I tried so hard to get into this. I wanted to love it as much as others had! I have started and restarted this a few times to see if it was just my mood, or the book. I have come to the conclusion that it is a bit of both. I love the premise of Bennett novels, but I am.honestly not patient enough to sink into the intense world building.
Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. 3 stars , right down the middle for fairness.

I’d call The Tainted Cup a mystery novel with fantasy elements. I was pre-approved by Del Rey to read The Tainted Cup through NetGalley.

I do enjoy mystery novels even though they aren’t my go to (that would be Fantasy). Going I wasn’t sure if this would be for me but the way Ana and Din work together paired with how the mystery unfolds is really good. Ana has crazy good instincts but comes off as borderline crazy. She is by far my favorite character. Din is more reserved but has a few one liners that are perfectly timed.

This is a unique world which it’s normal to be magically altered. Din is able to use scents to remember everything he sees and hears with 100% accuracy. He is sent to gather as much information he can to report back to Ana who is able to put the pieces together. Her mind works in an uncanny way.

The Tainted Cup is not a book I was able to binge but still was able to enjoy. I was not able to predict anything which is unusual but I think it’s because the writing is well done that it’s hard to predict what will happen. Definitely recommend this one!!

The Tainted Cup is one part Pacific Rim combined with two parts murder mystery. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book in exchange for my honest review.
While I found the plot, character and setting in this book enjoyable something about this book did not work for me in general. It may have been the slow pacing or the fact that there seemed to be way too many characters to keep track of (at least 10 minor character deaths being investigated) but through the entire course of reading this book there was no point where I was ever excited to read it. There was no I hit a good point I have to keep going in this book. It didn’t feel like something I wanted to read so much as an obligation to keep going, which is a shame because I did enjoy the main characters. I am giving this book 3 stars and appreciate the opportunity to read it but was ultimately disappointed

The Tainted Cup is a interesting detective novel set in a fresh fantasy world. Robert Jackson Bennett has done a wonderful job of creating a unique setting to the story. It is a world where people can be altered magically to have special talents. But at the heart is the mystery, and Ana is a quirky investigator that has been given the assignment. Her assistant, Din has been altered to have a perfect memory. As Ana uses Din as her eyes and ears of the investigation, her skills as a master become clear. This investigation is complex and there as a lot of characters and events to be unraveled.

The deeper into the book I got, the more enamored I became with the story. The pacing and the layout are flawless. I am really looking forward to the next book in this series so I can spend more time with Din and Ana.

THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett is a fantastically tense, deeply, unsettlingly weird, fantasy murder mystery. As is his wont, he interrogates systems, social, economic, and in this case, ecological, in ways that betray just how interested he is in those subject in the real world. This is not a bog-standard real world analogue fantasy realm, this is something far more wild and far more interesting, and by building the world that he has built (and the characters he populated it with), he is able to examine a series of complicated themes that resonate in the world beyond the page.

The world is one of empire, but empire under constant threat. Not threat by invasion by foreigners, or orcs, but by being overrun by massive eldritch kaiju—leviathans. Only the seawalls, and the complicated bureaucracy of the empire hold the leviathans at bay, and only the vagaries of that bureaucracy keep the empire itself running. The empire is one of bizarre biological adaptations, mutations, and what I will refer to as plant-based-nonsense. Mad scientists modify people using strange mutagenic potions to grant enhanced strength, speed, memory, and far far more.

Our protagonist is one of those modified humans, a man with a perfect memory who is employed as the right hand man—and literal eyes—of a Holmesian style mad genius investigator (though, to hear the author tell it the relationship is less Watson and Holmes, and more Starling and Lector). While his principal remains blindfolded and unwilling to leave her house, he embarks on an investigation into a series of murders that threaten to bring the seawalls down and topple the empire itself.

Along the way though, we walk through the halls of power and are confronted with an all too familiar, and all too discomforting, tension between short and long term incentives. Power, after all, is comfortable with power, and power tends to do what it can to both accrete and protect itself… even at the expense of itself in the long term. In these moments the window into the world of THE TAINTED CUP becomes a lens on our own world, an incisive critique of the halls of power and the rationalizations that those inside the halls of power use to justify their position (and what it costs to maintain that position).

