2011 book 318

Tamora Pierce's Terrier: The Legend of Beka Cooper
Pierce is one of those authors whose books I always hear good things about, but for some reason had never read--and I'm glad I finally changed that, b/c this was a solid book. This really hit a lot of my buttons--it's a YA fantasy, but it's a mystery at its core (although I guessed the villain really early on, it was still a satisfying read). The heroine is a great character (though her shyness is made too much of early on), just out of training to be what is basically a junior police officer in a crime-ridden world. And she's driven to solve two sets of crimes--who's kidnapping small children for ransom, and one involving some missing men--with the help of her magical cat and the ghosts she can hear. Because she has a magical cat and can hear ghosts, of course! But Pierce's storytelling makes it all work (and made me cry more than once). A/A-.