Robert Jackson Bennett - The Irresponsible Reader

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett: There’s Not More than A Drop of this to Complain About (so I won’t)

DETAILS:
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan, #2
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: April 1, 2025
Format: eARC
Length: 480 pgs.
Read Date: March 17-21, 2025

What’s A Drop of Corruption About?

Dinios Kol arrives (as is his custom) in the canton of Yarrowdale, ahead of his boss, Ana Dolabra. They’ve been assigned to investigate the disappearance of a Treasury officer. This officer—and the rest of the Treasury delegation—is in Yarrowdale to negotiate with the King the final steps of Yarrowdale fully joining the Empire once and for all.

Right now, Yarrowdale is (rightly or wrongly) considered a backwater territory, valuable for one thing only—it’s a place that the leviathans do not travel to, so their corpses can be moved there and harvested for the copious near-magical substances used by the Empire. (incidentally, I found this whole aspect just tremendously cool. I won’t say more than that, but if we only got a novella about this part, I’d have been satisfied). This is the only place where this is safely done, so it’s hard to understate the strategic importance of Yarrowdale.

So one of the Empire’s chief negotiators going missing is no small thing—so Dolabra is assigned to find him.

Not at all shockingly (to any reader), the corpse of the officer is quickly located once Kol arrives. Its condition raises eyebrows and concerns—and that’s just the beginning, the more they investigate the circumstances around this killing the less sense things make, and the greatness of the mind behind it is seen. Dolabra is excited by the challenge, while everyone around her becomes more and more apprehensive with each discovery or conclusion she makes.

I won’t go on much beyond this—I’d love to summarize the whole book for you, but why? More victims are found, more questions are raised, the stakes keep climbing higher, and the implications for the future of the Empire are great.

Dolabra and Kol

When I talked about The Tainted Cup, I didn’t really talk about the primary characters. I hesitate to start now because I’m going to have a hard time stopping. But let me try to dip my toe into it.

Ana Dolabra is a brilliant investigator for the Empire—being sent to the trickiest investigations and given almost unlimited authority to get the answers she seeks. Due to some physical (and psychological) limitations—and the fact that she has zero interpersonal skills (and that’s being generous)—she requires a deputy to handle most of the actual investigating, bringing her the evidence and testimony that she needs to solve the crimes.

Which is where Dinios Kol comes in. He’s been altered to have a perfect memory—sights, sounds, smells, conversation…you name it, he remembers it all (even if he doesn’t want to). So he’s the perfect assistant for someone who will not interact with people of her own volition. There are jobs he’d rather perform—and places he’d rather perform them. But his family needs money to pay medical debt, and this is the surest way for him to accomplish that. He escapes into drink, drugs (I think it’s more like tobacco than anything, but I’m prepared to be shown that I’m wrong), and sex as often as he can. But is reliable when the chips are down—he has to be.

Ana Dolabra is very much in the Nero Wolfe mold—purposefully so. But she breaks the mold in all the right ways—her reasons for relying on someone else to interact with the outside world are different and less self-imposed. Her ego is as large (I wasn’t sure that was possible), and she takes some of these crimes as a personal attack on her and her genius (like Wolfe occasionally does). But she relishes the challenge—and talks openly about enjoying this case compared to the boring murders and whatnot she’s solved recently. She has a strange relationship with eating so that sometimes she sounds like her antecedent and other times the complete opposite.

Most people will not care about this (and I assure you, that paragraph could be longer)—but I’m incapable of reading any section featuring Dolabra without pausing to contrast her to Wolfe. She never comes out bad in these comparisons—just different in a creative way.

Her Archie Goodwin, Dinios Kol, can be compared and contrasted in the same way. I started to say he’s less like Archie, and I really want to. But I can really think of one major difference—what drives them. Kol’s motivation for the work (at this point, anyway, it may be shifting toward the end) is different. So he behaves with a little less loyalty. This makes him more interesting and makes up for his lack of humor. Ah, look there—I found another notable difference. Kol is far too serious to really be an Archie, but I wouldn’t want to change a thing about him.

Building on the Worldbuilding

In The Tainted Cup, Bennett introduced us to a fascinating and complex world of kaiju-esque monsters, magic-feeling science, and a massive empire that’s keeping humanity alive. it was both awesome and strange. In A Drop of Corruption, it’s almost as if Bennet tells the reader, “So you’ve seen the typical in this world, but you ain’t ready for this.” As strange and terrible as we thought things were…ha.

We get to see new augmentations, we get to see how outsiders (or semi-outsiders) regard the Empire, we learn a whole lot of history about the Empire, the monsters, the science behind the augmentations, and so much more. I’m having trouble expressing it all.

