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Searching... Dallas Public Library | YA Pierce, T. Terrier | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
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.
Author Notes
Author Tamora Pierce was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania on December 13, 1954. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Her first book, Alanna: The First Adventure, was published in 1983 and she became a full-time author in 1992. She writes fantasy books, mainly involving young heroines, for young adults. She is the author of numerous series including Song of the Lioness; The Immortals; Circle of Magic; Protector of the Small; The Circle Opens; Daughter of the Lioness; The Circle Reforged; Beka Cooper; and The Numair Chronicles. Her novel Battle Magic was a New York Times bestseller.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Beka Cooper is a rookie with the Provost's Guard who can hear the voices of the dead with the help of pigeons, and the birds clue her in to two murderers on the loose. The trilogy (Bloodhound; Mastiff) is set in the same world as Pierce's popular Alanna, but 200 years earlier. The first-person narration makes for an intimate audio experience, especially in Susan Denaker's capable hands. © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Pierce returns to the Tortall Realms for a new series, a kind of prequel to those of her popular "sheroes" Alanna, Kel and Aly. Her latest heroine is not a lady knight but a "Puppy," a police trainee whose talents lift her from the slums to the manor of Lord Gershom. The noble takes in Beka's impoverished family after the girl, at age eight, demonstrates near-magical abilities in law enforcement. Beka, now 16, begins her story with her first night on the job, told through journal entries. Assigned to two of the best Dogs (veteran officers) in the Jane Street kennel, Beka quickly distinguishes herself, assisted by winged informants (pigeons who carry the ghosts of murdered children and whisper only to Beka) and her aide-de-camp, Pounce, the purple-eyed cat (who will be familiar to Alanna devotees). Beka is drawn to solve two major crimes: one involving the disappearance of people hired to dig beneath the Lower City in search of precious "fire opals," and a scarier thread about the kidnapping and murder of children by a creature known only as the "Shadow Snake." Despite many action-packed scrapes with thieves and rogues, the pace lags a bit in this series opener. Fans of Pierce's previous forays into medieval fantasy, however, will likely savor every page, and Beka herself is a brave battler who shoulders an unwieldy narrative with nearly as much ease as she hobbles a cutpurse. Ages 10-13. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Middle School) Sword-and-sorcery meets police procedural in this latest from the wildly popular Pierce. Set some two hundred or so years before the Song of the Lioness Quartet, this new series introduces readers to sixteen-year-old Beka Cooper, a Puppy (trainee) in Corus's Guard. The protegee of the Lord Provost, whose attention she caught with her ability to hear the dead, she has been assigned to the best team of Dogs on the Lower City beat. Swiftly, Beka not only proves her enormous talent at Dog work but also discovers two ghastly crimes: someone has been hiring, then murdering, the desperately poor, and a mysterious figure has been kidnapping and killing the Lower City's children. The fun of this offering is in the dynamic characterization and action that take readers to Beka's inevitable triumph. Beka -- who narrates her story via a diary -- is appealing in her dedication to her fellow Lower City dwellers, and sketches of her compatriot Dogs and the criminals they sometimes apprehend and sometimes befriend are equally deft. Indeed, perhaps the book's greatest strength is its raw portrayal of the fine line between law and lawlessness in the choices the Dogs make as they do their jobs. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Having followed her signature heroine into the next generation with her Trickster duet, Pierce now looks back into the history of Tortall and finds another fierce, lovable gal who won't take any guff. Sixteen-year-old Beka Cooper, born hundreds of years before Alanna drew her first sword, has just signed on as a Puppy (trainee) with her city's crime fighters, unofficially known as the Dogs. Beka's extrasensory gifts and a firsthand understanding of her tough beat help her to scent two heinous criminals, whom she delivers to justice--despite the limitations of her apprentice role--by rallying a lively network of informants, mentors, and allies. Pierce deftly handles the novel's journal structure, and her clear homage to the police-procedural genre applies a welcome twist to the girl-legend-in-the-making story line. Leisurely infusions of detail frequently slow things down, but homely, often comic pauses interspersing epic deeds have become touchstones of Pierce's storytelling, and not even the strained surprise ending will prevent fans from begging for more about the avenging pup known as a Terrier among Dogs. --Jennifer Mattson Copyright 2006 Booklist