Marvelous. A delicious marriage of high fantasy with Watson & Holmes-ian detective fiction. Robert Jackson Bennett is at the top of his game with this book -- the first in a new series, Shadow of the Leviathan. The question is, how often is he thinking about the Roman Empire? Probably pretty often, considering the setting.
Per the author: "a mystery set in a fantasy world where a massive empire does its utmost to defend its citizens against enormous natural catastrophes and seemingly endless crises, all supported on the backs of toiling bureaucrats, civil officers, and the administrative state."
Character development, world building, ramping up of stakes, witty banter -- all the juicy, plot-thickening goodness is here. And the reveal is ever so smart, ever so satisfying, and ever so much a setup for further whodunnits in this new fantasy series.

[Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy and share my opinion of this book.]

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, 413 pages. Del Rey (Penguin Random House), 2024. $29. lgbtqia
Language: R (256 swears, 67 “f” + British swears); Mature Content: R; Violence: R
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - NO; ADULT - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
As investigator’s assistant, Dinios (20yo) is sent to the scene of a murder—his first. He faithfully engraves the information needed for the investigator, Ana, and reports back, but the case is far from over. Murders in the same strange manner pop up, prompting officials to bring Din and Ana in on those cases, but time is of the essence: the wet season is coming, bringing destruction with it.
I absolutely love the eccentric Ana, who is a type of Sherlock Holmes, and her assistant, Din, who is her perfect Watson. The mystery tangles and unfolds masterfully, though I got worried as I started to run out of pages. While the conclusion is satisfactory plot-wise, I can hardly sit still due to the anticipation of seeing these characters solve another mystery. Besides the characters, I also love the world Bennett has built. Furthermore, I am impressed with Bennett’s ability to make the complex world and magic feel so easily understood; from the first chapter, I found myself immersed in a world that made sense despite its newness.
Dinios is described as having darker skin than another character, and races are mentioned but they are not the same as the races in our world. The mature content rating is for mentions of drugs, prostitutes, sexual harassment, and sex; alcohol use; innuendo; brief discussion of animals mating; and nudity. The violence rating is for blood and gore, assault, murder, assassins, and fantasy violence.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

What an imaginative world with a great "who done it?" storyline.

The world building was intriguing, a mixture of dark cottagecore, dark academia, and high fantasy all wrapped up in a mystery bow. The dynamic between Ana and Kol do give off a Sherlock and Watson vibe a la Benedict Cumberbatch but for my Anime/Manga fans I instantly thought of xxxHolic. A cunningly smart older investigator, and a young fresh out of academy assistant with a mind full of secrets, solving a bizarre string of deaths with a backdrop of giant threats, corrupts, and deadly plants.

I appreciated that Bennett threw the reader right into the world, no long description of the history and creating of this world. It caused my imagination to create a conclusion and then adapt as an item or location was described to me.
Unfortunately what did take me out of the story was the use of our real world curse words in a fantasy world. I didn't feel like it fit in the world. It did its purpose to convey annoyance, urgency, and the character's predicament, it would just throw me off, really.

Over all, I enjoyed this introduction to a new series and look forward to these misfits creating havoc and finding justice.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance reader copy of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett in exchange for an honest review. I found this book hard for me to get into. The genre was more to my sister's liking than mine.

This mystery/fantasy starts off with a dead body at a country estate. The estate belongs to one of the most rich and powerful families in the empire.
Din is the assistant to the brilliant investigator Ana. Since she rarely leaves her home, she sends Din to see what he can find. Din has been magically enhanced to remember everything he sees so he can report back to Ana.
What he finds is a man killed by the plant growing out of his body.

Meanwhile, leviathans continue to batter the walls trying to breach the city. If they succeed, murder by contagion will be the least of Din's problems.

I loved this book so much! Ana is fantastic! She is brilliant, eccentric, and very funny. Din is great as well. They are a formidable pair! Definitely my favorite book of the year so far.

5 stars

This was my first Robert Jackson Bennett and it will definitely not be my last! The Tainted Cup satisfies on all fronts - intricate fantasy world building, a twisty murder mystery, a great critique on the nature of empire, and a detective duo that already have me crazing their next adventure. There is truly something for everyone to enjoy in this series debut and I, for one, could not be more pleased to have picked this up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

I received a copy from NetGalley for review.

So this book is very much a Sherlock Holmes/Watson type mystery, but instead of them chasing down the murderer together, Holmes has a mild case of agoraphobia and Watson uses smell to remember everything about a scene then reports back to Holmes to process everything. I ate it up. I find with reading Robert Jackson Bennett's books you just kind of have to bumble along with the story. They're highly entertaining and everything the Sci-fi genre should be.

I found the pacing in this sometimes to be a little too slow, but that didn't hinder the book. I really enjoyed all of the characters, especially Din and Strovi.

