THE TAINTED CUP

The cup of mystery overfloweth

RELEASED OUT NOW!

432 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook

Author Robert Jackson Bennett

Publisher Hodderscape

Since making his debut with the Stephen King-esque Mr Shivers in 2010, Robert Jackson Bennett has demonstrated his fluency in horror, fantasy and science fiction. With The Tainted Cup, he combines epic fantasy with a murder mystery.

His protagonist is Dinios Kol, freshly appointed assistant investigator to the brilliant if highly eccentric Ana Dolabra. An “Engraver” with perfect recall, Kol serves as the eyes and ears for the blind and reclusive Dolabra. His first case is the unsettling murder of an Imperial official, killed when a tree suddenly and fatally sprouts from his torso.

The relationship between the two detectives fits the classic blueprint of the oddball genius and their strait-laced assistant, but Bennett compensates for the familiarity of this dynamic by slowly revealing hidden depths to Kol, and with the sheer strength of his prose. The plot is constantly intriguing and the dialogue brisk and lively.

The author conjures vivid landscapes for his characters to explore, crafting atmosphere in the description of an abandoned fort with “many tottering towers and structures leaning about like a jaw full of broken teeth”.

The world-building is richly detailed, with a deep sense of history underpinning the Empire of Khanum in which Kol serves. There are different races living under the Empire’s banner, a landowning aristocracy, and a cleverly imagined form of science. Happily, the story wears its mythopoesis lightly though, never becoming weighed down by exposition dumps.

Bennett adds to the suspense surrounding Kol and Dolabra’s case by building in an existential threat to the Empire itself. It’s protected from the menace of massive Leviathans by a series of colossal walls. As the investigation reaches its climax, a Leviathan approaches a breach in the defences, making the case a race against time. Meticulously constructed, with clues cunningly scattered throughout, The Tainted Cup is full to the brim. David West

Bennett found inspiration for Ana Dolabra in Nero Wolfe, the ’30s armchair detective created by Rex Stout.