In both books so far Bennett can bring the unbelievable and indescribable to life. Din will start a sentence by saying something like, “Words cannot express ___” or “It’s too incredible to explain” or something like that—and then will falteringly describe it in such a way that the reader comes away with a pretty good idea of what Din saw. Even when he’s not calling his shot like that, item after item, phenomenon after phenomenon, creature after creature that really shouldn’t make sense when written about comes through with a level of detail that leads the reader to think they’re imagining what Bennett imagined.

Sure….it’s likely that no two readers will have similar mental images. But that’s not important—you’ll think you do.

The Author’s Note

The Author’s Note (largely an Acknowledgement section, but a little bit more) is a must-read. I don’t know if you’re prone to reading them—particularly if they feel more like an Acknowledgment than anything else. But make an exception for this one. It’s worth your time.

So, what did I think about A Drop of Corruption?

I was blown away by The Tainted Cup, and so I was apprehensive about this one—could it live up to it? I’m pleased to say that it did. I very likely enjoyed this much more—because I was ready for the strangeness and could just let it build on what the prior book did.

I feel bad saying I had fun reading about all the trauma that these victims went through, but I really did. Kol and Dolabra—and Kol’s new local acquaintances are just so well-conceived and vividly drawn, that it’d be harder to be disinterested than captivated.

The mystery kept me guessing until the end (except for the time I thought I’d figured it out, and I was very wrong). There was even a point where I wrote in my notes, “Could this be a redder herring?” and it was anything but. I won’t go into details so you can be fooled like I was, but man… The only thing I like more than the smug satisfaction of figuring out a mystery before a brilliant detective is an author who can fool me into that smugness only to pull the rug out from under me. Not to get elitist or anything, but a fantasy writer should be worse at this than a mystery writer. Bennett didn’t get that memo.

I do think you could read this book without the first in the series—but don’t do that to yourself. Buy a copy of this now (or get on your Library’s waitlist), but get The Tainted Cup at the same time. If I’m right about where this series is going (or even almost close to right), you’re going to want to be ready for it. This is just dynamite.

This book deserves more compliments from me—but who has the time? (not the guy who meant to post this a week or so ago). A great mystery novel, a great fantasy novel, with characters that you’d want to read about even if the plots weren’t worth the time or trouble.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Random House Publishing Group – Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore via NetGalley in exchange for this post which contains my honest opinion—thanks to both for this.

5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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My Favorite Non-Crime Fiction of 2024

By HCNewton

On January 9, 2025

In Fantasy, Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, News/Misc., Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy

My Favorite Non-Crime Fiction of 2024
Back when I started this site, I knew the content would be largely “genre”-oriented. I’d have wagered the content would be roughly 1/3 Mystery/Detective fiction, 1/3 Urban Fantasy, and slightly less than 1/3 SFF, with “non-genre” fiction, humor, and non-fiction being enough to make my one-thirds just an approximation (honestly, if you asked me what I read regularly, that’s pretty much how I’d describe it today). Actual numbers show that’s wrong—it’s typically almost 40% Crime/Thriller Fiction, the rest of fiction is around 30% combined. This is just a long-winded way to get to these two points: because Crime Fiction takes such a big chunk of my reading, it gets its own “Favorite” list, but none of the others really garner enough numbers for their own.

When it comes to this particular list of favorites this year, it was tough to continue after the first cut. But no one wanted to read my top 30 (well, I didn’t want to put it together, anyway). I got it down with a little effort. So here’s my list of 10 favorite non-Crime Fiction Novels of 2024. Hopefully, you will find something here to tempt your.

As always, re-reads don’t count—only the works that were new to me.

(in alphabetical order by author)

No Two Persons

by Erica Bauermeister, read by a full cast

My original post
For those who don’t know, this is a series of interconnected short stories about a novel. From the struggles the author had getting it written, to it being “discovered” by an overwhelmed reader at an agency, to the audiobook narrator, to readers, booksellers, and others who came into contact with it. We get a look into their lives before and after the novel enters their orbit.

And I loved it. I loved it so much that the day after I finished the audiobook that I borrowed from my library I went and bought the hardcover because I needed it on my shelf just to feel better.

I can’t promise anyone else will react to the book the way I did–or that I will react to it when I read it again. But yeah…I loved this thing.