This was my first murder mystery book in a long while, but I loved the added elements of fantasy! This gave very strong Holmes and Watson vibes, which I absolutely loved, and all the twists and turns had me guessing throughout the whole book. I never knew where the book was going to take me or who the true culprit was, and I loved that I couldn't figure out the ending from the very beginning. A great read for those wanting to get into mysteries and who love Sherlock Holmes' style of investigation!

The author has described The Tainted Cup as “a murder mystery set in a fantasy empire”, it's the start of RJB's new Shadow of the Leviathan series. It features Ana Dolabra, a detective whose brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities, and her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver which means he has the capability of "engraving" what he sees into his mind.

The The Tainted Cup has quite a complex beginning and I found myself lost as I attempted to understand an unfamiliar fantasy world filled with many unfamiliar characters and the unfamiliar names they all had. It wasn't until I was nearly halfway into the book I felt myself being pulled into the plot.

I must say that the mystery of a man dying when a tree grew out of him was definitely unique and I'm not likely to forget it any time soon! I really liked Din and found his engraving capability to be extremely interesting. On the other hand, Ana's near-constant manic grinning felt a bit cartoonish.

Many thanks to both #DelRey and #NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Tainted Cup.

Delicious murder mystery in the style of Holmes but nestled in a world full of magic, strange technology, and monsters.

With all the world building and character creation, the pacing of the first half was a little slow, but things really picked up for the second half. Suddenly our MCs were beautifully fleshed out and the humor and intelligence of the story began to shine through. Ana is such an intriguing presence, a Holmes with spit and vinegar, and Din’s Watson is far more complex than you’d expect, a flawed young man with a keen mind.

Of course all of this is set against such a well constructed backdrop of strange alchemy and monstrous peril: a world plagued by dangers of its own making and creatures of legend. I’m excited to see more of both our intrepid detectives and the strange world in which they live.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Ray for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

I'd never encountered Robert Jackson Bennett's work before, but this was a stellar introduction. An original and thought-provoking fantasy world, an interesting mystery, and - most notably - well-developed and sympathetic characters. It manages to feel both sweeping and specific, leisurely and page-turning. I found myself immersed in this new world and thoroughly delighted to learn that more stories set there will be forthcoming.

I really very little fantasy (and have not read any in years), but I was intrigued with this novel because it seemed to combine some fantasy with a good mystery. So, I thought I would give it a shot, and I am glad that I did! The main character, an extremely eccentric female detective named Ana Dolabra, and her assistant, Dinios Kol, are delightfully quirky and definitely add to the charm of the storyline. Sprinkled with dry humor here and there, the plot has enough puzzles and twists to make this an intriguing story and a real page-turner, which seems to move along fairly quickly for its length. All in all, this mystery/detective novel in a fantasy setting works quite well and made this an enjoyable read for me.

As a new assistant to quirky head investigator Ana Dolabra, Dinios Kol begins to enter realms previously unknown to him, investigating crimes among the well-to-do. It seems a man has been killed by a...tree, and it's up to Ana and Din to figure out the hows and whys of it all. Add to that the fact that it is the rainy season. During that time, there is much, much, more to worry about than rain. Because during the rainy season, the leviathans come. Will Ana and Din be able to find the murderer(s) before they murder again? Will it even matter once the leviathans begin to attack? You'll have to read this to find out!

Robert Bennett Jackson is a world-builder of the highest order. He creates worlds that are believable and relatable, and this book is no different. Din is an engraver. This means that his brain has been altered to remember and report back every single thing he sees or hears. How cool is that? Jackson also creates memorable and sometimes eccentric characters like Ana Dolabra. Ana gets overstimulated easily, so she wears a blindfold all the time in an attempt to sharpen her other senses. It's a strange thing for an investigator to do, but this makes Din a perfect candidate for her assistant.

The murder investigation quickly grows as do the threats from the sea. As the rainy season moves in, the sea walls are under attack and the entire investigation has a dark cloud over it, as many are concerned that they'll all soon be dead and a murderer on the loose won't matter anymore.

Containing magic, leviathans, engravers and other bodily alterations, the world here is supremely interesting and entertaining. I see no real limits as to where this story can go and I am going to be here for those tales. The idea of the leviathans and the rainy seasons is fascinating to me and I am hoping that future books will explore more of that as well as providing more of the often funny interactions between Ana and Din. I need more, please. Stat!

Highly recommended!

*Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*

Thank you NetGalley and Mr.Bennett for giving me the opportunity to review "The Tainted Cup." What I really loved about this book and Mr.Bennett's writing is his story contains various quirky characters. They really bring life to this Steampunk mystery. Mr.Bennett creates rich world, The reader is quickly drawn into a complex society with economic classes, the danger of mythical beasts, plagues and of course murder. A great reader for mystery and steampunk fans.

