This was a refreshing take on a murder mystery, with quite a bit more fantasy woven in than I had anticipated. It definitely took my full attention to keep up with the world building as well as the mystery, but the characters are great and the plot is exciting and puzzling (in a good way). Excited to see this is the start of a series. ( )

This book was so unique. It's set in a fantasy world where humans enhanced with magical gifts ( if they can afford them) live in fear of Leviathans in the sea breaking through boundary walls to destroy their communities. But the core of the story is a murder mystery-- actually multiple grisly murders. The investigators are an appealing Sherlock Holmes-ish older woman and a newly minted recruit who is a young man. They have a quirky relationship and spin out the investigation in a brilliant way. Highly recommend this one!! ( )

Well wasn't this one a pleasant surprise.

Not that I should be surprised...Robert Jackson Bennett has never let me down. I've always enjoyed each of his novels that I've read...yet...weirdly...for some reason, perhaps based on the book's description, I rarely expect to.

But this one? Hmmm...I still think American Elsehwere is his best, but this is a very close second.

Yes, it's in a fantasy world setting, so...how to describe this? Imagine if Terry Pratchett joined forces with Jonathan Maberry, mashing their fantasy worlds of Discworld and Kagen together, then Pratchett wrote his own Holmes and Watson characters, making Sherlock far more housebound and feral and foulmouthed and calling her Ana Dolabra, and Watson far younger, far less sure of himself, and responsible for being Ana's bloodhound and eyes on the ground, and calling him Dinios Kol, or Din.

The rest of the story should be enjoyed as it unfolds, with no spoilers. But it's a mystery within a mystery within a mystery, and it's so much fun.

Easily one of my favourite novels of the year. ( )

I've been a fan of Robert Bennett Jackson's fiction since "City of Stairs," so my expectations for this new trilogy were rather high. This being the case, I'm pleased to report that Bennett's new novel is all that I've hoped for, as one starts out immediately with the murder investigation, set in an empire that functions on the basis of what could be best called bio-alchemy; a by product of said empire's giant monster problem. All the action is presented to the reader from the perspective of one Dinios Kol, a rather callow young man who is hanging onto his place in the imperial bureaucracy by the skin of his teeth. I'm not going to give away anymore, this being a murder mystery after all, but if you've ever enjoyed Bennett's previous books, you owe it to yourself to read this one, and it might also be a good place to start if you haven't previously indulged. I have no qualms giving it top marks. ( )

The Tainted Cup begins with a strange and extraordinary death and Dinios Kol is dispatched to investigate. He is an assistant to a remarkable detective named Ana Dolabra in a relationship analogous to Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. Like Wolfe, Ana doesn’t go out and about but relies on Kol, (her Archie) to investigate for her. Unlike Archie, Kol has been genetically modified to enhance his observation and recall to be a sort of human videographer.

That people can be genetically and surgically altered to specialize in specific careers is just one of the ways technology makes the world Robert Jackson Bennett built so intriguing. In many ways, it feels medieval with city states dominated by land barons allied with a nominal king. However, it is also a technologically advanced civilization if you imagine an Industrial Revolution dominated by the doctors and gardeners rather than engineers. There is advance genetic and surgical technology to make people specialists in their various fields and plants are the foundation of commerce. Houses are grown. Plants provide the lighting, the furnishings, and just about all the stuff of physical culture. A plant is also the murder weapon.

Kol investigates and brings back the information that has been imprinted with his total recall. Ana makes amazing leaps of logic and intuition. They work together well despite being very different. Kol is stern and legalistic. His face might crack if he smiles while Ana seeks illicit drugs, makes inappropriate comments, and throws herself at life with abandon. What made them and how do they accomodate and adjust to each other while solving the mstery. Well, that’s for you to find out.

The Tainted Cup is a fantasy thriller that combines the political intrigue of a thriller with the conventions of a police procedural. It is nothing like what the members of the Detection Club imagined, but this book follows its rules. While yes, the technology is not of our world, it is all natural technology of their own world. So a fair murder mystery with an Archie & Wolfe detective team engaged in solving murders and political coups in a fantastical world very different yet similar to our own. What can I call it but a tour de force.

I received an e-galley of The Tainted Cup from the publisher through NetGalley

The Tainted Cup at Penguin Random House
Robert Jackson Bennett author site

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