4 1/2 Stars

The Tainted Cup

by Robert Jackson Bennett

My original post
This was the first (non-beta) novel I read in 2024 and it was also the first book I gave 5 stars to (odd how that worked out). It takes the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin dynamic, changes it up (Wolfe becomes a woman who stays inside for different reasons, gives the “Archie” a different explanation for his memory, etc.), and shoves it into a Fantasy world. And this fantasy world is so different than one I’ve run into before, so full, so well-developed, so intricate and “lived in” that it blew my mind from our introduction to the world through the end of the novel.

The magic, the science, the architecture…all of it was…I’m running out of believable superlatives to use here. And don’t get me started on the wonderful characters–from the detectives to the killer to the suspects to everyone else.

Possiby the best book I read all year–if not, it’s close enough that almost everything else was a let-down.

5 Stars

The Blacktongue Thief

by Christopher Buehlman

My original post
About the time I started the above, I finished this. Clearly 2024 was going to be a good year of Fantasy for me. I talked about the audiobook yesterday, so let me try to focus on the story.

You’ve got an irreverent thief, the kind of guy that other thieves don’t trust (which actually makes sense, honor among thieves has to be the dumbest idea….but I digress), a knight on a (probably) doomed mission, some strange magic and…forget it. You need to do this yourself.

It’s just bonkers. The book is fun, the dialogue is spot-on, the stories are harrowing, tragic, and gripping. It’s the whole package.

4 1/2 Stars

The Olympian Affair

by Jim Butcher

I haven’t written anything about this yet because I’m just too overwhelmed and the words can’t come out right. I loved being back in this world. I was surprised and wonderfully entertained by this story and the way it all played out (even the parts you could see coming). There’s a death that probably needed to happen, and I’ll think about forgiving Butcher for it someday (long before I forgive him for the big one in The Dresden Files).

I like the new characters (at least the ones I should), I loved catching up with our old friends. I enjoyed the whole thing. I know some people aren’t crazy about the space the new characters took compared to some of the old ones, and I get that–but the story was so fun!

4 1/2 Stars

The Legendary Mo Seto

by A. Y. Chan

My original post
Speaking of fun…here’s Mo (Modesty) Seto and her story. In my original post, I said, “I had about as much fun as is permitted by law while reading this.” And I still remember it that way.

You’ve got martial arts, you’ve got a fantastic underdog, you’ve got a funny and caring grandfather/grandfather figure, you’ve got family tension, you’ve got strange history, you’ve got a movie set and tall the nonsense entailed by that, you’ve got a treasure hunt (of sorts), and a great cast of characters.

Chan brought it all to life and actually has me eager to get my hands on the sequel. And I shouldn’t be this excited about a new MG novel, but I am.*

* Not because I’m some sort of snob, or that I look down on MG books. I’m just 4 decades too old to be that excited.

4 Stars

The Space Between Worlds

by Micaiah Johnson

My original post
This is, simply, a stunning SF novel. It’s a stunning novel with no genre label necessary. It’s so beautifully written. The worldbuilding and SF-sciency stuff is so good that you wonder why it took until 2021 for someone to use it. I can’t believe it’s a first novel.

I don’t know what else to say. Go read my original post where I at least have some more room to babble. Just go get it.

4 1/2 Stars

The Last Shield

by Cameron Johnston

My original post
If I start on this one, I don’t know when I’ll stop. So I’ll just copy some of what I’ve already said.

The Publisher’s description of this novel starts off with, “A gender-flipped Die Hard set in a mysterious castle.” And that’s absolutely what the book is—is that description reductionistic? Yes. Is it apt? Also, yes. But it’s also so much more than that summary. (but what a great elevator, pitch, right?)

It’s is a heckuva thrill-ride. Like its cinematic predecessor, the action in this novel is top-notch. It’s not non-stop, there are moments of reflection, of exhaustion, of trying to figure out how to survive—much less succeed against this force. The set-up to the main action also takes longer than you might think (but you should really just relax and let Johnston do his thing, it’s all important and helps establish what comes later). I was hooked almost immediately—and while I wondered when the “Die Hard” part of the book would kick in, I really didn’t care. I was having a good enough time with Briar, Alaric, and the rest.

But, boy howdy, when the action kicked in? What was a perfectly enjoyable book got so much better. Johnston can write an action scene—whether the action is hand-to-hand, bladed weapon against something else, supernatural-based…you name it, he can handle it with panache and aplomb. It’s well paced—with just enough downtime between fight scenes for you and the characters to be ready for the next. Once the book builds up enough steam, forget it—you’re not going to willingly put it down.

It’s not all about swords, shields, axes, and spells, however. There’s real growth—and real injury (and not just physical)—to be seen in several other characters. No one survives this time unscathed in one way or another.

