TORTALL'S KICKARSE GUARD
Terrier
Beka Cooper Series
By Tamora Pierce
Fantasy
Mystery
Paranormal
Kickin' Female Lead
Being able to communicate with ghosts in flocks of pigeons and with the Lower City's dust spinners are two very handy skills to have when you are a brand new Dog in the Provost's Guard. As a law enforcer, Beka is able to utilise her magical abilities to help fight crime in the city's most dangerous sector. It helps that she grew up on those same streets, fighting to survive and to feed her family, until she was rescued by the Provost himself, all because he saw something in her that she learned to see in herself.
Back in the Lower City as a rookie 'Puppy', Beka is partnered with two of the Guard's toughest Dogs and quickly gains a name for herself. Then Beka begins to see patterns of abduction and murder, particularly of babies and children, disturbing enough to warrant investigating, but no one will talk to a Dog when they have turned their backs on families who have lost loved ones, time and again. So Beka takes it upon herself to find out what what or who is terrorising the poorest of the poor. With the help of new friends, her purple eyes cat and her Grandma, Beka is determined to find answers, keep her job, keep her wits about her and not get dead.
Then there are the ghosts, calling her for justice, those murdered underground in a most unusual way and all signs point to magic wielding villains who care only for power and wealth.
Magic, mayhem, and a lot of action, Terrier is steeped in the adventure that is the Tortall universe. Set 200 years before Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness Series, The Legend of Beka Cooper brings to the pages all that is celebrated in this award winning universe, but instead of being set in a palace with knights and magical mages, Terrier is set in the slums of the same royal capital city, with the policing system instead of grand Knights and squires.
I enjoyed Terrier very much. The stories held such depth in each character and the world of the story. I could really see where Beka lived and worked, the scars on the faces of the criminals she took out with her baton, the smells of the drinking houses, the fear on the faces of the children as they are abducted. And I loved that the author kept her story based in a universe that I have grown to love and appreciate more with each new series set in Tortall.
I gave this book 4.5 stars out of 5, and the series 5 stars. Really, REALLY enjoyed it.
