Waiting on Wednesday – The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this week’s entry, I check out one of the most anticipated fantasy novels of early 2024 with The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.

The Tainted Cup Cover

Amazon

Robert Jackon Bennett is a highly regarded fantasy author who has been producing captivating reads since 2010. Have started out writing several intriguing standalone novels, such as his debut, Mr. Shivers, Bennett is probably best known for his complex fantasy series, including The Divine Cities trilogy and The Founders trilogy, both of which had elaborate settings and compelling stories behind them. I personally had a wonderful time with his awesome novel, Foundryside, and while I haven’t had the chance to read anymore from Bennett since then, I have been keeping my eye out to see what he comes out with next. As such, I heard some interesting stuff about his next novel, The Tainted Cup, which is already getting a lot of love from fantasy fans.

The Tainted Cup, which is set for release in February 2024, is the first book in Bennett’s new Shadow of the Leviathan series. This first entry has a great story behind it that looks to combine a complex murder investigation with inventive fantasy elements and two fantastic sounding central characters. The synopsis below sounds pretty damn amazing and I love the idea of a brilliant, if highly eccentric, detective, trying to solve a murder caused by the spontaneous growth of a tree in someone’s body. Everything about this book sounds extremely cool and if Bennett is on his usual form this will probably be one of the top fantasy releases of 2024.

Plot Synopsis:

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.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.