In this second volume in Pierce’s historical Tortall trilogy, Beka Cooper is now a junior Dog (police officer) in the Corus slums. 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. Her latest adventure starts slowly, with creeping worry about the large number of counterfeit silver coins she’s seen. Soon she’s investigating the counterfeits in the nearby city of Port Caynn, befriending gamblers and making enemies of both magistrates and criminals. 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. Despite the languid pace, Beka’s detective work will appeal not just to Pierce fans, but to lovers of police procedurals. After all, the detail-oriented, plodding movement of the story—much like Beka’s own method—builds to a well-established, satisfying revelation. (Fantasy. 11-14)
