The Tainted Cup Book Review

Normally I would jump right in to the review and start talking about the things I liked. I feel like I should mention that my reviews are spoiler-full. This book is a mystery which means that spoilers can have a significant impact on its enjoyment. It removes some parts of the “mystery” and that would be a great disservice to you. Proceed at your own risk.

What makes a good mystery? What makes a good story? Sherlock Holmes is considered to be the greatest detective of all time. Many adaptations and spins of the character exist, some better than others, which try to emulate what makes Holmes great. The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet is a mystery with a Holmes-like detective duo who must uncover the perpetrator of a very unusual murder involving a giant plant which has grown out of the victim, killing them. An interesting premise which will hook you from the start. The Tainted Cup is a fantastic fantastical mystery with an intriguing world, great characters, and an overall well put together mystery.

Mystery, as a genre, can be tricky to get right. In order to have a good mystery, the author needs to present enough evidence/clues to the reader for them to be able to possibly figure out the mystery, or at least part of it, but not so much where they feel like the solution was obvious. A good mystery will have the reader in two possible states when the case is being revealed. The first is where the reader figures out the mystery in part or whole right before the reveal. This gives the reader the satisfaction of figuring out the mystery and the catharsis of being right. In The Tainted Cup one of the mysteries was where/who the Haza’s twitch was. I was able to guess that is was Fayazi Haza’s Axiom. While I was reading I realized that it was odd that Fayazi’s engraver answered the question and that emphasis was put on the fact. In hindsight it was very obvious but while I was reading I felt very satisfied to have solved that mystery myself.

The second case, which I feel The Tainted Cup primarily falls into, is where the detective in the story explains the solution to the case and you find yourself saying “wait, WHAT?!”. This case is precarious and more difficult to pull off. In order for the “wait, WHAT?!” to be positive is for the author to present enough evidence throughout the story for the solution to be the ONLY solution in hindsight. If the evidence could point to several different solutions or if the evidence is not substantial enough to point to the solution it can change “wait, WHAT?!” to “wait, what, why?”. The Tainted Cup does a fantastic job of presenting the right amount of evidence while not providing too much. The example of the Haza’s twitch also works for this example. If you didn’t guess that the Axiom was actually the twitch, it would have made sense for it to be them. They were one of the only people it could have been given the situation presented.

The two main characters in The Tainted Cup are our Holmes-like detective duo, Ana Dolabra and her assistant Dinios (Din) Kol. Their dynamic is similar to what is seen with Holmes and Watson, with Holmes being the genius detective who leaves no piece of evidence unturned, no matter how small, and Watson who is more normal but still makes important observations that many people would not necessarily notice. Ana and Din take this a step further with Ana’s eccentricities and Din’s powers as a Sublime.

Ana is an Insane genius. She is able to make the same kinds of mental leaps in logic like Holmes does but takes the eccentricities to another level. She has several quirks which both we, the readers, and Din get used to throughout the book. The first of these quirks is her blindfold. She often wears a blindfold in order to not get “overstimulated” while she is working on a case. Along with the blindfold, she often avoids sunlight and going outside in general. The breeze, the sunlight, the sounds, all of these are too much and must be avoided at all costs. At one point she literally takes everything out of her travel chest and gets in it to use as a sensory deprivation chamber in order to think about a hard problem. Her desire to reduce her stimulus comes from the idea of reducing one sense in order to heighten another. If she blinds herself or deprives herself of stimulation, the reduction in one sense will improve another potentially increasing her meatal abilities allowing her to be able to think more clearly.

Having to deal with Ana in real life would get really annoying but in the book it is funny to see how Din and the other people deal with her and her quirks. It makes sense that in this universe, they would not be too put off by her quirks considering how common suffusions are and the things people must do in order to live with them. To others, Ana’s quirks are just her managing her “extensive alterations”. For this reason, the reveal at the end that she, in fact, has no alterations comes as a shock. It was set up at the beginning as one of the small mysteries that the reader and Din were supposed to be thinking about throughout the book. It is counter to what you might expect but it also feels “right” considering just how odd her quirks were. Not to brag but I did guess that she had none but I also feel like that was kind of obvious with how much attention was brought to how weird she was. Also my Mom guessed she had no alterations which also makes me think it was either set up really well or that it was more obvious than I realized.

Din is Ana’s assistant and serves as the Watson character in the book. He is an engraver, a more extreme alteration, which allows him to remember everything he sees. This is a very useful and interesting ability but it can both be a blessing and a curse. He is able to remember everything at a crime scene so he can recount what he saw for Ana but he also remember EVERYTHING from the scene, including the things he might not want to remember. Despite this ability Din has trouble memorizing some things. He has some kind of extreme dyslexia and it makes it very difficult for him to read text, much less remember and engrave it. This caused issues in training since he wasn’t able to remember the text he needed to interact with, whether it be books or just everyday activities. As a result of this, people assumed he was an idiot and started treating him terribly, calling him names and even his former commanding officer berating and threatening him at one point. Due to these events, Din started to have a very low opinion of himself and assumed that he really was dumb. All of this is a bit confusing though, since we clearly see that he is competent, not just because we can see his thoughts as the narrator, but also because he seems to be doing a good job with the crime scene and the investigation. Additionally, we see Ana compliment his work multiple times and when Ana and Din get to Talagray, he also receives praise for his work there. It is interesting to see this contrast and to watch Din react to the compliments not knowing how to take them. He knows that in order to become Ana’s assistant he needed to cheat on his tests. This, to him, means that all the compliments are invalid since they don’t know the truth of how he got his job. Eventually we learn that the reason for his deficiencies in reading are due to him being able to memorize movements, an extremely rare trait for an engraver. He didn’t know that his abilities were special and took them for granted, assuming that it was normal. It wasn’t until Ana discovered it, that he started to realize that he might actually be good at something. Finally, at the end of the story, Ana reveals that she chose him to be her assistant BECAUSE he cheated on his tests and that she couldn’t figure out how. The reveal of this was touching as we see Din get completely blindsided by this fact and finally realize that he is actually good as his work. The fact that he impressed Ana, whom he respects, means a great deal to him.

