To give you an idea of how wrong I was in this murder mystery: my main suspect turned out to be the love interest...and I have seen multiple reviews praising him for being the greenest of flags.

I've really been getting into fantasy murder mysteries lately, so The Tainted Cup has been on my TBR for a little while. I didn't particularly enjoy Foundryside by the same author, so I was a little hesitant until I read the first chapter and was immediately intrigued.
Din is an engraver who can remember everything he sees and recall it whenever he wants, and he is working as an assistant to a very eccentric investigator - Ana - when a new murder case arises. It is quickly complicated by politics, and I'm going to be honest and say I didn't completely follow everything, but I understood enough to get the gist of all of the political motivations. Do I think you can accurately predict the murderers? Probably not. I did manage to sort of call a plot twist, but it was based entirely on vibes, and I only saw it about 2 chapters before the reveal. That being said, I did really enjoy just watching puzzle pieces fall into place and there was a bit of action too.
I think the highlight of this, though, is the dynamics between Din and Ana. I didn't realize how fun the eccentric mentor and cinnamon roll assistant could be until I saw the banter and the relationship between these two. Din reminded me a lot of Richa from Empire of Exiles, and Ana is just Ana. I didn't really love any of the side characters, mostly because I was paranoid that they all wanted to kill Din...but now that I know that most of these characters were innocent, book two will hopefully improve my opinion of them.
The Tainted Cup is an extremely twisty fantasy murder mystery with politics, spy antics, danger, and some amazing character dynamics.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC!

4.25/5