It’s an exception first volume in a new series of mysteries, and I can’t wait to see where we are taken next.

A slightly steam punky murder mystery set in an almost Japanese type Asian world. It reminded
me of a series that made you strive to figure out & structure the world as you went along. It is a world where plants figure heavily in the construction of everything but also can be quite deadly.
People in positions of power & authority serve under an empire class like hierarchy. Very structured with ruling classes & elite. Professional positions would be enhanced by plant infusions & grafts for particular abilities that would take decades not just years off their lives but give them more status & finances. I have read other series of the author & enjoyed them completely, this was slow to get into but once there excellent.

I loved this book! I'm a sucker for a good detective story and this book delivered on that and then some! Din and Ana at times remind me of Watson and Holmes with certain behaviors. The book also felt reminiscent of the Justice of Kings series, if you like that series give this a try. The addition of the magical aspects and the fantasy world made the plot all the better. I enjoyed how the author took the time to build the world and explain the magic system as it's complex. It made it easier for me to follow the story and to be sucked in. The characters are clearly the best part of the book and I was happy to see that the side characters were well developed and set up early on to help with the unfolding of the plot. There were several twists and turns I did not see coming that had me on the edge of my seat! If you like political intrigue, murder plots, and detective books you'll definitely like this book!

This story is told in first person by Din. He is a twenty-year-old apprentice to the new Iudex Investigator of the Daretana Canton with plenty to hide and many skills he’s not even aware of yet. He sends his meager earnings to his family who live in the Outer Rim in the hope of moving them further inland away from the coasts where great sea monsters known as leviathans attempt to breach the walls and wreak havoc, death and destruction.

I loved this fantasy world and can’t wait to read more books in this series. The people often alter their bodies and minds to enhance skills to find better positions to ensure their survival or that of their families. While Din has held the position of apprentice for four months, this is his first murder investigation. Din was often wide-eyed at the crazy things going around him from the strange circumstances of the murder to all the political machinations of the empire. His boss, Ana Dolabra, is an eccentric investigator with an uncanny ability to connect the dots and whip out an answer from practically thin air and reminded me a bit of Vera Stanhope with her astute conclusions.

Recommended to lovers of investigative murder mysteries

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for a copy provided for an honest review.

The best I can say about this book is that some other readers really enjoyed it. I fell into the group that did not. It was a slog of a read with uninteresting characters, an underdeveloped world and a less than interesting plot line. It borders on 0 of 5 stars, but that is not an option.

I don't typically read fantasy, but I saw someone say this book would be good for those who wanted to give the genre a try. Therefore I'm not used to so much world-building, and I grew bored while everything else—character and plot development—took a backseat. Especially with the protagonist: if the story must move so slow while readers learn more about the Empire, then I need something a lot more compelling from Din and his boss Ana to keep me hooked in the story. For these reasons, I didn't finish the book.

Book: The Tainted Cup
Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Del Rey, for sending me an ARC. While I have been aware of this author, I have never read anything by him. I must say that after reading this one, I am going to have to pick up more of his books soon. The plot is complex and full of so many twists and turns. This is one of those books that once you think you have everything figured out, something else comes up.


In this one, we follow Din Kol, who is an engraver. He has found himself in the service of Ana, who happens to be best investigator in the Empire. Together they must team up to solve a murder. The problem is the further they get into the case, the more they realize just how many layers it has. Peeling back the layers is not going to be as easy as it looks. The deeper they get into the case; the more Din comes to realize just how brilliant Ana is. He gets to see how her mind works. To most people, Ana comes across as this odd being, one who don’t really belong. Yet, the further we go, the more we come to realize just how everything she sees and thinks is put together. Once she starts going through the murder bit by bit, you get to see this and it makes for one wild ride.


