Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
# of Pages: 406 (ebook)
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: ★★★★☆ (GR 4.0)
Synopsis: In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, 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 investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears--quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home. Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective. As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.
Review: An enjoyable read but so confusing that I'm worried the world/plot isn't going to stick.
This is first and foremost a whodunnit mystery, and it just happens to take place in a fantasy setting. Ana is the erratic and crass investigator, and Din (the narrator) is her more serious assistant. Ana is clearly the comedy in this book and was a crucial part of why this story was so enjoyable.
Unlike other fantasy books (DCC, Harry Potter) that have a protagonist who is new to the fantasy world being introduced, Din is more relatable to the audience in being new to investigation rather than as a character who could introduce the reader to the fundamental fantasy elements.
Therefore the world building was put on the back burner, and it felt like the reader was expected to gloss over the complexity in favor of trying to follow along with the mystery plot. To make it more confusing, the author wasn't even consistent; "Leviathans" and "titans" were used interchangeably to refer to the enormous monsters that are a threat to the Empire's wall. Honestly the world was vaguely reminiscent of the anime Attack on Titan (walls to keep the titans at, different military divisions) but instead with way more complicated names.
The fantasy aspect was overly complex relative to the amount of world building actually accomplished n this book. Yes there's a map and a chart for military ranks at the front of the book, but this only scratches the surfaces of all the different races (Oyapati, Sazi, etc), government divisions (Apoth, Iudex, etc.), and suffusions aka permanent alternations (engraver, crackler, etc.) that all could have used their own chart/appendix.
There's also way too many characters; maybe more than necessary were introduced to make it harder for the reader to deduce who's involved in the mystery, but it made the story harder to follow. The pacing was also quite slow (took me ~2 weeks to read).
Overall I would recommend this book because it's fun, but moreso for those who are interested in whodunnit mysteries. I hope the fantasy element will be better fleshed out in the second book!
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