The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan series 1)

This was my first time reading this book, and it was somewhat of an impulse purchase. I’ve read part of a Bennett series previously, and was not super impressed. I do love the fantasy/crime genre overlap, so I decided to give it a shot.

The criminal investigation definitely outperformed the fantasy element in this book. The magic system was not particularly clear, and the problems of this fantasy world feel like they are being developed for a future novel, as opposed to being relevant to this one. However, the criminal investigation was compelling, so I was excited to move quickly through the book to find out what happened.

As far as characters go, they were unfortunately fairly bland. The only character with any real personality was Ana, the main character’s mentor. She also could be a bit grating at times, as sort of an imitation Sherlock Holmes who keeps talking about how obvious everything is. The villains are not present, and most of the surrounding cast is forgettable. All in all, hopefully the next book gives the main character a personality of his own, or at least provides a better insight into the characters who are more morally grey.

I still enjoyed the read, and plan on following up with the next book. It’s solid, I’ll give The Tainted Cup a 6.