I loved Din and Ana’s duo. Din was bottom of his class and really isn’t all that great at what he does. Ana is the oddball and has been cast to the side by society. Neither one of these two are wanted and this is what makes them very good at what they do. Ana has the brains, while Din is the one who gets what she needs. I think that had it not been for the differences in their character and the fact that they are opposites that the plot would not have worked the way it did. We needed these two characters and needed to have them come together in order to make everything work. Without it, how the case was solved would not have worked as well as it did. Not only do we have them, but we have a great cast of side characters, which also helps so much with the plot. All of them have a complex past and history. Some of them we are not sure as to what their role is or why they are important. Once again, once we got to the end, everything made all that much sense and all of these little pieces came together.


This book is fantasy and it does have a magic system. While the magic system does play a role in the plot, it is not the sole focus of the plot. It’s there, but it doesn’t take away from the main plot, which is solving the murder. Again, without it, the big reveal would not have worked out the way that it did. We needed everything to bring the story home. There are so many moving parts, but we did it and all of those little details to make everything work.


The suspense and this sense of the unknown is kept up for most of the book. While the writing is easy to get into, it does a great job at capturing the mystery and allure that goes along with this world. We have the Empire, which we don’t really get a firm grasp on. Then, there are the titans, which gave me Attack on Titan vibes, that attack and destroy everything and anyone who gets in their way. You don’t know when they are going to appear. Plus, we have the murder and these things called contagions, which only add so much more to the world. Again, all of these layers set everything up so much and give us this sense of not knowing what is going to happen next. It is the sense of the unknown and the layers that made me enjoy this book so much.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book and I will be picking up more from this author. Also, while this is part of a series, the story felt contained, so you probably could read this as a stand-alone.

This book comes out on February 8, 2024.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/xS_p10jkxAM

If RJB has a million fans, then I'm one of them. If RJB has one fan, then I am the one. If RJB has no fans, that means I'm dead.
This was amazing. I'm a **huge** fan of the Foundryside trilogy, so I had pretty high hopes going into this but I was wonderfully pleased by this entire story. The characters were so compelling, the world-building was so well done and very interesting, and the mystery was tightly plotted. I loved watching our characters try and untangle the web of clues and intrigue surrounding a trail of poisonings. I don't want to give away too much of the story because I definitely think getting to feel and see everything unfold in real time is so much fun, I will say that I loved the relationship between Ana and Din and the detail with which the world and mystery is described.
*Chef's kiss* I will be buying so many personal physical copies of this and I am beyond excited to do a RJB display at my work (library) when this comes out! Ahh! I need more.

In <i>The Tainted Cup</i>, Robert Jackson Bennett masterfully blends the classic whodunnit into a unique and alien fantasy setting. The book opens with a bang, as a corpse is discovered with a most unusual cause of death - a tree has grown out of him. Between the compelling characters, the mysterious setting, and the well-paced mystery, Bennett weaves a narrative that is both chilling and captivating.

<b>You might like this if you're into:</b>

<b>Genre Mixing:</b>
This book has the familiar characteristics of a classic whodunnit (the anti-social genius detective, her earnest sidekick, a villainous victim who left many with a motive to want him gone) but takes place in a fantasy world. There is as much mystery in figuring out how this world works as there is in revealing the killer.

<b>World-Building:</b>
The world of Daretana is a character in itself. The narrative invites readers to unravel the mysteries of a world where much is left to the imagination and strange histories are hinted at. The exploration of culture and magical elements adds depth to the plot and leave the reader wanting to continue the series and learn more about the world.

<b>Engaging Characters:</b>
Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol form a compelling detective duo. Their evolving relationship is fun to follow, and the characters' depth and complexity contribute significantly to the overall enjoyment of the story.

<b>The Start of a Series</b>:
The conclusion leaves readers eager for more about the main characters and the society they live in. The anticipation of future adventures for the characters is a testament to Bennett's ability to create a world and characters that resonate with the audience.

One potential stumbling block for readers is that the alien quality of the world, and the way readers are dropped into this strange culture without much context may pose a challenge for some readers. The initial disconnect requires an investment of time and effort to start to grasp the intricacies of the world and culture.

Ulitmately, <i>The Tainted Cup</i> is a clever mystery that will captivate fans of genre-bending, world-building, and character development. While the initial immersion might be challenging for some, the payoff is a compelling narrative that promises an fun series ahead.

