If Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a futuristic murder mystery with the threats of Leviathans to destroy an empire...it'd be this book. The Leviathans are secondary to the run of the mill murder mystery (it's not really your average death and all but the bones is it are there) so it's interesting and fun and the characters are great. I didn't know what to expect going in but I very thoroughly enjoyed it once I got my head around the basics. An excellent new team of investigators is here!

I enjoyed the world building of this story. The mystery was engaging enough that it kept me turning the pages. I recommend this to fans of fantasy and mysteries.

Hilarious, complex, everything you love about the first book in what looks to be a sprawling epic fantasy world. Economics, power hungry, and enough mystery left to leave me excited for book 2.

The banter between Ana and Dinios is top notch. Their vastly different life experiences make them the perfect duo to go on a quest. We get bits and pieces of their past throughout the story, and each nuggets of Ana's creates more of a mystery around the characters leaving us with a nice pay off by the end of the book.

The way the author plays with economics, and social constructions is fascinating. There are so many moving parts that we get snippets of it feels like a lot of care and thought went into the world building. Especially how the magic system works. I am 100% here for worlds that realize with great power, comes great sacrifice.

As fast as the mystery goes, everything is not what it seems in so many ways. Each character has many motivations for wanting specifics people dead and there's a lot to unpack. Which is crazy when you think about the magical ability Dinios has. But it goes to show, even if you have the majority of the pieces, you still don't know the whole story.

Not to mention the epic 'monsters' that I am dying to know more about. We only glimpse the reason for the walls and science, but I am on edge to get more backstory on how they fit into the world. This book was packed full of suspense all the way to the end of the story.

You'll enjoy this book if you love multi level epic fantasies that create series long mysteries while solving single book mysteries. It's got chosen one vibes, with the crotchety wise one, wrapped up in a sea of 'anyone's a suspect' characters.

Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy of this book!

Having read a number of other books by Robert Bennett, I had high expectations for "The Tainted Cup." I am delighted to report that this is another excellent book. It is a mystery/fantasy/survival/discovery story set in a complex and thought provoking yet understanding and interesting world. I found this story to so completely entertaining and engaging that I really had a hard time putting it down. And I really look forward to Bennett's next mystery in the same setting. I recommend this for anyone that enjoys mysteries, fantasy, or adventure novels.

I thank Robert Jackson Bennet and Del Rey for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this excellent work.

Do you like the stories of Sherlock Holmes? Do you like Fantasy worlds with a ton of world building? Do you like political mysteries? Then this one is for you!

The story follows Ana, our investigator and Din, her assistant as they track down a murderer. Ana is absolutely wonderfully written--she's snarky, she's brilliant, and she's hilarious. Din is a young man with his first real job, and is determined to follow all of the rules to a T. The added bonus? Din has been augmented with a true photographic memory--he remembers EXACTLY everything that he sees, hears, and smells with EVERY interaction. The murders? Politically driven with a small catch--most of the victims have died from an explosion of trees coming out of their body from a suspected contagion that is HIGHLY contagious. Not enough? Oh, they're running out of time to solve this before the leviathans destroy the sea wall and come to overtake the city.

The worldbuilding is beautiful and very detailed but doesn't bog down the story as often can happen. In fact, there were moments where I actually wish there had been more worldbuilding and more explanation of the history or the landscape of a new area. Ana and Din have such a fun dynamic that reminds me a lot of the BBC version of Sherlock--it works very well and I wish there was more of it!

The mystery itself is pretty simple and easy to solve yourself if you're a mystery reader, but it was still a fun story to read through. The story is a little on the slower side, but it's still an interesting read, and I'm looking forward to reading more about this world.

Such an amazing story and such unique and interesting world building. Loved the plot and characters and the mystery driven story telling.

The Tainted Cup is my first read by Robert Jackson Bennett and was certainly very enjoyable!
What initially drew me to this book was its description of a murder mystery in a fantasy setting, full of magic elements. This book surely delivered what it promised. Personally, it was a slow beginning for me because I was adjusting to the (very intricate and cool) worldbuilding and the terminology but the book’s pace itself was perfectly adequate. It starts right away with the action and only keeps building from there. I loved the characters, especially Din, and the relationships between them. The different layers to the murder plotline were also definitely a strength of this book. I think this is one of those books you wish to re-read even after you already have just to see what details or cues you missed before. I know that many people are wary of on-screen book adaptations but this book makes me curious about what it may look like and how it may translate visually. Can’t wait for the book’s release date (to get a copy for myself!) and any subsequent books.

