Terrier
Tamora Pierce
 The story is told in the form of a series of journal entries made by Beka Cooper as she trains to become a Dog, a nickname for the guards in the employ of the Lord Provost of Tortall, with a prelude taken from Eleni Cooper's diary in which she relates Beka's story to her son George. Beka is also the surrogate daughter of the Provost, having helped him capture a band of dangerous criminals when she was only 8 years old. Lord Gershom adopts her, her mother, and her brothers and sisters from the "scummer" life of Mutt Piddle Lane, where the very poor lived. Beka begins her training assigned as a Puppy, or a Dog in his or her first year of training, to two revered senior Dogs in the Lower City: Clara "Clary" Goodwin and Matthias "Mattes" Tunstall. Though the Dogs are initially unsure of their new charge, Beka proves to be a valuable resource, although she is extremely shy and has a hard time speaking in front of people. Through Beka's unusual magical abilities, she is able to hear the voices of ghosts who ride the backs of pigeons until they are ready to enter the Peaceful Realms of the Black God (the god of death,) and hear snippets of conversations that may contain valuable information caught by "dust spinners", swirls of breeze and dirt mixed from the city streets. From these sources she learns of two grave threats to the Lower City. One is the Shadow Snake. Old bedtime tales featured the Shadow Snake as something to instill good behaviors into children. However, a ruthless killer who abducts children has taken on the name, and uses the threat of harming the children to force their parents to give up their most prized valuable possessions, killing the kidnapped children if the price is not paid. The other threat is an unknown party who keeps hiring digging crews to search for fire opals,(rare and extremely expensive stones that not only have irresistible beauty, but supply mages with a certain power) swearing the workers to secrecy, and killing them when the job is done. Beka's determination to see both parties brought to justice will place her in the middle of a power struggle in Tortall's underworld. Beka's cat, Pounce, helps Beka throughout the book. Pounce has purple eyes and is it has been observed that he may be god marked. Tamora Pierce has noted in her blog that Pounce is the same character known as Faithful, Alanna's cat in the Song of the Lioness quartet. It is worth noting that the first name that is suggested for Faithful was "Pounce." However, in the second novel in this series it is revealed that Pounce is actually a constellation, not a god. However, he has the ability to speak, hear Beka's thoughts at close range when she wishes, and perform tasks most cats cannot. Crookshank's (Crookshank being a landlord who owns most property in the Lower City and is hated by everyone for his unfairly high rates and his cruel retaliation when rent cannot be paid) grandson, Roland, is killed by the alleged Shadow Snake. Beka is best friends with Tansy, Crookshank's daughter-in-law, which helps Beka gain extra information about what is going on in the household. Through her training as a Dog, her time spent with pigeons and Dust Spinners, and with the help of her friends Kora, Rosto, and Aniki (a mage, rusher, and a sword fighter who work for the Rogue, the king of crime in the city) Beka gains information about the opals and the Shadow Snake. She soon discovers that it is Crookshank who has been hiring the diggers to be murdered, and the Shadow Snake is demanding a large number of fire opals. After Crookshank's son has also been taken by the Snake, and he still refuses to pay up, Beka and her Dogs discover the culprit- or at least who they think is the culprit. The son of Mistress Noll, a local baker, who suicides instead of allowing himself to be captured. Beka goes to tell Mistress Noll the news and discovers it was not her son, but the mother who was the Snake, and the angry baker woman sends a curse flying at Beka. However, Pounce gets in the way and swallows the curse, giving Beka time to arrest Mistress Noll, who is later brought to justice for her crimes. Crookshank later dies in a riot, and Rosto, Beka's rusher friend, becomes Rogue.