Book Review: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Every once in a while I read a book from a genre I’m not generally a fan of but find so fun, and THE TAINTED CUP by Robert Jackson Bennett is one of those few.

Quick unrelated dump about my childhood fear here: It’s common in my part of the world to discourage children from eating seeds of fruit by telling them that if they do, a tree would grow start growing inside of them and eventually makes it way out. Why am I telling you this? Because this book starts that way, there’s a graphic death cause by a plant exploding from the inside of and through a commander. The protagonist is Kol, the assistant of Ana Dolabara, a strange woman who lives with a blindfold and never leaves her place.

This is a fun, fantastic and comforting murder mystery that is fast paced. It starts with a simple looking death that soon unfolds into far reaching consequences. In some places I felt like the author relied a bit too heavily on the Holmes and Watson dynamic and character types throughout the story, and the sider characters involved lacked personality beyond a dimension, and there were minor moments where the treatment of the story swerves from having suspense as Kol works on the mystery, and in building tension by dropping hindsight in his narration. Anyway, those are very minor complaints and I enjoyed reading this.

So, the major highlight here is the weird and gruesome world this takes place in, and I assure you that no matter how you feel about reading murder mysteries, this is worth a read for that aspect alone. There are mountainous leviathans that head inland on a rampage at the start of the wet season, and the empire has to resort to all kinds of machinations and sets of huge walls to keep the citizens safe. There is plenty of exposure to this concept through the plot, but is also seen through the protagonist’s backstory as well. The death that kick starts the book happens at the start of the wet season, and adds an impending sense of danger to the implications of their finds in the case.

But, everything about the book pales in comparison to the plants in this world and the body and mind alterations they help bring about. Plants are shown to have industrial uses, but the humans in the empire can also alter themselves with specific ones. Kol, for example, is an engraver who has his mind altered with a specific plant that gives him the equivalent of a kind of eidetic memory, and there are others who use certain others to grow extra muscle, so that they can defend the territory and shores from the monsters if needed. This is but a small sample of the macabre world created by the author.

If you want a fast paced, popcorn-ish mystery read, you’ll want this. If you love epic fantasy, you’ll want it for the world it is set in. And if you like both, you’ll have a blast. I did report a few minor issues, but I really enjoyed this, and need the next book please. This mystery is solved, with a few things I never saw coming, but stuff that you can relate to real life nevertheless, which is part of what made it so good. Luckily, there’s plenty more adventures to be had in this world, with this being just the first installment.

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I received an ARC of this book from the author/publisher. Quotes, if any, are taken from the ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

This title was published by Hodderscape on February 6th 2024.

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LINKS

View details and add the book on Goodreads here | Purchase/pre-order the book on the publisher’s webshop – U.S.

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