Just pasting in these paragraphs, I’m ready to set everything aside and re-read it.
4 1/2 Stars

Charm City Rocks

by Matthew Norman

My original post
It’s a love story. It’s a story about a father and a son. A son and his mother. It’s a story about music and its power. It’s a story about second (and third and fourth) chances. It’s a tribute to Baltimore.

It’s charmingly told. It’s sweet (but not overly). It will make all but the most jaded smile. Actually, I noted earlier that “I think the best way to sum up my reaction to the book is that I noticed that every time I put the book down for some reason, I was grinning. Not because I set the book down, but it just made me happy.”

4 1/2 Stars

Christa Comes Out of Her Shell

by Abbi Waxman

My original post
One of the worst-kept secrets on this here blog over the last few years is that I’ve become an Abbi Waxman fan, I’m almost guaranteed to rave about her books. And of the four I’ve read, three deserve (and the other was a really strong read, if not rave-worthy). So of course, she’s going to show up here.

The first 87 pages of this book might have been my favorite 87 pages this year. That trend might have continued, but I wrote that note then. Everything just worked.

Christa is more abrasive than your typical Waxman protagonist, which was a nice change. But the rest are just about who you’d find peopleing her other works.

A couple of scenes between a couple could’ve faded to black a little earlier for my prudish taste. But outside of that, I was in hog heaven as I read this.

4 1/2 Stars

Project: Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

Why didn’t I read this the day the hardcover arrived in my mailbox like I’d intended to? I’ll never know. I’ll regret it for quite a while, though. I spent a lot of time castigating myself for that choice as I read this.

But the important thing is that I read this. Yes, Ryland Grace is like a friendlier, less-sweary Mark Watney. But who cares? I’ll live in Watney’s head again. The jumping around in the timeline nature of this book made it different enough to keep it from being The Martian-but-different. The type of calamity that put Ryland out in space by himself is so far removed from a mission to Mars that it’s hard to compare it to.

The stuff on Earth was tense–even as we know how it’ll end (or at least that it’ll result in Ryland in space), you’re gripped. And then once he’s there? It’s just so great.

I won’t even talk about the way the ending hit. It’s just too much for a paragraph. I admit I loved The Martian more, but that’s solely because I read it first, so PHM had to compete with it. Were the situation reversed, I’d be saying that Watney is almost as great as Ryland.

It’s a must-read for SF readers or not. (unless you didn’t enjoy Weir’s other work. Then you’d better stay away.)

5 Stars

A few books that almost made this list and that I want to be sure to mention:
Return of the Griffin by JCM Berne (My original post), Blood Reunion by JCM Berne (My original post), Shadow of Hyperion by JCM Berne, The Tenacious Tale of Tanna the Tendersword by Dewey Conway & Bill Adams (My original post), and Buddy the Knight and The Queen of Sorrow by Peter David (My original post).

PUB DAY REPOST: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett: This Mystery/Fantasy Hybrid is My First 5-Star Read of the Year

By HCNewton

On February 6, 2024

In Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The Tainted Cup

by Robert Jackson Bennett

DETAILS:
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan, #1
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 432 pg.
Read Date: January 4-9, 2023

What’s The Tainted Cup About?

This is a Mystery/Detective novel set in a Fantasy world. But to say that almost diminishes it. This is a Fantasy world you’re not used to seeing—well, I’m not anyway, you might be better read in the genre than I am. At the core of the mystery story are tropes, characters, motives, and twists that anyone familiar with that genre will recognize and resonate with. Combining the two genres here only serves to make them better.

The instigating event is the murder of a significant, but not hugely important, military figure on an estate of one of the most powerful and rich families in the Empire. That’s enough to get the official investigator, Ana Dolabra, and her assistant, Dinios Kol, involved. When you add in the cause of death—a clutch of trees erupted from the Commander’s chest—well, that’s definitely going to get some official notice. And quickly put you in a Fantasy world. Feel free to read that cause of death a couple of times, it’s still not going to make sense.

There’s just so much to talk about with The Tainted Cup—I’m going to talk about some of the best parts of this book as you would an Oreo cookie. The Mystery part is the creamy center (at least a Double Stuff in this case), and then the crispy cookie halves of the World Building/Setting and the Science of this World.

The Mystery

I already wrote a section below that quibbles with the official description, and I feel bad about doing that twice (am I risking future NetGalley approvals by this?), but I have to. It starts off by saying, “A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo.” You can maybe stretch things and call Ana Dolabra a Holmes-type character. Maybe. But outside of being the first-person narrator, there is nothing Dr. Watson-esque about Dinios Kol. I do not know if Bennett is a Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe reader. I suspect he is, though, because Dolabra and Kol are firmly in the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mold. (there are other versions of this duo, Pentecost and Parker and Jake and the Fatman spring to mind, but there are others).