I am not an avid fan of fantasy books but I love mysteries. However, this book blended both together with such smoothness that it was a very enjoyable read. The author did an outstanding job of creating a fantasy world with such great details that you could almost believe you had been there. The main characters that reminded you a lot of Sherlock and Watson were super investigators who solved the mysterious deaths that had confused others.
This is a great standalone book but I think that it would also make a great series.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel.

I tend to keep my fantasy and mystery stories separate so it's a refreshing change when I find a book that does both really well. The world-building so familiar to readers of fantasy is some of the best I've read, and the mystery is tightly plotted and laid out with some cleverness.

I hope to see more blends of genres in future releases from this author!

Immensely readable murder-mystery/fantasy combo featuring characters I can't wait to read more about in sequels!

Frankly, this book fucking rocked. I am not the target audience for mysteries normally but I really got into the way the mystery(ies) at the center of this story pulled you through learning about the world, which was FASCINATING. I am also terrible at translating visual descriptions in text to anything worthwhile in my brain but I spent the time to attempt it with this book because it really laid out a sense of place. I have every intention of reading it again when it comes out because?? I cannot wait until the next one!! (And yet I must). I haven't even gotten to the characters yet, but this book did a great job at filling out a pretty large cast. Our two main investigators in the center were both great, and I especially liked that I felt Ana's eccentricities were humanized, rather her just being ~quirky~ for quriky's sake. Also, and this always helps, it is gay. Have I mentioned?? that I want!!! the next book!! now!

PS I made a joke close to the end that I was too quick to decide who the culprit is of the mystery but it turned out!! That I guessed correctly and I feel very chuffed by that and think it's the mark of a good mystery that you have any chance of solving it yourself. :D

This is SUCH a cool new world! I went into this book with no expectations or knowledge of Bennett as an author. I simply thought the description of this book sounded cool and interesting and different and I was right! It is a murder mystery at its heart, but the methods used are extremely unique. The characters are all extremely well written and developed, and the world! the world is incredible.

Its a complex and often complicated world, with what I would call magic at the center of it, but Bennett does a wonderful job introducing the reader to each aspect of the world until it really sinks in and makes it easy for the reader to simply exist in the world. The things they talk about don't seem fantastical; they seem like they could be every day occurrences.

Part of the appeal of the description of this was billing it as a bit of a holmes and watson buddy novel, and boy let me tell you, it WORKS. neither character, Ana nor Din, truly resemble those counterparts (not only because Ana is a woman) but you can understand the logic. Ana, as our holmes stand-in, is incredible. She is such a unique character and she is hilarious, often because of how other characters react to her. She spends a lot of time talking/explaining, but it doesnt feel like information dump. It feels like someone who is smarter than you taking you to task. It just works so well.

There are still so many questions I have about this world and I hope they get answered in subsequent books!

Anything I finish reading and want to read all over again deserves five stars, right? Having patiently waited for RJB to finish up his YA series that began with Foundryside, when I learned his newest was a mystery wrapped in a fantasy, I was at Netgalley two seconds later. I found it to be an utterly absorbing mystery that kept shifting, RJB-like, under my feet. A murder investigation. No, a coming-of-age. No, a political fantasy. No, a murder investigation. No… well, I don’t want to spoil it. Let me just say that I found it rather delightful how my expectations were simultaneously met and thwarted.

In the afterward, RJB writes, “I’d had the idea of writing a fun murder mystery novel for a while, and then I sat down and pumped out something that was very decisively not a murder mystery novel… I then had to go through the rather tempestuous process of chucking it in the garbage and starting over.” But I find myself wondering what remained from that early process? Was it a full on, ecological-disaster fantasy novel? Was it this strangely genetically-obsessed culture, that had no problems with modifying the life around them in service of their needs? The giant mushrooms as room air purifiers and sheets of fernpaper leaves as housing material (useful in a tremor-quake prone land) were just the tip of the fascinating iceberg in this world. The story is told from a first-person point of view, and while immersive, I thought it did a nice job of providing information and contextual clues without overwhelming with weirdness.

I thought the characterization was well done. More than a couple passages brought me back to a post from K.J. Charles about indirect characterization. Din is our narrator, a young man who has finally been selected into the ranks of the Sublimes a mere four months ago. He has been assigned to Ana, a somewhat eccentric new Investigator, assigned to Din’s very outlying district in a very new position. Din finds himself wondering if she’s been exiled from the Empire’s center.

“She went totally still. And for the first time that day, all the wild madness in her eyes went dead. ‘My goodness gracious,’ she murmured. ‘Did you hear that, Din?’ ‘Hear what, ma’am?’ ‘That emotion,’ she said. ‘Pardon?’ ‘That was the most emotion I’ve ever heard in anything you’ve ever said, Din! This must be a real corker of a death if it’s cracked your dull demeanor and summoned forth such wild passion.’ She pulled on her blindfold, grinning. There was something unsettlingly predatorial about her grin: too many teeth, and all too white.”