I love this story overall, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

The story was quite fun, and I loved the characters. A good murder mystery is always great, and one set in a fantasy world, with so many twists and turns is even better. I thought for a moment I had it figured out, but easily doubted myself (but hey I was really right, and that was a fun ride!).

The world building overall was fantastic, but I do wish there had been a bit more in the beginning. The map helped give me bearing, but there were just so many terms that it was a bit to catch up in the beginning. A Glossary of more than just titles in the empire would have been helpful too!

Din was quite fun as a man character. It was such a fun twist to have the main character in a murder mystery (but not) be someone other than the lead investigator. The world itself was extremely interesting. I still am so interested in the lore of the Empire and how it was created. At the end, I immediately wanted the next one - but also it wasn't a horrible cliffhanger either (thank goodness).

I cannot wait for the next one! Have I mentioned that? Oh - and the authors note at the end was great :)

4.5/5

This offers a brilliant blend of fantasy and murder mystery. An Imperial officer is murdered and the weapon is a tree erupting from his body. This sets the stage for an intriguing investigation. Enter Ana Dolabra, an eccentric yet brilliant investigator known for her unorthodox methods. Actually, enter Din, because Ana can't be bothered to show up to the scene herself. Din is her newly appointed assistant, an engraver augmented to have a perfect memory using scents as triggers to recall them.

As the duo delves into the case, they uncover a scheme that poses a threat to the Empire itself. The dynamic between Ana and Din is a highlight in the story. I also just adore the representation in the novel, heavily hinting at dyslexia and sensory issues in our main characters. Not to mention that Din appears to be bisexual.

This book really shines when Anna is on the page. She's irreverent and brilliant and hilarious. She's balanced well with her typically straight-laced assistant Din who is incredibly new to all of this detective stuff. This book draws to mind classic detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Benoit Blanc, and Miss Marple. I barked out a laugh several times during this book. Ana's character pays homage to classic detectives, featuring a gloriously labyrinthine plot and a haunting fantasy world.

The world-building is exceptional, especially with the inclusion of Leviathans (kudos on the horror elements!) lurking outside the walls. Did I mention that they sometimes have faces and those faces appear to be saying things? Creepy! I can't wait to discover more about them in the subsequent books. The world hits some similar notes and has some similar vibes to one of my favorite but lesser-known books (The Five Penalties series by Marina J. Lostetter). Humanity is surrounded by terrible things and they're just trying to avert their eyes while power corrupts in their midst.

While the story excels in capturing the essence of classic (kind of unpleasant) detectives, the characters beyond Ana and Din felt somewhat flat to me. Nevertheless, "The Tainted Cup" offers a captivating and entertaining experience, combining the best elements of mystery and fantasy.

I had a GREAT time.

Thanks to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and Del Rey for the eARC. I also highly recommend the audiobook.

Thank you to Del Ray and NetGalley for this ARC!

I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this read. It was a unique spin on a murder mystery, whodunnit—set in a fantasy world, which I love.

My biggest complaint is that this book was so entirely plot driven at times that the characters felt quite two dimensional. You never really got to know or understand them enough to be attached or enmeshed with them until almost the very end there were some glimmers. I know this is set up for a series so I will probably read the next book but something just felt lacking for me.

Some parts are so Sherlock Holmes esque I laughed out loud.

The world building is initially hard to get in to but once you start to understand it the pacing increases, so don’t let it deter you.

Hope to see more fantasy murder mystery variations like this in the future!

The world that was created in this book is so intriguing and I loved it, fantasy always takes me longer to read but it was worth it. I loved the main characters and can't wait to see more from them!

When I first saw this book, I truly was like "I will probably not at all like this" but grabbed it because... actually I don't know! I'm not the hugest murder mystery fan. I like more fantasy than less. And so much about the story wasn't super appealing.

THIS BOOK THOUGH?

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it! I really liked all the different characters, I adored Ana and Din's relationship (I think one of my favorite scenes is when she's telling someone how absolutely dull and boring he is and he's like "I am literally right here."). I liked that there were truly *gasp* moments with reveals, as well as aspects throughout the book that were truly well plotted out!

I had SUCH a wonderful time with this book that the only downside I have about it is that I have to...what? Wait a year for the next release???? But at the very least, when I see it, I'm going to grab it and gobble it up as fast as I did this time, instead of waiting like I had.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for a chance to read and review!

The Tainted Cup is the perfect mix of fantasy and mystery. The head investigator is quirky and brings great humor to the story. The author has an invented a creative world and includes a main character with learning disabilities which I loved! The pacing is along the lines of an Agatha Christie novel but with the strange fantasy world you delve into it adds additional intrigue. From the very beginning of the book I was hooked. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC for my honest opinion.