Robert Jackson Bennet’s The Divine Cities trilogy has long been on my TBR list. When I was given the chance to read his forthcoming novel, The Tainted Cup, I jumped at the chance, and I’m extremely happy I did.

A fascinating blend of fantasy and murder mystery, the novel held my attention throughout, and in fact, it was hard to put down. It’s populated with extremely well drawn characters, even the minor ones, and the world building is some of the best I’ve read in ages. As this appears to be the first of a series, I can’t wait to read the further adventures of Ana and Din.

My profuse thanks to Del Rey Books and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I ventured outside of my typical reads for this one and I’m glad I did! It takes me a little bit to get used to the fantasy/sci-fi language, but I found the characters in The Tainted Cup to be rather remarkable. I would absolutely read more mysteries from this author. Din and Ana will be in my brain for a while. Their personalities were evident throughout the book and I enjoyed delving deeper into their pasts and presents as they worked through this mystery. I hope the author brings us along for their next adventure.

This is a murder mystery with all the twists and turns you'd expect, but something I didn't expect in a fantasy world. What a fun ride.

When a high-ranking officer is murdered by the administration of a contagion that causes a tree to erupt from his body, investigator Ana Dolabra and her new assistant Dinios Kol are tasked with finding the perpetrator. Ana, whose unorthodox methods are often at odds with her straight-arrow assistant, is quick to make associations that involve a far-ranging conspiracy. Ana and Din aren't sure how far up the imperial ranks the scheme extends, but as they close in, they realize that the Empire and perhaps their lives are in peril.

Excellently written with humor and intrigue, this story is engaging with beautiful characters, especially Ana and Din. Both are entertaining, and their combined skills make them a formidable crime-solving duo. The world they inhabit is atmospheric and dangerous. I was happy to see there will be another book set in this world with these two larger-than-life characters. If you like murder mysteries and fantasy, I highly recommend this book. 4.5/5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley and Ballantine, for a review copy in exchange for an honest review. The publication date is February 6, 2024.

I absolutely adored this book. It has a compelling mystery, interesting magic system, and political intrigue — plus the main characters are lovable. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

The Tainted Cup is pretty high on my list of anticipated reads for 2024, and it was as wonderful has I had hoped. Robert Jackson Bennett always creates worlds that feel a bit unique and interesting. The mystery is a great way to show and develop the world and the pacing was perfect to keep me engaged. This is absolutely worth checking out!

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review.

I had no idea what to expect going into this as I haven’t read anything by this author before, but I really enjoyed it! This is a murder mystery set in a fantasy world and I’ll admit it took me a little while to wrap my head around all the different terms and characters, but once I did I was hooked.

My favorite aspect of this was definitely the narrator, Din. I’m such a sucker for characters who are extremely talented and yet are completely clueless to how cool they are. He was written in a way that allowed him to be very cunning and vulnerable at the same time and I loved that.

ALSO THOSE CRUMBS OF ROMANCE BETTER NOT HAVE BEEN FOR NOTHING IF THEY DON’T COME BACK IN BOOK 2 I WILL BE SO SAD.

The setting [partial description]: a murder of a high imperial officer--a tree is growing out of his body! Ana Dolabra, a brilliant investigator is assigned to the case, Her quirks include: "...insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. " Anna is assigned new assistant, an apprentice--Dinios Kol, "...an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report..." The two uncover a scheme that threatens the Empire itself.

This book is TOTALLY out of my wheelhouse! But, I could not put it down! Highly imaginative, beautifully creative and descriptive, "a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world." At first I was unsure, but I was sucked in and became engrossed. I loved the world that the author created: engravers, sublimes, the Iudex, Iyalets, Leviathians, a wet season, and many, many other moving parts. A huge cast of characters.

Two words I had to look up: cuirass and thurible--go back to the 15th century!

I can definitely see this as a movie--sort of a space western.

In the acknowledgments, the author states that he set out to write "a fun murder mystery," but his editor set him on a slightly different path. I was totally unfamiliar with this prolific author, but will seek him out in the future.

I absolutely LOVED this. It was a delight!!

The mystery aspect was really fun and kept me invested, the characters were interesting and unique, the tone and humor were lovely, and the world is masterfully built.

I cannot WAIT to see what the rest of this trilogy brings, especially with where this ended!! So much was tied up but so much was also left open and I am desperate for more content from this world.

The characters are fascinating!! I loved Ana and Kol, but the side characters were neat too.

RJB tends to lean toward science in his novels, and as a science person I love it. His worldbuilding and explanations have such a good sense of logic to them and it’s easy for me to get into the flow of the world. The reveals and twists and plot points fit into this logic so well and I think that’s so cool!! I feel like I’d catch more on reread because I definitely missed some of the foreshadowing and clues.

