The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
Publisher – Hodderscape
Published – Out Now
Price – £12.99 paperback £6.99
A peculiar crime. A brilliant investigator. A mystery of epic proportions.
In an opulent mansion at the borders of the Empire, an Imperial officer lies dead - killed when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even here, 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 solve the crime is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricity. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory.
Soon, the mystery leads to a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself. For Ana, all this makes for a deliciously thorny puzzle - at last, something to truly hold her attention. And Din? He'll just have to hold on for the ride.
And
An impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air - vanishing from a building whose entrances and exits are all sealed. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, Ana Dolabra, and her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.
Ana soon discovers they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder - and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.
Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of their moves with uncanny foresight, he fears she has at last met an enemy she can't defeat . . .
As you may have gathered from recent reviews, I am reading the Hugo novel nominees and last up is a Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennet but to do that I also needed to read the first novel The Tainted Cup; which I note won the award for best novel. I found myself not particularly enthralled by either and the reasons for that are fairly similar. So unusually let’s do two reviews at once to prevent any sense of déjà vu
Starting with The Tainted Cup The empire faces its biggest threat from the immense kaiju that lurk in the seas and can cause immense damage to protect the inhabitants immense sea walls of the only line of defence. In the canton of Dratana a well-respected engineer is found dead and transmogrified into living matter. Foul play is suspected and so the imperial investigators Ana Dolabra an eccentric genius and her confidant Dinios Koi are despatched to find out what is going on. More deaths occur and it looks like someone is trying to destroy the entire empire
Fantasy and mysteries have a common set of ocurrences. We have many contemporary fantasises tipping their hat to noir. The cosier Rovers of London and authors from terry Pratchett to RJ Barker all enjoy setting up a puzzle to delight a reader. I also enjoy reading thrillers without any supernatural elements. So, when finally starting this acclaimed series, I have to say I found it quite run of the mill.
An absolute key item is the mystery that difficult to solve and this was not. In fact, it was fairly signposted early on where the likely killer was from. So I was quite unsurprised several hundred pages later to find out I was right. There are magical causes this is a story with where lots of potential magic changing items from the kaiju leviathans can change matter into something else. That’s interesting but its very much handwavium and for me slightly cheats the mystery but again its fairly well telegraphed where this is coming from
The main attraction is the duo of Ana and Din. They remind me far more of the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin duo. Like Wolfe Ana tends to be confined to her quarters. But in her case, this is as apparently, she observes everything she sees and so can be easily distracted. She specialises in seeing threads of puzzles. She stays blindfolded most of the time, she can read ink print by her enhanced fingers and she can be deliciously vulgar in her insults. Din is the legs and the eyes for Ana, and he too has been enhanced with the ability tor remember all he sees (and we discover he has some other skills too he is not yet aware of). He comes from the lower classes but is very reserved but hides an eye for the ladies and gentlemen he meets. Now these are always interesting on the page. They spark off each other, and Bennet ensures Ana is more the main gun of the narrative at key intervals. The exposition of what is going is very much her role and these scenes play often well. It is fun watching these two operate and I’ve a soft spot for people trying to do their best.
I find however the larger world quite often dull and this is a place fighting kaiju. The pacing is very slow and often feels like we are moved from section to section; told to remark upon something unusual and lo and behold this becomes key to the crim. There is little misdirection or a list of suspects to really get into. As another great detective said to if you eliminate the impossible whatever remains although improbable will be the truth and if you apply that to this novel its rather simple logic actually makes the mysteries come together. It just takes a further hundred pages to get where you want to be. Ultimately, it’s a nice brainteaser but rather simpler than it thinks it is.
Moving onto A Drop of Corruption the case is a little more interesting a member of the Empire’s Treasury is found in the swamps of a country one day hoping to be p[art of the Empire. The only issue is the body is very old and yet people saw him alive after he was apparently dead. Add to that uneasy tensions between Empire and this palace’s King anything could go wrong diplomatically.
Now this story builds up tension a bit better, and it soon appears that the adversary is like Anna able to find patterns in anything. They are a master of disguise and a strategic genius. I felt initially this was going to get juicy. Until the suspects are put forward and yes very quickly, I guessed correctly who it was. There were several hundred pages again to be proved right. Bennet seems to struggle with red herrings and perhaps not flashing clues in rather obvious points to the page. It lacks subtlety that most crime writers know how to do much better. As an example, it apparently takes a genius to work out that the imposter and person they impersonated were different heights and indeed someone upon initial evidence then has the cheek to say what does that mean? But it was immediately obvious. Ana and Din scenes are again entertaining but really no more than that.
That leaves for both an interesting but for me flawed running theme in the stories that a fragile democracy can be attacked by certain interests. The Empire is not quite an Empire but left fairly fuzzy what happens more inland, This for me falls flat as the world here has Ana and Din as detectives who fear no rank and can solve mysteries and dispense justice. But actually, it still feels like if you just have good people in power things go ok. I’d be far more interested in stories exploring the systems that control such forces. Plenty of crime thrillers do that but here its well a bit basic for my tastes.
Ultimately these feel simple mysteries overstretched from a good novella to long novel that make simple points with a sense I should be applauding. I think they’re both ok but not much more than that and won’t linger in the memory for long.
