The provost guards of [Beka Cooper's] time, the cops, are called Provost Dogs, and their trainees are called puppies. The book begins with her first day, her first week, her training season when she is sent with two training dogs to learn the craft of being a Provost Dog.
Mongo is defined by the Cassell Dictionary of Slang as "any discarded object that is retrieved." That's a pretty tame definition that doesn't begin to describe the many variations of trash-foraging that goes on in big cities like New York. When Ted Botha moved to New York in the '90s he found most of the furniture for his apartment on the street. Now Botha takes us into the world of collectors, voyeurs, and treasure seekers.