Beka Cooper: Terrier

Rebekah, or "Beka" Cooper is the famous ancestress of George Cooper, the King of Thieves, who ended up marrying Alanna the Lioness, Champion of Tortall. Surprisingly enough, his Ancestress is one of the Provost's "Dogs", who are like Policemen, but with differences.

Beka's mother was rejected for having lung rot, robbed and beaten by her lover, a man who had ties to the worst thieves gang in Corus, the Bold Brass Gang. He took back a piece of stolen jewelry he gave her when he left, and for these acts, Beka, at merely 8 years old, tracks the man down and follows him until she learns all about the gang he belongs to. Her attempts to go to the Dogs are laughed off, until she goes to the leader of the Dogs, the Provost himself, who listens to her and brings in the entire gang from her information. Then he takes Rebekah and her entire family into his household. Beka serves as a message runner until she is old enough to enter the Dog Training School, and from there, she asks to serve in the worst district in town, where she used to live, the Cesspool.

Beka doesn't just have luck and training on her side, she has magic. She can hear the voices of the dead souls carried by the pigeons that roam the city, for pigeons are the birds of the Dead God. Not every soul is carried by a pigeon, only the ones who are troubled, and refuse to move on. But she can also hear the voices of the spinners, never-fading whirlwinds that suck up the sounds of people talking and bad deeds done. And also on her side is her black cat, Pounce, who is magical and has purple eyes. He can also talk to her, but tends to do it when no one is near, even if only Beka can hear him.

Beka is assigned to Jane Street Station, and being an apprentice Dog, is known as a Puppy. She will serve as a Puppy for a year before becoming a full-fledged Dog herself. She is assigned to the two best Dogs in the station as their Puppy, Clara Goodwin and Matthias or Mattes Turnstall. They are to look out after her and teach her the ins and outs of the Cesspool.

On her first night, they go to see Crookshank, the unofficial ruler of the Cesspool, at the Court of the Rogue. His grandson, Rolond, was kidnapped and disappeared, and he claims it was by someone called the Shadow Snake. The Shadow Snake is a tale to frighten children, but that is who is taking the credit for the kidnapping. Beka knew Rolond, who is the son of one of her childhood friends, Tansy, who is married to Herun Lofts, Crookshank's grandson. Beka is upset that Rolond is gone, and later that night, when they go to visit Crookshank's house, she meets with Tansy, who says that Herun has gone, but before he did, he gave her a stone and claimed it would make them both rich. Tansy, still upset over her son's disappearance, doesn't want the stone, which is filled with shimmering lights and colors buried in pinkish-red matrix rock.

When Beka stares into the rock, she becomes almost entranced, but tucks it into her boot for later study. When she shows it to her partners, none of them know what it is, either. They take it to the mage at the station, who gets excited, but claims it is nothing, and then says he will hold on to it to investigate it. None of the Dogs believe him, and Pounce knocks the stone out of his hands and it falls through a knot in the wooden floor into the basement, from which he later retrieves it.

During the night, they also introduce Beka to many of the people living in the Cesspool and who she will be dealing with on a nightly basis. One of which includes Mistress Nott, a baker whose children Beka was friends with when she was growing up. Mistress Nott is a special friend of Mattes and Goodwin, and gives them deals on wares from her shop because she appreciates how they keep the Cesspool's crime down. Beka buys some cakes for her for her morning's breakfast.

The next morning, Beka finds that three rogues from the Court of the Rogue: Rosto, Aniki and Kora, from Scanra, have moved into the house that she is living in. They bring her breakfast, and eat together, sharing information. Beka also feeds the pigeons and hears what the souls riding them have to say. Afterwards, she and Mattes take the stone to the Gemcutters and gemdealer's guild, where a mage named Jungen Berryman tells them that the stone is a fire opal, and while this one has too much matrix rock in it to be truly valuable, they are highly sought after and expensive, for they can hold spells and serve as fascinators. He would like to know where it came from, and Beka tells him the stone looks like it comes from the Cesspool. The mage laughs at the idea, and claims that they usually come from out of the Kingdom. If fire opals were found in Corus, it would bring a lot of money to the city. There is to be a sale of fire opals here, for which collectors from the surrounding kingdoms are already gathering.

That night, Beka chases down a woman who is threatening to kill her children, and who abuses them and her husband. The children hate Beka for not letting her go, especially when the woman is sentenced to be sent to the farms for hard labor for five years. The occasionally show up to fling garbage at Beka, call her names and berate her, and run away.

Beka discovers that Rolond is not the only child to be stolen away from his mother by the Shadow Snake. In fact, he appears to have been operating in Corus for years, stealing away children and demanding any valuables a person has. If the valuables are given, the child is returned unharmed. If not, they are never seen again. Beka is upset that this has been going on in the city and vows to find and bring down the Shadow Snake, whoever they are. She also becomes aware that nine souls were taken for digging in a basement, but then killed after laboring for all too long in the dark.

She thinks that Crookshank, also known as Ammon Lofts, his real name, is somehow behind the diggers, and thinks they are digging up the fire opals, which have become much, much too common about the town for them to be imported. Along with the fact that the matrix rock they are in resembles the rock supporting the Cesspool, she convinces her partners that they must find out where the men are digging, and find them, while at the same time investigating the Shadow Snake case with the help of Aniki, who in addition to being a Rogue is also a Mage.

This was a really excellent book. Beka is resourceful, determined and utterly believable as a character. Even when the rest of her family, being trained to life in the Provost's household, looks down on her, she continues to do what she sees as the right thing. In fact, at the end of the book, Beka is given the label "Terrier", which is used for a dog who does great things, even though she insists she doesn't deserve it.

Being a YA book, the romance level is kept to a minimum. Although Rosto, her neighbor, is handsome enough to make her girly parts tingle (not to mention the rest of her, including, as she says, "her peaches"), she is wary of getting involved with someone who is a Rogue, especially at the end, when she figures out that the new King of the Rogues is Rosto. Given how both of them seem to feel about each other, though, it seems clear that this will be expanded on in the next book, "Beka Cooper: Bloodhound". I am looking forward to it very much.