Review of Terrier

Terrier
Tamora Pierce
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Rating: 10/10

Tamora Pierce begins a new Tortall trilogy introducing Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who lived 200 years before Pierce's popular Alanna character. For the first time, Pierce employs first-person narration in a novel, bringing readers even closer to a character that they will love for her unusual talents and tough personality.

Beka Cooper is a rookie with the law-enforcing Provost's Guard, and she's been assigned to the Lower City. It's a tough beat that's about to get tougher, as Beka's limited ability to communicate with the dead clues her in to an underworld conspiracy. Someone close to Beka is using dark magic to profit from the Lower City's criminal enterprises--and the result is a crime wave the likes of which the Provost's Guard has never seen before.

Terrier is the first book in the Beka Cooper series, and boy what a first. The story takes a step back in time, and follows the ancestor of George Cooper of the Lioness Quartet. Beka is in training to be a hound, or police officer/guard in the capital city of Corus. Beka has an odd bit of magic that allows her to talk to the dead and the dust spinners on the streets. People are disappearing from the Lower City, and no one but Beka cares about their lives. Children are being kidnapped, and returned dead, and Beka knows she must find the ones who did this and stop them. Along with her training Dogs/guards Goodwin an Tunstall, Beka turns the slums of Corus upside-down and reveals a plot that had just been waiting to explode.

Romance
We get a kind of hint of romance between Beka and Rosto, a man with ambitions of being the Rogue or King of the thieves, but it's just a whisper. An anticipation almost. Which is fine because Beka is way too busy kicking butt to worry about men.

Plot
YASSS. I love this book in that around every corner a new link appears in the chain of the crimes she is investigating. Pierce does not disappoint her readers, and seems to go all out with this new character.

Research
Pierce does an amazing job of mixing fantasy and reality, keeping the weapons and tools medieval while adding a little magic to make life easier. She also keeps this book in line with her others in that things that aren't possible there remain so here, and discoveries made in the future books aren't available in this book set in the past.

Voice
Readers will love Beka's no-nonsense voice. She is humble, but in a way that seems like she knows exactly who she is and what she is capable of. She doesn't play around, and takes her friends and family very seriously. She grew up in a horrible area, and was only saved by luck and her own skills. She keeps herself grounded with that fact at all times.