Book Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Twenty-year-old Dinius Kol is set to do his greatest out within the backwaters of the empire. No matter it takes, he’ll earn his much-needed paycheck as a way to ship a reimbursement house to his distant household. When maverick Imperial Investigator Ana Dolabra arrives in his distant province, he fights to turn out to be her assistant. 

Quick ahead a handful of months, and the newly minted Assistant Investigator has efficiently helped Ana uncover a number of situations of payroll fraud whereas humoring her eccentricities. Most notable of those is her refusal to go away her home. Witnesses are dropped at her as a substitute, or Din is distributed out to assemble info for her. On this final, he’s aided by the elective augmentation he underwent as a way to advance his profession and place within the imperial hierarchy:

The good and heavenly Empire of Khanum had way back perfected the artwork of shaping life, root and department and flesh and bone. [I], as an Imperial engraver, had been altered to recollect every thing I skilled, at all times and eternally.

 

I appeared and appeared [at the crime scene], often sniffing on the vial in my hand. Engravers remembered every thing, however later recalling these reminiscences rapidly and simply was one other factor. Scent was used as a cue: identical to unusual people, engravers related reminiscences with an aroma so later, once I reported to my grasp, I’d uncork this similar vial, fill my cranium with these similar vapors, and use their scent as a gateway to recall all I’d skilled.

When a grotesque homicide takes place on the nation property of the Hazas, a rich household of landed gentry, Din is tasked with investigating the scene, interrogating the witnesses and reporting every thing again to Ana. The homicide sufferer had been an necessary engineer accountable for supervising the empire’s fortifications in opposition to the monstrous Leviathans that threaten humanity from the ocean. Not one of the Hazas had been in residence on the time of Commander Blas’ dying, however somebody on the grounds had undoubtedly been concerned.

Din finds himself encountering sudden resistance as he investigates the unique homicide, largely as a consequence of his personal unassuming look and the bizarre circumstances of getting an absent supervisor. He acquits himself effectively, nonetheless, later incomes uncommon reward from his eccentric boss after asking:

“Did I not meet your expectations on this regard, ma’am?” I requested, fearful.

 

“Oh, no, no. You probably did nice, Din. I imply, if I’d been in your boots, I’d have discovered that fucker of a housekeeper’s wine cup and dumped in a thimble of floor glass. However actually, in your first homicide investigation, you probably did phenomenal–strolling as much as a Haza property and interrogating every witness is just not one thing many individuals would have managed so effectively.”

 

“Thanks, ma’am,” I stated, happy.

 

“Actually, Din, I’d say you’ve gotten the precise proper urge for food for clean, bloody-minded drudgery that makes an assistant investigator excel.”

 

“Thanks, ma’am,” I stated, far much less happy.

Between them, Din and Ana understand that the commander’s dying is not any remoted incident, however is a part of a higher menace to the empire. Pressured to journey to the ocean entrance, they uncover perilous hazard from mortal killers, at the same time as monsters lurk within the turbulent waters. However in addition they uncover that they’re retaining secrets and techniques from each other, secrets and techniques that might show much more lethal than any exterior menace to their lives.

Robert Jackson Bennett is a grasp of world-building: I adored the primary two books of his Founders Trilogy, at the same time as I’m looking for time to complete studying the collection. Once I discovered that he was writing a basic homicide thriller set in one other fantasy world, I knew that he would knock it out of the park. And with The Tainted Cup, he actually has! Sensible, sarcastic Ana is the non secular 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 usually have been. The way in which that he and Ana study and to belief one another is vindication for any reader who’s ever felt that Archie Goodwin and John Watson by no means obtained sufficient appreciation.

Most significantly of all, that is simply such a enjoyable, compelling learn! I completed all 4 hundred plus pages in lower than twenty-four hours, so enthralled was I by the writing and plot of this terrific and really human thriller. Khanum, with its unusual monsters and expertise, feels as simply accessible to the creativeness as any real-life international or historic land as a consequence of Mr. Bennett’s talent at spinning a yarn, rooting the unfamiliar and fantastical within the totally plausible. Whereas this novel is full by itself, I genuinely can’t wait to learn the remainder of this collection!

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