I mention this because I think the duo of Wolfe and Archie is one of the greatest achievements in Detective Fiction, and will joyously talk at length about them at length at any opportunity. Bennett using these types at the center of this book almost automatically guaranteed that I’m going to enjoy it. Particularly if he does it successfully. And, boy howdy, does he.

Ana Dolabra is a brilliant and eccentric figure. Our Nero Wolfe. She can be pressed into politeness with enough reason, but on the whole, she’s blunt, crass, and solely focused on things that interest her. For a variety of reasons, Ana rarely leaves her quarters, instead, she has clues, interviewees, and suspects brought to her (and frequently, those she reports to, too). More than once she brings suspects and interview subjects together to question and/or to reveal a solution, putting on a show for others.

She has a new assistant, Dinios Kol, to serve as her eyes and ears in the outside world—and to bring back those bits of the world she needs to do her work. Thanks to a special augmentation, he has a perfect and permanent memory and will remember entire conversations and things he sees perfectly, with the ability to describe them to the detail Ana needs. He looks at crime scenes, records, bodies, etc. for her, conducts initial interviews with witnesses and experts, and so on. He also seems to do his best to keep her interactions with others at socially-appropriate levels (although this is a challenge). If this isn’t Archie Goodwin to a T.

They’ve been working together for a while now—mostly on fraud cases. This is their first murder case—and they wrap it up quickly and efficiently. Except, Ana is pretty sure that this murder will be linked to others—something more than murder is afoot here, she’s certain. And she’s right. (I assume this is almost always the case—Dinios certainly does)

Soon, she and her assistant are assigned to help in the investigation in a nearby city where several others have been killed in the same way. Dinios is partnered up with an experienced Assistant Investigator, Capt. Tazi Miljin, who does some on-the-job training and mentoring while working the case.

Soon, they determine that this isn’t just a murder case—nor is it several connected murder cases, there is something much bigger going on. Something that puts an entire city—possibly the entire Empire—at risk.

The World

I don’t know that I want to get too in-depth here, because the discovery of it all* is part of the magic of this book.

* And by “all,” I mean all that Bennett is going to share with us in this book—there’s much more to learn in books to come.

We find ourselves in a minor city in an Empire at the beginning of the novel before we move to a larger city, a major center of military importance. We don’t know a lot about this Empire—it’s centuries old, there are civic religions/cults but we see very few true adherents, and many people are cynical about the government. But it doesn’t matter—they need the Empire to keep them alive. So they push on.

The military isn’t focused on other nations/city-states/bands of roving mercenaries or outside human threats (although they do take the time to focus on bands of deserters). Instead, they’re focused on the seas. Each year, during the rainy season, monstrously large sea creatures they dub Leviathans (both think and don’t think about other Leviathans you’ve come across—other than large, water-bound, and scary) attempt to come ashore and snack on humans, cattle, whatever.

Places like Talagray, where we spend most of the novel, exist to maintain the wall between sea and land—leviathan and Empire—it’s a massive wall (massive in a way I cannot get across to you) with the occasional weapons mounted to attack the leviathan. I saw Talagray as sort of Jackson’s vision of Minas Tirith, but flattened to one elevation. I’m not sure if that’s what Bennet was going for, but that’s what my mind saw. Maybe a little muddier.

While the local canton is concerned with the murders, naturally, their primary concern during this season is the maintenance of the wall. Some of these murders have threatened the integrity of the wall in important ways, threatening all of Talagray. As important as solving the murder is—stopping further murders and therefore preventing further damage to the wall is far more important. Also…they probably have something special in store for anyone who’d risk the wall in any way.

The Science

I’m disagreeing a bit here with the official description—so take my observation with a grain of salt (but I stand by it). There’s no magic in this Fantasy novel—which, sure, happens sometimes. But it’s still strange and notable.

What this novel does have is “sufficiently advanced technology [which] is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s not often that I get to apply Clarke’s Third Law this way, but it works. This is a very technological society, but nothing we’d recognize, really. There are no circuits anywhere, no electricity…horses and carts are the primary means of transportation for those who are going too far or need to go too quickly to walk. But they practice all sorts of engineering feats, genetic manipulation, medical marvels, and so on.

