Terrier

Tamora Pierce

Beka is a lower city Dog, a lawkeeper. With interesting informants, or Birdies, she must solve a number of unknown crimes in an area that noone else seems to care about.

I love Beka. She’s a heroine with faults, which makes her ever so much more likeable. And she is aware of most of those, which endears the reader to her even more.

When I read this novel for the first time, I hated the journal format, longing for the more familiar third person prose of Pierce’s other books. I settled into it though, and now I really appreciate that the action is compacted.

The dust spinners and pigeons add a bit of light heartedness to the novel. Who ever hear of the dead and voices speaking through those? Pounce too adds a little humour. There’s little to laugh about most of the time, Beka is so serious about her job.

The ending of this novel comes as a bit of a surprise, or at least some parts of it do, so that makes it way more exciting. A good, solid teenage read that I’d recommend to any teenager who loves fantasy and strong female heroines.