Judging by other reviews, I imagine negatives would be a great deal of what I found attractive about this story: the intriguing interplay between the immediate murder and the larger context that continues to ripple out as the investigation continues; the neuroatypical leads; the world-building questions raised with a population that has to deal with regular disaster (oh, now I get it. No parallels here, RJB, none at all). My own most nagging issue was the cursing. I have absolutely no problem with cursing (ask my friends), but all the words used were oh-so-common ones, including a ‘goddamn,’ that was really quite puzzling when we didn’t have any theology anywhere I can recall. I wasn’t quite sure if this was a far-future sci-fi dystopia, where we could allow for some language anachronisms, or pure fantasy, but at the end of the day, I decided to let it go. Still, it was one of those niggling things, a small stone in the shoe.

“So instead of committing robbery, I made tea.”

Despite that, I found it absorbing. The sense of a larger puzzle being completed, Din’s growing confidence; Ana’s entertaining deceptions. I also love the underlying messaging in the book, a point periodically needed to be made in a society where genetic modifications determine options and profession.

“And we get some say in what kind of person we are, Din. We do not pop out of a mold. We change. We self-assemble.”

As I was unable to immediately start the next book in the series (RJB hints he would like to write more in the afterword; I dearly wish he’d get on it), I had to content myself with a leisurely re-read. This time the pieces fell more clearly, enabling me to see, with Sherlockian-clarity, the complexity slowly being unveiled. Truly a delight.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for an advanced e-reader copy of this book. Of course, all quotes are subject to change in the final edition, but I feel that they’ll give you a good flavor of the voice.

What a fascinating twist on Sherlock and Holmes. I liked most of the story but would've liked more world-building. Overall very successful though.

Loved it! Who can resist the charm of an Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes kind of murder mystery transported into a dystopian world where plants provide humans with more secure, healthy, and higher quality life sources? These plants not only provide light and clean air but also serve as a complex security system!

I read this a couple of weeks ago and tried to give my brain enough time to percolate all the strange "other world" characters and organization. I did not realize this was going to be a fantasy book as I do not read books that fall in that category. Thus I do not wish to detract from someone else's enjoyment of this world building that was all very strange to my thinking. This is original and creative and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to those who appreciate fantasy. There is a murder mystery to solve and I guess that is why I opted to try the book. Do rely on other readers who are more familiar with fantasy.

A Sherlock and Watson mystery thriller with a fantasy setting - fast paced, entertaining, complex without being totally overwhelming. I admit I was lost in a couple of places but found my way back, and not so lost that it ruined the experience. There's just a lot to keep track of along the way, but it makes for a fun read. Excited to see what happens next in the world.

Thank you to the publisher for my arc.

After having this for a couple of months, I finally finished trudging through this extremely boring story. At a glance this seems right up my alley. A murder mystery with fantasy elements but what I got was a boring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson mess that lacked all the gravitas that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in the original stories.

If you want nothing but info dumping and two really annoying characters. Look no further

The Tainted Cup is a fantastical twist on an ages-old winner formula: Sherlock Holmes and Watson.
It is truly as magical and entertaining as it sounds.
Robert Jackson Bennett captured a truly twisted mystery in a unique fantasy world. The worldbuilding is nothing short of stellar and mystifying. Meet the gorgeously described technology with a F/SF feel. His prose is beautiful and absolute completely horrifying and graphic.

Meet Dinios Kol, the apprentice assistant to the investigator, who remembers everything he sees, hears, smells, or feels. It is he who is sent to investigate a murder in the most gruesome form.
The victim was killed by a plant blooming from his body.
Ana Dolabra, the eccentric investigator who insists on wearing blindfolds is on the case. Which leads them to the kingdom walls where Titans wait for the opportunity to strike.

I would recommend this story to lovers of mystery novels and fantasy tales alike. This story was riveting and witty with humor that had me actually laughing aloud.

This Tainted Cup gets a solid 4/5 bejeweled chalices from this ARC reader.


Huge thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group—Ballantine for granting my wish and giving me the opportunity to read this story.

This Tainted Cup will be released Feb 5, 2024.

4 stars...Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. I quite enjoyed this and I don't normally read murder/mystery type books. This book had a little bit of everything: murder, mystery, mayhem, magic, even Lethiathans. It was fast paced and the character and world building were great. Din and Ana are a great team in uncovering the mystery. I definitely recommend this if you like a little murder mystery with your fantasy. Look forward to reading more from this author.