The source of their raw materials? The Leviathans that threaten them all. When these Leviathans die/are killed, the Empire’s scientists harvest blood, tissue, and bone for all sorts of things to accomplish the above. Leviathan bone is difficult to shape, but it results in tools and swords that are beyond the strength and endurance of metal. Tissues can be manipulated and applied to humans to extend their abilities (augmenting strength, enabling them to have memories that are like eidetic memory to the nth power, control of their pheromones to alter the behavior of those around them, and so on).

Especially when it comes to the abilities that some of these people have, or the freakish contamination that the murderer is using, in a Fantasy book featuring people on horseback using swords, this looks like magic. But it ain’t. It’s just a kind of science that’s sufficiently advanced that 21st-century Western Readers can’t distinguish. And I love that. Bennett does such a convincing and thorough job of describing this (without getting mired in the details) that it just comes alive and you believe it all—and want to learn more about it.

So, what did I think about The Tainted Cup?

My reflex reaction ought to be, I want more of the detective-y stuff. How could I not? That’s my default genre, Ana is a fantastic character, Dinios at work is so much fun, and the pair of them being new incarnations of Wolfe and Archie. But when you add in the world-building, the intrigue and politics, and all the cool science-y bits? I wouldn’t have it any other way. You need all of it to make something this good. And it really does—each section above would probably earn 4 stars or so from me. But when you put them together, the accumulated score has to be at least 5.

Also, all the other stuff in the book distracts from a couple of the problems with the mystery story. These aren’t significant problems by any means, but at one point Ana reveals that Person X is Person Y, and her assistants are shocked and amazed. I assumed everyone realized that as soon as Person Y was introduced and described. For it to take umpteen chapters for everyone to catch up astounded me (am pretty sure Ana was as fast as me, for the record). The other thing that I’d consider a problem, I won’t get into for spoiler-reasons, but I was distracted enough that I didn’t see it until the reveal. Also, it’s the kind of thing that Rex Stout himself would do, so I’m never going to complain about it. Mostly, because it worked really well for the story, so who cares?

Regular readers may have noted that I haven’t spent that much time talking about the characters. I chose not to for time/space reasons. If I focused on writing about Ana, Dinios, and Miljin alone—I’d double the length of this post. If I included every major character I want to talk about? I’d triple the length. No one wants to read me going on that long. So I’ll sum it up by saying that his characters are just as good and developed (and strange) as everything else I’ve talked about.

Bennett doesn’t show a lot of flair in this writing. It has almost none of Elmore’s “Hooptedoodle”—although he violates a lot of Elmore’s other rules (and does so for the betterment of the novel). This is a description, not a criticism, you’re not going to be wowed with his style. He doesn’t need that. The descriptions of characters, structures, and monsters are so vivid, so detailed you have no problem seeing exactly what he wants you to see (with just enough room for the reader’s imagination). The action scenes are well-executed. The descriptions of the trees growing from outside of a person are as disturbing as they should be. There are flashes of humor, flashes of hope and optimism in both the characters and the story—but it’s all in the shadow of the imminent threat posed by the Leviathans and weakened walls. So there’s a strong “The World May Be Ending Tomorrow if not Tonight” feel throughout. I was under the spell of the narration and story from early on.

I didn’t set out to rave about this book. I was going to enthusiastically recommend it, but as I started to put my notes into some sort of order and write, I discovered that I really needed and wanted to rave about this. Fantasy fans are really going to get into this. Mystery/Detective Fiction fans who aren’t afraid to play in other worlds are going to go nuts over this. And I want to read the next book in the series today. But I’m willing to be patient—The Tainted Cup won’t even be published for 26 days. So I won’t start complaining about the delay in getting the next volume for 90 days (that seems fair).

Go place your orders or library holds now.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Penguin Random House via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

5 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett: This Mystery/Fantasy Hybrid is My First 5-Star Read of the Year

By HCNewton

On January 11, 2024

In Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

The Tainted Cup

by Robert Jackson Bennett

DETAILS:
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan, #1
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Publication Date: February 6, 2024
Format: eARC
Length: 432 pg.
Read Date: January 4-9, 2023

What’s The Tainted Cup About?

This is a Mystery/Detective novel set in a Fantasy world. But to say that almost diminishes it. This is a Fantasy world you’re not used to seeing—well, I’m not anyway, you might be better read in the genre than I am. At the core of the mystery story are tropes, characters, motives, and twists that anyone familiar with that genre will recognize and resonate with. Combining the two genres here only serves to make them better.

The instigating event is the murder of a significant, but not hugely important, military figure on an estate of one of the most powerful and rich families in the Empire. That’s enough to get the official investigator, Ana Dolabra, and her assistant, Dinios Kol, involved. When you add in the cause of death—a clutch of trees erupted from the Commander’s chest—well, that’s definitely going to get some official notice. And quickly put you in a Fantasy world. Feel free to read that cause of death a couple of times, it’s still not going to make sense.

