Lilibet Bombshell's Reviews > The Tainted Cup

Well, this was simply marvelous! Droll, witty, clever, creative, and entertaining, The Tainted Cup is a traditional detective mystery set in a fantastical world that’s constantly under threat from leviathans from the sea and where the people are augmented and suffused to enhance their bodies, senses, and/or minds.

Our main characters are the earnest and endearingly dry Dionios “Din” Kol, an apprentice training to be an assistant detective who’s been suffused to become an “engraver” (think a superhuman kind of eidetic memory) and the foul-mouthed and easily-bored Ana Dolabra, a whip-smart head detective who hand-picked Din to be her assistant and has given him nothing but grief since. These two cracked me up: Between Ana’s color commentary and Din’s naivety they’re precious together. Comparison has been made to Holmes and Watson, but that’s not quite true. This is just experienced, eccentric detective and newbie detective, but the camaraderie the two show and how much their association with one another evolves and grows throughout this book is one of my favorite parts of the story.

The world building is fabulous. This takes place in a world where all building and clothing materials are organic. Houses are made from tough vines. Screens are made from paper. It’s the people and animals that have the unnatural augmentations. They can be made unnaturally large and strong, but it makes their age span shorter. They can be given very strong memories, senses of smell, touch sensitivity, and more. The more money you have and the more important you are the more grafts and suffusions you are likely to have access to and need.

The story is fantastic, full of adventure, action, political intrigue, espionage, and conspiracy. Robert Jackson Bennett left an ending that’s not a cliffhanger but leaves plenty of room for another book for sure. I’ll definitely want to read it!

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.

File Under: 5 Star Review/Book Series/Epic Fantasy/Fantasy/Fantasy Series/Mystery