The creepy plant stuff was so fun. I love creepy plant stuff.

There are clear ties to attack on Titan in this and I loved aot so that’s a win from my perspective. This is a unique twist that utilizes some concepts from aot, so it didn’t feel overdone. There seem to be a lot of anime ties in general (white haired blindfolded character who is super special and good at their job, titans, three walls, etc) which I think is so fun.

All in all - I LOVED this and I highly recommend it!!

This is a wonderful murder mystery. It includes some areas of fantasy that readers will find fascinating. The two main characters are Din and Ana who are tasked with solving the murders. The plot is intricate and keeps readers engaged until the very end. The characters are interesting and the descriptions will give readers a great sense of what they look like. The dialogue is witty and sometimes funny especially between Din and Ana. It is a great story and readers will be surprised by the ending.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett was a delightfully fun take on the classic whodunnit with a twinge of sci-fi and magic thrown in the mix. I thought the world building was tastefully done so as the reader was not overwhelmed by this new world, but there is still plenty for the reader to learn and discover in coming books.

This book follows Din an investigator assistant as they attempt to discover who killed a commander using a contagion. The contagion is very, well contagious, and kills by literally growing a tree from the poor saps body. (Pun very intended) We quickly find out that there is corruption and revenge at the heart of the matter resulting in multiple answers to the whodunnit mystery. I loved both Din and the main investigator Ana.

Additional details are posted on my blog which is linked below. https://jewelz93.wixsite.com/found-books/post/the-tainted-cup

If you like a Sherlock Holmes-type mystery within a SFF setting, look no further! This is for you. I wasn't familiar with Robert Jackson Bennett; I picked the book because of its cover (it's so beautiful), plus it's a mystery, so what a treat!
The worldbuilding is spectacular. I could imagine this new world perfectly. I loved the main characters, Ana and Din; their relationship is enjoyable, and I was looking forward to their banter. There are some graphic, gruesome descriptions (during fights or murders), but overall, I manage to keep my food down. So, are you looking for a new world to immerse yourself in? Visit the Empire; you won't regret it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group—Ballantine for the e-arc.

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-ARC of this title.

I don't read much fantasy, so I wasn't sure about this title when it was offered by the publisher, but I've heard good things about the author, so I decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. This didn't feel like high fantasy, just some fantasy elements, and I really enjoyed the book.

3 stars for "I liked it"

3.5 stars, rounded up.

The Tainted Cup is a fantasy murder mystery, set in a world with a complex governing/policing/military structure centered around using plants and the blood of leviathans (think giant monstrous “cosmic horror” creatures) to augment humans.

Things that worked really well: unique “magic” system (again, it’s more like a science that enhances humans to have certain strengths that often align with their professions: super strength, the ability to see in the dark, perfect memory, etc), complex murder plot interwoven with more than a little conspiracy, a main character with dyslexia, casual queerness, and a self-contained story (no cliffhanger, no real unanswered questions, could easily be read as a standalone but still gives us opportunity for more books with these characters). Din (our main character) has the augmentation to give him a perfect memory (what they call being an Engraver), but he’s dyslexic, so any written words he sees shudder and dance and he cannot remember them unless he either reads the words out loud to himself and remembers the sound or traces the letters and remembers the movement. I really liked that his “magic” didn’t negate his disability, and instead he finds and uses a workaround.

Things that didn’t work so well: it took way too long to understand the sociopolitical structure and the Iyalets (the aforementioned governing/policing/military body), we didn’t introduce the plant-based science/magic early enough (everything is plants and I found it very confusing in the beginning), it was a rather slow build (so while I thoroughly enjoyed the second half, the first half took a long time to really take off).

I also loved Foundryside by this author but was thoroughly disappointed by the other two books in that trilogy, so I’ll proceed with caution as the rest of this series gets published.

The Tainted Cup is just a fabulous, fabulous read. I really loved this story, which is Book 1 of the Shadow of the Leviathan series. Robert Jackson Bennett has mastered worldbuilding and penning stories with depth. This novel made me smile so many times, with it's quiet humor slipped in among a very interesting cast of characters trying to solve a great mystery, while under the shadow of destruction. My only quibble is that of COURSE there had to be a gay/fluid? character thrown in, totally unnecessary to the storyline, however quiet and minimal that part of the story line was. Still, I highly recommend this wonderful start to a new series to anyone who loves fantasy/mystery. I enjoyed this story even better than his last Locklands trilogy. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine for the e-arc. Solid 4 1/2 stars!