There’s just so much to talk about with The Tainted Cup—I’m going to talk about some of the best parts of this book as you would an Oreo cookie. The Mystery part is the creamy center (at least a Double Stuff in this case), and then the crispy cookie halves of the World Building/Setting and the Science of this World.

The Mystery

I already wrote a section below that quibbles with the official description, and I feel bad about doing that twice (am I risking future NetGalley approvals by this?), but I have to. It starts off by saying, “A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo.” You can maybe stretch things and call Ana Dolabra a Holmes-type character. Maybe. But outside of being the first-person narrator, there is nothing Dr. Watson-esque about Dinios Kol. I do not know if Bennett is a Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe reader. I suspect he is, though, because Dolabra and Kol are firmly in the Nero Wolfe/Archie Goodwin mold. (there are other versions of this duo, Pentecost and Parker and Jake and the Fatman spring to mind, but there are others).

I mention this because I think the duo of Wolfe and Archie is one of the greatest achievements in Detective Fiction, and will joyously talk at length about them at length at any opportunity. Bennett using these types at the center of this book almost automatically guaranteed that I’m going to enjoy it. Particularly if he does it successfully. And, boy howdy, does he.

Ana Dolabra is a brilliant and eccentric figure. Our Nero Wolfe. She can be pressed into politeness with enough reason, but on the whole, she’s blunt, crass, and solely focused on things that interest her. For a variety of reasons, Ana rarely leaves her quarters, instead, she has clues, interviewees, and suspects brought to her (and frequently, those she reports to, too). More than once she brings suspects and interview subjects together to question and/or to reveal a solution, putting on a show for others.

She has a new assistant, Dinios Kol, to serve as her eyes and ears in the outside world—and to bring back those bits of the world she needs to do her work. Thanks to a special augmentation, he has a perfect and permanent memory and will remember entire conversations and things he sees perfectly, with the ability to describe them to the detail Ana needs. He looks at crime scenes, records, bodies, etc. for her, conducts initial interviews with witnesses and experts, and so on. He also seems to do his best to keep her interactions with others at socially-appropriate levels (although this is a challenge). If this isn’t Archie Goodwin to a T.

They’ve been working together for a while now—mostly on fraud cases. This is their first murder case—and they wrap it up quickly and efficiently. Except, Ana is pretty sure that this murder will be linked to others—something more than murder is afoot here, she’s certain. And she’s right. (I assume this is almost always the case—Dinios certainly does)

Soon, she and her assistant are assigned to help in the investigation in a nearby city where several others have been killed in the same way. Dinios is partnered up with an experienced Assistant Investigator, Capt. Tazi Miljin, who does some on-the-job training and mentoring while working the case.

Soon, they determine that this isn’t just a murder case—nor is it several connected murder cases, there is something much bigger going on. Something that puts an entire city—possibly the entire Empire—at risk.

The World

I don’t know that I want to get too in-depth here, because the discovery of it all* is part of the magic of this book.

* And by “all,” I mean all that Bennett is going to share with us in this book—there’s much more to learn in books to come.

We find ourselves in a minor city in an Empire at the beginning of the novel before we move to a larger city, a major center of military importance. We don’t know a lot about this Empire—it’s centuries old, there are civic religions/cults but we see very few true adherents, and many people are cynical about the government. But it doesn’t matter—they need the Empire to keep them alive. So they push on.

The military isn’t focused on other nations/city-states/bands of roving mercenaries or outside human threats (although they do take the time to focus on bands of deserters). Instead, they’re focused on the seas. Each year, during the rainy season, monstrously large sea creatures they dub Leviathans (both think and don’t think about other Leviathans you’ve come across—other than large, water-bound, and scary) attempt to come ashore and snack on humans, cattle, whatever.

Places like Talagray, where we spend most of the novel, exist to maintain the wall between sea and land—leviathan and Empire—it’s a massive wall (massive in a way I cannot get across to you) with the occasional weapons mounted to attack the leviathan. I saw Talagray as sort of Jackson’s vision of Minas Tirith, but flattened to one elevation. I’m not sure if that’s what Bennet was going for, but that’s what my mind saw. Maybe a little muddier.

While the local canton is concerned with the murders, naturally, their primary concern during this season is the maintenance of the wall. Some of these murders have threatened the integrity of the wall in important ways, threatening all of Talagray. As important as solving the murder is—stopping further murders and therefore preventing further damage to the wall is far more important. Also…they probably have something special in store for anyone who’d risk the wall in any way.

