11-14)Īdventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.Įlisa-Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle-has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel.

After all, the detail-oriented, plodding movement of the story-much like Beka’s own method-builds to a well-established, satisfying revelation. Despite the languid pace, Beka’s detective work will appeal not just to Pierce fans, but to lovers of police procedurals. Beka’s Tortall is clearly distinct from the 200-years-later Tortall of the Alanna books: Elizabethan-inspired (and decipherable) slang adds earthy flavor, and the thin line between crime and law shows more subtlety than the high-fantasy good and evil of Alanna’s world.

Soon she’s investigating the counterfeits in the nearby city of Port Caynn, befriending gamblers and making enemies of both magistrates and criminals. Her latest adventure starts slowly, with creeping worry about the large number of counterfeit silver coins she’s seen. Beka’s uncompromising morality will never make her popular, but it nets her a high class of friends-and gains her a new scent-hound (endearingly named Achoo), rescued from a brutal former master. In this second volume in Pierce’s historical Tortall trilogy, Beka Cooper is now a junior Dog (police officer) in the Corus slums.

Bloodhound by tamora pierce