Fantastic writing and world-building. The characters were very well done and the mystery was solid. While I was a tad bit confused at times, I found it an enjoyable read.

The Tainted Cup follows the investigator’s assistant as they try to untangle a complicated set of poisonings. It’s a fun read in a high-fantasy world, but a bit hard to follow at times.

This was a quick and fun read for me! I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of the story line. The world building was fantastic and really sucked me in. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between Ana and Din. Great overall!

I chose to read this because I had just finished and roudnly enjoyed Martha Wells's The Witch King, and was hoping for more high fantasy adventure. I wasn't disappointed. I was also very excited to reread the title page and see that this is Book 1 in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. Robert Jackson Bennett does an admirably thorough job of painting a civilization encircled by a forbidding ocean that is built on what has been extracted from the titans that come out of the sea. Though most humans in this world have been altered with chemicals and grafts to enhance their abilities, they also live in constant fear not only of attack from creatures, but of contagions and poisons that may come from the barely controlled natural world. This murder mystery full of political intrigue is told by Dinios Kol, newly appointed assistant to brilliant but eccentric investigator Anagosa Dolabra, and since Din is an engraver, enhanced to recall every detail of every scene he percieves (though not to make sense of them), little detail is spared. Din is a charming youth, endearingly humble and doubtful of his own abilities, so that almost all he meets seek to take him under their wing, for good or ill intents. I can't wait to read more.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet the first in the Shadow of the Leviathan series lived up to all my expectations. I am a fan of City of Stairs and Foundryside. In this book we meet Dinios Kol an engraver and apprentice to Ana Dolabra, a Iudex investigator known for her intelligence and eccentricities. One of which is that she likes to blind herself by covering her eyes so that her other senses become sharper. They are sent to investigate why a high imperial officer is found dead because a tree erupted from his body. Now this is a word full of strange creatures and magic but even in this world a death like this unusual and frightening. We get to know this world through the eyes of Din and his abilities to remember everything as an Engraver. As they race to solve the mystery they are also caught up in the wet season where the leviathans rise up from the ocean. This book has great world building and memorable characters. The story builds up at a fast pace and it was hard for me to put this book down once I started reading. I thought the ending wrapped up everything nicely but I hope there are more books in featuring Din and Dolabra. Thank you #NetGalley for my ARC.
#thetaintedcup

Absolutely in awe of Robert Jackson Bennett's world-building and creativity. This book is so gorgeously atmospheric that I was pulled in from the first line: the magical system is fascinating and feels accessible, yet complex. The dynamic between Din and Ana is perfection. I love the nervous, slightly bumbling younger guy working for a sharp and incisive older woman. I really hope we see more of these two.

Early released ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This will be a spoiler-free review.

Robert Jackson Bennett is such a creative storyteller, as we've seen in the Divine Cities Trilogy and the Founders Trilogy. His characters have great long-term development, his writing doesn't bog down the reader, and (my personal favorite) he has such creative settings established within the stories. I've enjoyed his past works, so I was sure to request an early ARC for the entry to his newest series, Shadow of the Leviathan.

Here in The Tainted Cup, we follow Dinios Kol, apprentice to investigator Ana Dolabra. Officially, he is "Assistant to the Investigator" and not "Assistant Investigator". These two characters for a dynamic relationship, both as business partners but friends too, as they work to solve a murder mystery in the neighboring state in the empire. The partnership between Dinios and Ana can be compared to a Holmes/Watson duo.

The setting holds up very nicely, giving readers a very interesting picture of the empire, but at the same time with much more to be revealed in future works. In essence, the eastern part of the empire, close to the coastline, is designed to keep giant leviathans (described to be the size of a small fortress) at bay. These monsters show up more often during the "wet seasons", so the empire has the Legionaries work to fight them off. Various other jobs (i.e. The Engineers) are also involved in the defense.

The ending fit well. The story is self-contained, with more to look forward to.

Final rating: 4.5 stars. Shaping up to be one of the top SFF releases of 2024.