The Tainted Cup – Robert Jackson Bennett

Leviathans are sea monsters of incredible size - incredible enough that a seismograph is a useful way to tell when one approaches the land. During the Wet Season, they do approach the land. Before the Khanum empire was established, and built the Walls, they would come onto the land and devastate it. Maintaining the Walls and keeping Leviathans at bay is the main focus of the empire.

The empire is low-tech in many respects - e.g., travel is by horse or carriage - but its bio-engineering is advanced. Materials used in everyday life tend to be bio-engineered. Most officials, and most members of the military, have been enhanced. Din, the viewpoint character, has been altered so that he possesses a perfect memory. He reports to Ana - a senior investigator - who makes him do all the legwork. Some blurbs and reviews compare them to Watson and Holmes, but Ana is more like Mycroft Holmes. She sits in her room, listens to reports, and deduces.

The book starts with a bizarre murder investigation. A man died when several trees grew and burst out of his body. The investigation gains urgency when it emerges that ten engineers working at the outmost sea Wall died in a similar way, and the Wall was damaged as a result.

What follows is an excellent murder mystery. The initial investigation points to the involvement of a powerful family - and is shut down. Potential witnesses get murdered. And a Leviathan is getting closer.

The series title is “Shadow of the Leviathan”. There are hints that there is a larger story - that Leviathans are more than oversized sea monsters that rampage on land for no obvious reason. One guesses we’ll learn more about this in the sequels - to which I look forward.