A review of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett – a fine mystery in a fantasy world

Great mystery ✔   Great fantasy ✔   You don’t have to choose!

As you might guess from the second word in the name of this blog, Mostly Mysteries, I love reading murder mysteries.   But the first part of the name is there for a reason as well: “mostly” implies that I also sometimes review other genres – like science fiction or fantasy.    And I am usually pretty happy when I run into a book that is a nicely-done combination of the two – like the recent Murderbot book by Martha Wells, Fugitive Telemetry.   Or, more classically, like Isaac Asimov’s Elijah Baley/R Daneel Olivaw books.    And now I’ve found a new hybrid series like those to follow.   At least, I hope I have – because right now, although it says it’s a series, there is only one book in it!

That “series” is the Shadow of the Leviathan, by Robert Jackson Bennett, and I just finished reading the first book, The Tainted Cup, straight through, losing far too much sleep in the process.  But it was worth it.  The world-building is awesome on the fantasy side, while the lead characters, Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol, make an amazing other-world Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin detective team.

(As an aside, I have no idea why the first sentence of the blurb likens them to Holmes and Watson, unless the blurb-writer thought no one would know who Wolfe and Goodwin are?  Or maybe Holmes and Watson were the only detective duo the blurb-writer knew about?  In any case, Ana and Din are clearly modeled on Rex Stout’s characters, and Bennett even confirms that in his acknowledgements section.  Although he does compare Ana to Hannibal Lecter later too…)

In the best world-building traditions, we are left to figure things out on our own along the way, rather than getting a big boring dose of background right at the beginning.   That can make things a little bit harder to understand than in a Wolfe/Goodwin book, where we pretty much already know all about the New York City setting.   But even in The Tainted Cup’s wildly different world, Ana makes a great Wolfe, with her blindfolded version of Wolfe’s closing his eyes while pondering, her ability to put disparate facts together and draw deductions no one else sees, and her knack for setting traps to confirm her conclusions.   And Din, her apprentice, makes a perfect Archie-style sidekick, with his augmentation-enhanced ability to “engrave” scenes and conversations to play back for Ana, just as Archie does for Wolfe.   And, of course, both Din and Archie make great narrators as well.

Reading my review over just now, I’ve realized I’ve really hit the Ana/Din and Wolfe/Goodwin analogies hard, but I don’t want anyone to think that’s all there is to the story.   It’s a nice pastiche, for sure, but there’s a strong plot too, with a twisty murder, a healthy dose of political intrigue, and lots of detective work required to solve it.  So even if you haven’t read any of Rex Stout’s mysteries, you’ll still enjoy The Tainted Cup, which stands on its own just fine.   You just might have different favorite parts of it than I did 😊.

This is one of the rare books I’ve reviewed where I didn’t have a review copy in advance.   So for once, I don’t have to thank anyone for that!  However, I still want to thank the publisher just for publishing The Tainted Cup – it is quite a treat.  And even better, as I just now went online to find out who that publisher actually is (Del Rey, if you’re curious), I noticed that there will be at least one more book in the series, A Drop of Corruption, already promised for April 1 of next year.   Unless that’s an April Fool’s joke, of course, in which case, I will be sorely disappointed.  But, for now, just go read The Tainted Cup and be happy!

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