This is my first foray into Robert Jackson Bennett, having had some of his novels on my radar for some time. Really enjoyed diving into the world of Daretana, learning about the various cantons (I'm a sucker for a good world map behind the front cover) and the ever impending threat of the Leviathans. I especially enjoyed the banter between Ana and Din, our two main investigators looking into the gruesomely bizarre murder of a high ranking official within the empire. The magic system in the story is also quite easy to follow, and helps develop along various plot points. Overall, I recommend this book for those mystery fans looking for a fantasy twist to their stories. Looking forward to the sequel!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

The genre label of fantasy too often brings with it a pre-packaged plot - an epic quest to save the world, a lost noble eager to reclaim their birthright, etc. This is especially frustrating because at its best, fantasy is a mood, a mode of writing, a rich tradition of bright colors and imaginative worlds, a focus on the strange and the truly magical. It should be possible to tell any number of types of stories steeped in the flavor of imaginary worlds. As I’ve written before, too many fantasy is beholden to the Standard Fantasy Setting. But it’s also beholden to the Standard Fantasy Narrative.

Robert Jackson Bennett (author of two recent fantasy trilogies of compelling worlds) begins his newest trilogy with The Tainted Cup, a mystery novel first and foremost; a Sherlockian puzzler set in a genuinely interesting new world, one where an all-powerful Empire keeps its genetically-modified populace safe behind walls, protected from the annual sea-born kaiju attacks. Lots of fantasy series begin with a compelling mystery and then spiral outward to their more sweeping plot, but The Tainted Cup makes sure to keep its central mystery at the heart of the book’s focus, while other, more widespread issues brew in the background.

Our Watsonian protagonist is Din, a taciturn bisexual apprentice investigator augmented to remember everything he experiences, who carries around vials of unique smells to better access the memories down the line. His Sherlockian superior is Ana, an middle-aged woman and genius investigator, with all the required quirks and oddities, like her habit of wearing a blindfold to improve her other senses, her blunt disregard for social norms, and a fascination with psychedelics. She’s also something of a stimulation-avoidant recluse, which results in her sending Din into the belly of the beast to do his own investigation, before reporting back to her with the exacting detail only someone with perfect memory could achieve. Their first case together is the mysterious death of a high-ranking military officer, found in a noble family’s extant villa skewered by rapid-growing, razor-sharp “dapplegrass” that burst through his body. As might be expected, Din and Ana investigating this one murder spirals into a full-blown conspiracy, one that’s remarkably adept at keeping the reader on their toes, providing just the right amount of answers and new questions.

I’m culturally familiar with the Sherlockian mystery format through its adaptations on the screen, but I’ve never read any of the stories, or much in the mystery genre, so take this part with a big helping of salt if you’re a more established reader of the genre. I found the mystery intriguing, but I’m not the type of reader to consciously try to puzzle out the answer. Maybe my general knowledge of storytelling tropes results in me guessing what’s coming next, but it’s never a focused effort. That being said, I let myself be swept up in the ride, and didn’t really guess or predict exactly what happened; because the story is set in a world we don’t know, and Bennett has complete control over what basic information we learn, it’s hard, if not impossible, to guess.

Despite my real admiration and enjoyment of Bennett’s previous works, I do think they are an example of the kind of contemporary SFF that’s exciting in the moment but ultimately hard to remember in retrospect. I can’t quite put my finger on what causes this quality in his writing, because the worlds are unique and the characters are fun and engaging. Maybe it’s just the inevitable consequence of writing books that are so damn fun and go down so easy; they invite a kind of rapid binge-reading that doesn’t tend to engraving the memories of the specifics. Or maybe, it’s just me.

Either way, The Tainted Cup is a fun mystery novel set in a unique fantasy setting, one that takes advantage of its SFF imagination to give its characters supernatural abilities and flaws that result in types of problems and solutions impossible to get in a more realistic novel. The combination of the two genres is what gives the novel its strength, but may prove an obstacle if you only enjoy one of the two. If you like mysteries but not fantasies, you’ll probably bounce of its weird magical world. And if you like fantasies but not mysteries, you’ll be frustrated in how the plot stays focused on the case instead of the weird stuff happening just beyond the edges of the narrative. But if you like both, I’d definitely recommend giving it a read.

The Tainted Cup is set to publish on February 6, 2024. It is the first in an expected trilogy.

