Book Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Twenty-year-old Dinius Kol is determined to do his best out in the backwaters of the empire. Whatever it takes, he’ll earn his much-needed paycheck in order to send money back home to his distant family. When maverick Imperial Investigator Ana Dolabra arrives in his remote province, he fights to become her assistant. 

Fast forward a handful of months, and the newly minted Assistant Investigator has successfully helped Ana uncover several instances of payroll fraud while humoring her eccentricities. Most notable of these is her refusal to leave her house. Witnesses are brought to her instead, or Din is sent out to gather information for her. In this last, he’s aided by the elective augmentation he underwent in order to advance his career and position in the imperial hierarchy:

The great and heavenly Empire of Khanum had long ago perfected the art of shaping life, root and branch and flesh and bone. [I], as an Imperial engraver, had been altered to remember everything I experienced, always and forever.

 

I looked and looked [at the crime scene], occasionally sniffing at the vial in my hand. Engravers remembered everything, but later recalling those memories quickly and easily was another thing. Scent was used as a cue: just like ordinary folk, engravers associated memories with an aroma so later, when I reported to my master, I would uncork this same vial, fill my skull with these same vapors, and use their scent as a gateway to recall all I’d experienced.

When a gruesome murder takes place on the country estate of the Hazas, a wealthy family of landed gentry, Din is tasked with investigating the scene, interrogating the witnesses and reporting everything back to Ana. The murder victim had been an important engineer in charge of supervising the empire’s fortifications against the monstrous Leviathans that threaten humanity from the sea. None of the Hazas had been in residence at the time of Commander Blas’ death, but someone on the grounds had definitely been involved.

Din finds himself encountering unexpected resistance as he investigates the exotic murder, in large part due to his own unassuming appearance and the unusual circumstances of having an absent supervisor. He acquits himself well, however, later earning rare praise from his eccentric boss after asking:

“Did I not meet your expectations in this regard, ma’am?” I asked, worried.

 

“Oh, no, no. You did fine, Din. I mean, if I’d been in your boots, I’d have found that fucker of a housekeeper’s wine cup and dumped in a thimble of ground glass. But really, for your first murder investigation, you did phenomenal–walking up to a Haza estate and interrogating each witness is not something many people would have managed so well.”

 

“Thank you, ma’am,” I said, pleased.

 

“In fact, Din, I’d say you have the exact right appetite for blank, bloody-minded drudgery that makes an assistant investigator excel.”

 

“Thank you, ma’am,” I said, far less pleased.

Between them, Din and Ana realize that the commander’s death is no isolated incident, but is part of a greater threat to the empire. Forced to travel to the sea front, they uncover perilous danger from mortal killers, even as monsters lurk in the turbulent waters. But they also discover that they’re keeping secrets from one another, secrets that could prove even more deadly than any external threat to their lives.

Robert Jackson Bennett is a master of world-building: I adored the first two books of his Founders Trilogy, even as I’m trying to find time to finish reading the series. When I learned that he was writing a classic murder mystery set in another fantasy world, I knew that he would knock it out of the park. And with The Tainted Cup, he certainly has! Brilliant, sarcastic Ana is the spiritual successor to celebrated detectives like Nero Wolfe and Sherlock Holmes. Refreshingly, Din isn’t wholly eclipsed by his boss, as Wolfe’s and Holmes’ sidekicks too often were. The way that he and Ana learn about and to trust each other is vindication for any reader who’s ever felt that Archie Goodwin and John Watson never got enough appreciation.

Most importantly of all, this is just such a fun, compelling read! I finished all four hundred plus pages in less than twenty-four hours, so enthralled was I by the writing and plot of this terrific and very human mystery. Khanum, with its strange monsters and technology, feels as easily accessible to the imagination as any real-life foreign or historical land due to Mr. Bennett’s skill at spinning a yarn, rooting the unfamiliar and fantastical in the utterly believable. While this novel is complete on its own, I genuinely can’t wait to read the rest of this series!