A leviathan lurks in the ocean, threatening destruction on a grand scale, while an unorthodox, brilliant investigator and her stalwart new assistant work to solve a murder mystery that reaches into the highest levels of society and government.
“Civilization is often a task that is only barely managed. But harden your heart and slow your blood. The towers of justice are built one brick at a time. We have more to build yet.”
In Robert Jackson Bennett's novel, The Tainted Cup, he blends a rich, historical fiction-feeling story, a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-type investigatory relationship, and fascinating otherworldly fantasy and steampunk elements into a captivating story.
In a mansion in Daretana, an imperial officer lies dead--with a tree growing out of his body.
Brilliant, grumpy, extremely high-ranked detective Ana Dolabra and her inexperienced, staid, intuitive apprentice, Dinios Kol, aim to use their magical enhancements to get to the heart of what seems to be a murder--one that might threaten the whole Empire.
I was fascinated by the tone of The Tainted Cup. There's a constant looming threat of enormous ocean-dwelling leviathans threatening to break the significant walls erected to keep them out. The leviathans are grotesque, and their natures and motivations are a mystery. Human civilization has built its cities in reaction to the perceived danger from the beasts. And we find out late in the book that the monsters may be able to speak! Eeeks.
The partnership between impatient, extremely intelligent Ana and the closed-off, steady, intuitive Din was a standout. Ana is Sherlock Holmes-esque in that she holds many of the answers to the mysteries that abound--but she doles them out on a need-to-know basis.
We did not talk any more of what we’d witnessed, he at the walls and I in the city. The things we’d seen and done now felt too big for words. Silence was a better language.
The Tainted Cup explores issues of class, wealth and privilege, duty, the power of nature, handicaps and gifts, and betrayal and loyalty. I loved this book and the extended story that Robert Jackson Bennett has begun here.
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Robert Jackson Bennett is also the author of the Founders Day trilogy and the Divine Cities trilogy.
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