She’ll need all of her wits, all of her friends, and a strong arm with a baton in her quest to enforce the law. Walking with her on her rocky are as motley a crew of friends and helpers as ever the Lower City has seen: the Lord Provost himself Rosto the Piper, sheer lightning with knives, and his associates, the swordswoman Aniki and the hedgewitch Kora the lady knight Sabine the ghosts of the dead who ride on pigeon-back the city’s dust whirlwinds, who collect conversations a devoted young scent hound, and the strange, purple-eyed black cat Pounce, whose hobby is grooming heroes.īeka is pitch-forked into the realm’s deadliest crimes, from the mass murder of poor workers to conspiracies against the crown. For the first time, Pierce employs first-person narration in a novel, bringing readers so close to a character that they will love for her unusual talents and tough personality. Guiding her steps are Goodwin and Tunstall, two of the toughest Dogs in the capital, who will teach Beka the ropes-if she survives. Pierce begins a new Tortall trilogy introducing Beka Cooper, an amazing young woman who lived 200 years before Pierces popular Alanna character.

She starts right back where she came from, in the Lower City, because Beka has this funny idea that poor people deserve equal protection under the law. Beka’s brothers and sisters have honorable trades, but Beka?īeka wants to be a Provost’s Guard, or as they’re known in her time, a Provost’s Dog, the most despised, rough-and-tumble law enforcers in the realm.

In return, he took her, her dying mother, and her two younger sisters and two younger brothers into his house, to raise and educate them well above the poverty-stricken slum where he found them. When she was eight years old, Beka Cooper did the Lord Provost of Tortall a very big favor. Set 200 years before The Song of the Lioness.

Beka cooper terrier