Robert Jackson Bennett: The Tainted Cup Review

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.
 

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.
 

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.
 

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.
 

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.
 

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.

Imagine a fantasy world with an affinity for plants. Now in a pot, throw in the essence of a monster-filled world, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, dark academia alchemy, and an Agatha Christie complete collection. What you get is Robert Jackson Bennett’s impeccably crafted and compelling The Tainted Cup, the first novel in what has since become the Shadow of the Leviathan series. While considered a high fantasy novel to be expected from RJB, at its core The Tainted Cup is a brilliantly written serial murder mystery thriller embellished with a distinctly unique and creative fantasy wrapping. Featuring a complex and twisty murder investigation, a lavishly developed fantasy world, not to mention a charming pair of off-beat main characters, The Tainted Cup is an incredibly cool genre bender that I loved every minute of.

“Projecting motives is a fool’s game. But how they do it- that’s a matter of matter, moving real things about in real space.”

In the world of the Tainted Cup, the Imperial Empire maintains a series of hulking walls that are designed to keep giant leviathan monsters in the bordering seas from invading and destroying everything in their path (think of Attack on Titan but in the ocean). Within the empire, there are distinct territories that are run by an established hierarchy of officials. And within each area, there is an official investigator who is assisted by their assistant tasked with solving all mysteries, cases, or crimes that occur under their jurisdiction. Dinios Kol is a new apprentice assistant investigator four months on the job after being selected by Ana Dolabra, a brilliant and unmatched investigator who’s also known for her numerous eccentricities and frank cadence. In a world where individuals are enhanced by synthetic alterations, Din is an engraver who has the ability to perfectly remember anything seen or experienced while Ana is a genius who refuses to leave her home and spends most of her days blindfolded. Responding to a reported murder of an empire official killed in a peculiar and agriculturally gruesome manner, Din and Ana are soon drawn into a growing serial murder mystery plot that not only poses political threats within the empire’s outposts, but also the integrity of the very walls that protect it from the monstrous leviathans on the other side.

While the fantasy world is wonderfully presented (more on that shortly), it’s the murder mystery investigation that holds the most weight which the novel thankfully delivers. I had heard a lot about RJB’s fantasy novels but as a lover of both fantasy and murder mystery genres, The Tainted Cup sounded like the perfect read for me. Although RJB is known as a fantasy and sci-fi author rather than a mystery writer, frankly you would never know by how skillfully crafted and plotted the story is. From start to finish, the murder investigation is compelling, twisty, not to mention consistently smart whenever Ana and occasionally Din drop huge developments or reveals. As the story progresses, so too does the scope of the murders and the complexity of the whodunnit and why dunnit. In the author’s acknowledgements, RJB mentions that his inspiration was classic mystery novels in addition to civil servants and builders/catalogers of America. Without giving away any spoilers, the intent to highlight the thankless civil servants that conduct their work in the face of corruption, political pressure, and external influences is all highlighted and featured via the direction of the story and more importantly, the final reveal of full picture scheme. But on a simpler level, The Tainted Cup is simply very entertaining to read and the pacing of the investigations, the clues, the bits of action in-between insightful deductions, its fantastic work.

No doubt a major contributor to why this novel is so popular and fun to read is its lovable two main characters Din and Ana, and their quirky yet trusting teamwork and amazing chemistry. A lot of other readers that likened Din and Ana’s camaraderie to something like Sherlock Holmes and Watson which is a winning formula to begin with. Ana’s character is also like Sherlock crossed with the gross curiosity and macabre fascination of Hannibal Lector (without Hannibal’s serial killer thing), which is all the more amusing when paired against the cautious, reserved, and fresh on the job Din. With the story told solely through Din’s inquisitive yet often baffled narration, the character banter and teamwork just works really well, not to mention often hilariously pitched.

What I found particularly interesting about Din and Ana’s relationship is the age gap between the two investigators. While Din is in his mid 20’s, Ana is far older in her 50’s(?) which opens the door for a lot of fun shenanigans while also having Ana serve as a mentor  and guardian to him. More importantly with the direction a lot of the fantasy genre has been moving in recent years, I found it so refreshing that there is zero romance between Din and Ana where so many other novels would’ve included it to attract romantasy readers or for more mainstream appeal. The Tainted Cup is a pure fantasy book through and through and it has the confidence that Din and Ana will charm the reader on their own character merits and developments. I will note though, there is an extremely light M/M romantic interest in the story and an on-page kiss that would have some people classify the Tainted Cup as queer literature. Personally, I wouldn’t classify this novel under queer literature as it’s so brief, minor and irrelevant to the overall scope of the story, but it is worth mentioning for those interested. In general, RJB’s works have had good queer and disabled representation across both principal and minor background characters, especially his later works like The Founders Trilogy and The Shadows of Leviathan.

Although this series is primarily a mystery thriller in nature, the Tainted Cup is without a doubt also a solid fantasy novel. The empire’s extensive lore and history with the leviathans, the heavy presence of magical elements (I would classify this as sort of dark academia x dark fantasy), the interesting human alterations and enhancements featured, this is most definitely high fantasy. Like RJB’s past works, the world feels like a hybrid between fantasy and sci-fi concepts and in the Tainted Cup’s case, one applied to plant life and growth. The murders involve quite literally death by plants, the various states of the empire are focused on growing components or resources used to synthesize these human enhancements, buildings, lighting, even air conditioning are plant or fungi-based, is there such a thing as plant-punk? The world is a unique and memorable one and the fantasy elements are seamlessly incorporated into every aspect of the murder mystery crimes and investigations. Particularly cool is the way Din’s photogenic engraver memory skills work and the way he can recall past experiences. The method by which he remembers past moments in addition to how versatile and creative his skill is utilized is a treat. And while the often-mentioned leviathan threats mostly play a secondary role as a looming threat over dire circumstances, they’re also well conceptualized and presented.

Featuring an excellent murder mystery plot investigation, a great pair of lead characters as well as a supporting cast, not to mention a unique and distinctive fantasy world, The Tainted Cup truly has it all. Pulling for different genres and influences, the story seamlessly mixes together all of its different elements while delivering a consistently compelling and exciting reading experience (I’ve read several other fantasy murder mystery novels that were far less successful or graceful with similar genre bending). But on a basic reading level, the story is just so cool and refined that I just want more and more of it. At the time of this review, the second novel in the series A Drop of Corruption was published two months ago and RJB has officially confirmed a third is in the works. The world is developed very well and so little of it has been explored so far, I cannot wait to see where the series goes, especially since Din and the reader haven’t even experienced the Empire’s wealthy and affluent inner circle yet. I highly recommend the Tainted Cup to anyone remotely a fan of fantasy or murder mystery books and this is comfortably one of my favorite reads of the year so far!

Note: As a random side note, this is my first book and pick after joining Aardvark Book Club! I will be doing a separate blog post about my experiences with Aardvark so far, but I have been enjoying it a lot and am impressed with the physical quality of their books. I also read the Aardvark special edition of the Tainted Cup with features beautiful gold foil detailing on the hardcover book which is not typically for Aardvark hardcovers which I will also be reviewing in a separate and upcoming set of new reviews specially focused on the customizations of special edition books soon!