I have been reticent in my posting, instead of at least once a week, which was my stated goal at the beginning of the year. I am behind on my Book Corner page, updating it when I remember, which is usually two or three books after I have finished them, moving them from To Be Read directly to Finished Reading. At the time of the writing of this post, I have The 7½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle listed as currently reading and I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons on deck. I am writing the review for The Tainted Cup and The 7½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and am half way done with I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons. At the current pace, it might be a three-fer review.
I wanted to review The Tainted Cup, by Robert Jackson Bennett as soon as I finished reading it. In my reading, The 7½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, followed directly on the heals of The Tainted Cup, and both were mysteries with interesting premises, pushing both into the super-genre of Sci-Fi/Fantasy, while being built upon the bones of the tried-and-true mystery tale.
The Tainted Cup was a bit of Nero Wolff and Lovecraft (no stranger to mysteries) run through some unique world building ideas. I hope that the world will be explored further, it seemed to leave room for this, in the creatures it created and the mystery it opened and solved.
The genetic manipulations and plant based machinations were an interesting and immensely different way to wrap a tried and true murder mystery up and to make it compelling and new. As well, the monster threat, which was ever present and yet, not the focus of the mystery itself, rather another layer of tension applied to the story, also creating something new out of an old genre.
The 7½ deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was in its own right a more traditional mystery in that it appeared at first blush to be an early 20th century English above the stairs/below the stairs story. The novel opens with amnesia and something of a slow burn. Which then turns into Groundhog Day as directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
I had been sitting on this one for almost a year. I read about it on Tor.com(now reactormag.com [love this site. Daily browsing for me]). The premise as unique, several days to solve a mystery, several people trying to solve it, multiple perspectives, that was how I remember interpreting the back of the book blurb. I recall it was well presented and unique sounding and I was looking for something different at that time. I don’t remember now what I was reading a year ago, though I wasn’t ready to try it at any of times after I got it. Until I ran aground on new things that I wanted to read or had available and so queued it up, as I had it there to be read and figured I ought to just do it.
I was not at all disappointed. It was a pleasant follow to The Tainted Cup. The world building was seeming uninspired, traditional in some senses, until a surprise, as the climax of the book nears crests towards its peak that demolishes such a critique.
As I said, it felt like a slow burn, then the story took a turn and it wasn’t a stroll down a gentle slope, rather a roll down a mountainside and it was enjoyable, compelling, I wanted to know what was going to happen and how was it going to unravel its threads. It was all wrapped up nicely in a bow, as most stories are, and I didn’t feel let down by the ending, which is all I will say about it.
The butler didn’t do it in either of these books. I definitely enjoyed both enormously.