Both Ana and Din are really fun and interesting characters. As individuals, they have their strengths and some interesting quirks that make them unique and memorable. Together, they form a great team with Din being the near perfect crime scene investigator and Ana being the cognitive wizard able to make great leaps in logic. They also cover for each other’s weaknesses, Ana with her eccentricities and Din with his self-esteem and issues with reading. Along with this they also have a fun rapport with one another and it is fun to watch them bounce off each other, with Din’s serious attitude and Ana’s lack of propriety…even when it is needed. I want to see more from these two and their adventures together in this interesting world.

The world is very interesting with how it draws you in and makes you want to learn more about it. The world consists of the Empire which has a set of tiered walls which were created to hold back the leviathans which periodically make landfall and wreak havoc. This reminded me of Attack on Titan with the large walls which were created to keep titans out. Also like in Attack on Titan, there is a strong military presence and, at the beginning of the book, we are given a list of the ranks in the military to reference while we read. It makes sense that there is a large military presence due to the threat of the leviathans and the need to fight them.

This book givers you the feeling you get from epic fantasy books but, instead of it being the main focus, it is the backdrop for the mystery. It devotes time to creating the world and then uses the ideas that were introduced to augment the mystery and make it unique to this world. An example of this are the infusions and sublime’s powers like Din’s engraver abilities. They are a part of this world and are used to their full extent as common part of the investigative process. They also allow for more creative crimes. We see a plant that kills someone by rapidly growing and tearing them apart and an assassin who is so strong and fast that they can pierce someone’s skull. All of these are unique to the story and this world and could not be done otherwise.

Another thing which was interesting was the power system presented in the book. As mentioned before, people can get infusions which allows them to augment themselves to enhance their bodies, like the cracklers, and minds, such as Din and his perfect memory. It is interesting to watch how these powers play a part in the mystery as well as how they are integrated into the world. The fact that these suffusions are created from the carcasses of the leviathans is also an interesting point. The people used what was at first a deadly threat and created a weapon from it to fight back with. I am curious though, why the leviathans attack and what the history is regarding their origins. In Attack on Titan it was certainly interesting 😐.

The most enjoyable part of this book was the reveals at the end and Ana deconstructing most of the mysteries which were set up. That is the typical pattern for a mystery and this book delivers on the buildup. She corners the Hazas, exposes the twitch, and even finds the true mastermind behind the whole thing. Not only do we get the catharsis of unraveling the mysteries but we get the payoff from some other items which were set up earlier. The first of these are the flares. The flares had been mentioned and could have been passed off as simply world building since the town would likely have some way to alert people of an attack but it is more satisfying to have all parts of the story being used. Along with the flares was the leviathan attack which the flares signaled. Like Ana, we had heard secondhand accounts of a leviathan in the story but now we can see a live one! Ana’s desire to see one at the beginning of the book foreshadows the fact that one will eventually be shown. The flares being shown and highlighted all but confirms that for the reader. The leviathan’s arrival also provides a convenient chance to do some world building while also showing us something cool. During this time we also get the reveal from Ana what alterations she has. Din had mentioned earlier that he was curious what she had and had tried guessing what they were, as I am sure other readers did. It was also really nice to see Din get the weight of the guilt he had been bearing off his shoulders about his cheating along with the feelings of not being good enough for the task and feeling inadequate compared to others. Finally, the last reveal of the book where we learn that Ana was not banished but assigned to watch the Hazas and try and catch them for something. A great ending for a great mystery.

There were a few things I disliked though. First, I didn’t like how nasty Ana was to Din sometimes. She clearly cares about him and recognizes his abilities but it feels like she goes a little too far with some of things she says. Additionally, some of the things Ana figures out do feel like a little too big of a leap in logic for me. Maybe it was just me not seeing the solution but there were some minor points that felt like a little too much while I was reading. In retrospect, I do think that the evidence was substantial enough to make a satisfying mystery so it really wasn’t a big issue. The fact that I can’t really think of anything to put as evidence here to support this is evidence that it wasn’t really a problem.

I really enjoyed this book. It had a great blend of epic fantasy world building which it then used to tell a really good mystery. In addition to the great world building and mystery, it also had fun and interesting characters. The Holmes and Watson duo, Ana and Din, were entertaining to watch with their complimentary skills and their amusing rapport. The mystery has great depth and an enjoyable conclusion with many surprises and reveals capping it off. The Tainted Cup is a fantastic fantastical mystery with and intriguing world and great characters and and overall well put together mystery.

This review was really difficult for me to write. I’m not sure if it was because I had a lot I wanted to talk about or if it was because this book was more complex than the other books I have reviewed thus far. Maybe both? Either way, I enjoyed this book and I feel like my review of it covered everything that I wanted to cover.