There are a few tropes and subgenres that I will always jump at the chance to read and a good fantasy-mystery is one of those things. Much to my delight, The Tainted Cup is a return to the investigative bureaucrat theme that I so loved with City of Stairs. Robert Jackson Bennett has knocked it out of the park with yet another series opener, introducing readers to an incredibly unique fantasy world that begins with gruesome murder.
I think the official synopsis is quite thorough, so I’ll largely skip the usual summary I do and skip straight to the good bits. When Din and Ana are assigned to the murder investigation of an Imperial officer who spontaneously grew a tree, the duo quickly begin to uncover a case much deeper than Din could have ever anticipated. Though the empire they live in is structured and highly centered around the upkeep of the sea walls, there is plenty of room for corruption and graft by the wealthiest families. The crime initially appears to be one of targeted assassination and possibly even domestic terrorism and the investigation takes Ana and Din to the largest city in the next province. Closer to the sea walls, where the horrifying leviathans move toward the sea walls as the rainy season begins.
The foundation that makes for such a darkly engaging story has to be the lush, vegetal world this book is set in. So much of the empire centers around plants - their modification, their ability to mutate and create contagion, and even their heavy use in everyday life for something as simple as building materials. And did I mention the leviathans??? The giant horrors that rumble beneath the sea and move toward the lands of the empire during the rainy season, destroying the sea walls and then the cities beyond. The defense of the land from these unfathomable titans is also a major, grounding feature of this story and makes the murder of the imperial engineers a weighty, significant event meriting this deep dive investigation.
I loved both Din and Ana and the Holmes and Watson vibe mentioned in the synopsis is absolutely spot on. Ana is brilliant, so much so that even leaving her home could overwhelm her mind and cause that sharp mind to cut itself and she’s definitely not above engaging in questionable practices. Din, engraved to have perfect recall, acts as her eyes and ears and does the leg work required on such a complicated case even if that takes him into dangerous territory. The reader is following Din, so I felt the most connected to him and loved that though nervous about screwing up his first ‘real’ assignment, Din wasn’t above a legally gray decision either!
I completely loved the mystery element and I didn’t feel like there was some brilliant, totally unguessable reveal at the end. In hindsight, I felt like there were hints about what was actually going on and who was responsible for the multiple deaths throughout the book. Robert Jackson Bennett didn’t just yank away a table cloth, reveal some unknown killer and wham, magical murder reveal! This was good stuff. There are so many layers to this mystery that just kept getting peeled away until the reveal at the end. I can’t wait to see what cases Ana and Din will tackle next.
Though this doesn’t release until February 2024, I couldn’t resist reading this early and it made my list of Best Books of 2023. I wholeheartedly loved the story for all it was - beautiful, terrifying world, the characters, the compelling mystery plot. This is a book I will be purchasing a physical copy of and I’m hoping The Broken Binding will be doing a special edition because the UK cover is awesome. I can’t recommend this enough - get your pre-orders in so you can jump on the hype train for this expertly plotted Holmesian mystery.

From the author that brought us the incredible The Founders Triolgy we have an amazing great book! Integrating a Sherlock Holmes type mystery within a fantasy setting. As someone who has gotten more into mystery books the past year this hit the spot. This had well developed characters, which i come to expect from Robert Jackson Bennett. I enjoyed the witness of Ana. I really enjoyed the overall premise of this story and really am excited to see what Robert brings us next!

What an excellent book! If the book has a map, I'm going to love it.

I enjoyed many aspects of this book: there was the perfect amount of setting and worldbuilding, giving enough info to follow the story but not too much to get bogged down in history. The characters were all interesting and dynamic - and if there's a Sherlock/Watson parallel going on, I'm sold. Din was such an interesting protagonist, capable in his own right but anxious.

Cannot wait for more installments in this series!

Thank you to NetGalley, Ballantine/Del Rey, and Robert Jackson Bennett for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

"The Tainted Cup" impressed me a lot. It was my first encounter with the author, so I kept my mind open. The first thing that stole my heart is the unique world-building that, so close to our world, has its names and rules. We follow a young apprentice to a slightly eccentric detective who is given a task to solve the murder of some prominent political figure. Of course, the intrigue runs deep and nothing is the way it seems. With Sherlock - Holmes bickering of main characters, and even pacing, I enjoyed this fantasy mystery. Another thing that made me feel at home was narration. The mystery is our main character here. If someone is not a fan of fantasy, this would not stop understanding and enjoying the ride. The scheme is so intricate yet smartly built that I couldn't figure it out on my own - which is a good thing in the end. One last thing: the characters themselves. Our main couple deserves their fandom, mostly because they are so well-built they pop out from a page. The background characters add so much to the story as well. It doesn't happen very often, but they had so much personality that the book would not work at all without them. Despite being out next year (2024 here we come!) it will show up on my top 2023 list.