The Tainted Cup Review

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible. 

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. 

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver,magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears–quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. 

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective. 

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect. 

My Review

This book was absolutely fantastic. I really loved nearly everything about this story. Din and Ana were absolutely hilarious together. The world that Robert Jackson Bennett created was extremely interesting. The story starts behind the sea wall in the outer ring of an empire. There are allusions to the inner rings and these gigantic monsters, called leviathans, that can come ashore. If they breach the walls and continue inland, they could potentially bring down the entire empire.

Din is a bit on the innocent side, and he definitely has a heart made of gold. The secret that he is hiding is sad. He has some form of dyslexia and struggles with reading as a result. I felt so terrible for him because of how he is treated by his former superiors. Ana, meanwhile, is a total nutcase. She conducts most of her investigations with a blindfold on. Allegedly the reduction of her senses lets her brain focus better on the mystery at hand. Ana is absolutely brilliant, but a bit abrasive. I think it makes the dynamic between Ana and Din even more endearing. They are extremely different but it is very clear that not only do they care about each other but also that they are the perfect pairing.

It was a great mystery to solve as well. An important empire employee dies in one of the elite’s homes very mysteriously when a tree explodes from his body. Ana and Din begin their investigation and realize that they may need answers from another territory. They are eventually called to the neighboring territory, because a number of others have died from the strange tree explosion. More than that, two of the individuals that had trees explode from their bodies were inside the sea walls at the time. This resulted in a weakness in the wall and a leviathan was able to breach the walls.

As Ana and Din investigate, they learn that all is not as it seems in their territory. They delve deeper into the secrets kept by the Jaza family and this territory in particular. I felt that the mystery was very well hidden. I actually gasped aloud when I learned who was the mastermind behind it all. I will not tell you who, but rest assured it is a very worthwhile mystery. I thought it was brilliant of Robert Jackson Bennett to make corruption one of the backbones to this mystery. It really sets up a lot of potential future mysteries.

I’m so excited to see more of this world in future novels. I thought Robert Jackson Bennett created a world with deep lore involved. The book repeatedly alludes to the history of the empire including the leaders of it. I am also thinking it will be so cool to learn more about Ana’s secret mission to uncover corruption throughout the empire. Where will Ana and Din go next?