The Science

I’m disagreeing a bit here with the official description—so take my observation with a grain of salt (but I stand by it). There’s no magic in this Fantasy novel—which, sure, happens sometimes. But it’s still strange and notable.

What this novel does have is “sufficiently advanced technology [which] is indistinguishable from magic.” It’s not often that I get to apply Clarke’s Third Law this way, but it works. This is a very technological society, but nothing we’d recognize, really. There are no circuits anywhere, no electricity…horses and carts are the primary means of transportation for those who are going too far or need to go too quickly to walk. But they practice all sorts of engineering feats, genetic manipulation, medical marvels, and so on.

The source of their raw materials? The Leviathans that threaten them all. When these Leviathans die/are killed, the Empire’s scientists harvest blood, tissue, and bone for all sorts of things to accomplish the above. Leviathan bone is difficult to shape, but it results in tools and swords that are beyond the strength and endurance of metal. Tissues can be manipulated and applied to humans to extend their abilities (augmenting strength, enabling them to have memories that are like eidetic memory to the nth power, control of their pheromones to alter the behavior of those around them, and so on).

Especially when it comes to the abilities that some of these people have, or the freakish contamination that the murderer is using, in a Fantasy book featuring people on horseback using swords, this looks like magic. But it ain’t. It’s just a kind of science that’s sufficiently advanced that 21st-century Western Readers can’t distinguish. And I love that. Bennett does such a convincing and thorough job of describing this (without getting mired in the details) that it just comes alive and you believe it all—and want to learn more about it.

So, what did I think about The Tainted Cup?

My reflex reaction ought to be, I want more of the detective-y stuff. How could I not? That’s my default genre, Ana is a fantastic character, Dinios at work is so much fun, and the pair of them being new incarnations of Wolfe and Archie. But when you add in the world-building, the intrigue and politics, and all the cool science-y bits? I wouldn’t have it any other way. You need all of it to make something this good. And it really does—each section above would probably earn 4 stars or so from me. But when you put them together, the accumulated score has to be at least 5.

Also, all the other stuff in the book distracts from a couple of the problems with the mystery story. These aren’t significant problems by any means, but at one point Ana reveals that Person X is Person Y, and her assistants are shocked and amazed. I assumed everyone realized that as soon as Person Y was introduced and described. For it to take umpteen chapters for everyone to catch up astounded me (am pretty sure Ana was as fast as me, for the record). The other thing that I’d consider a problem, I won’t get into for spoiler-reasons, but I was distracted enough that I didn’t see it until the reveal. Also, it’s the kind of thing that Rex Stout himself would do, so I’m never going to complain about it. Mostly, because it worked really well for the story, so who cares?

Regular readers may have noted that I haven’t spent that much time talking about the characters. I chose not to for time/space reasons. If I focused on writing about Ana, Dinios, and Miljin alone—I’d double the length of this post. If I included every major character I want to talk about? I’d triple the length. No one wants to read me going on that long. So I’ll sum it up by saying that his characters are just as good and developed (and strange) as everything else I’ve talked about.

Bennett doesn’t show a lot of flair in this writing. It has almost none of Elmore’s “Hooptedoodle”—although he violates a lot of Elmore’s other rules (and does so for the betterment of the novel). This is a description, not a criticism, you’re not going to be wowed with his style. He doesn’t need that. The descriptions of characters, structures, and monsters are so vivid, so detailed you have no problem seeing exactly what he wants you to see (with just enough room for the reader’s imagination). The action scenes are well-executed. The descriptions of the trees growing from outside of a person are as disturbing as they should be. There are flashes of humor, flashes of hope and optimism in both the characters and the story—but it’s all in the shadow of the imminent threat posed by the Leviathans and weakened walls. So there’s a strong “The World May Be Ending Tomorrow if not Tonight” feel throughout. I was under the spell of the narration and story from early on.

I didn’t set out to rave about this book. I was going to enthusiastically recommend it, but as I started to put my notes into some sort of order and write, I discovered that I really needed and wanted to rave about this. Fantasy fans are really going to get into this. Mystery/Detective Fiction fans who aren’t afraid to play in other worlds are going to go nuts over this. And I want to read the next book in the series today. But I’m willing to be patient—The Tainted Cup won’t even be published for 26 days. So I won’t start complaining about the delay in getting the next volume for 90 days (that seems fair).

Go place your orders or library holds now.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Penguin Random House via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

5 Stars

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Tag: Robert Jackson Bennett

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