be connected somehow.

Terrier is Tamora Pierce's 15th Tortall novel and one of her best. The fantasy elements merge well with the procedural plot, providing ample entertainmetn for both teen and adults. Related via Beka's journal, the tale comes alive, smattered as it is with colloquiel language and colorful characters. (My favorite is Rosto the Piper, one of the more charming thieves in Tortall.) Beka, like all of Pierce's heroines, is smart and independent, but with the needed flaws that so many fantasy heroes lack. Set several centuries before Pierce's other books, readers familiar with Tortall will still enjoy the details of the world. Beka herself is the ancestress of a prominent character in Pierce's popular first series, The Song of the Lioness.

Look for the second book in the Beka Cooper Trilogy, Bloodhound, where Beka must discover who is behind a wave of coin forgeries. It's due out this month!