A Trade of Blood – Has the Magic Worn Thin?

I am remarkably behind on reading a lot of the hot new releases that have been coming out in 2026. Even ones I’ve been salivating for, like the new SM Hallow book that I have been promised gruesome necromancy, has been put on the backburner. But the Ana and Din series is one that my friends have all been reading too, so it got shunted to the front of the pile. This book brought me all sorts of fun ideas for my current tabletop role playing group – where my players are building up a cult to a god of mushrooms – but this was by far the most disappointing of the three. I’m not mad I read it, and it was an enjoyable time. However, I found myself wishing I’d picked up a different new release instead.

Because these are self-contained murder mysteries, you can probably read them in any order with minimal confusion. However, The Tainted Cup is not only the first in the series, but also the best in my opinion. It also provides the clearest on-boarding to the setting. This review will have some spoilers for early plot points (mostly the method of killing), so read on at your risk.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
I’m starting with the negatives, because they’re more firmly in my mind right now. I knew this was going to be exploring the agricultural infrastructure of the Empire, and I made sure to read Bennett’s author’s note before beginning my read. He opines (quite rightly) in that note about the centralizing nature of beef to American diets, and how that warps the way that we view and use land, and its disastrous effects on the ecosystem. I teach a unit on destructive farming with my 6th graders – mostly on nitrogen pollution from fertilizer and its downstream effects – so I was excited for the murder mystery to tangle up with those ideas.

And it just … didn’t. Instead we get a Romeo and Juliet situation that quickly gets enveloped by the killing of gentry who own the fields and ranchlands. Beyond how the killer has hijacked their victims with mind controlling mushrooms, which were derived from how small monkeys are controlled to pick berries and harvest crops, there is very little of this book that necessitated an agricultural set dressing. And set dressing it was, and that really disappointed me. Bennett made the bizarre choice to have two of the wealthiest families in the nation – by orders of magnitude – send their kids to work in the fields and flensing halls, yet we never got much more than passing glances of either setting. This would be like Elon Musk having his kids work at an Amazon Warehouse part-time for several years. This meant that not only did we not get crunchy critiques of farming and ranching, but also we got the most boring version of nobility in a world where the distorted and intriguing setting is a selling point.

I also felt like each book in this series has backed off a lot of its more ambitious ideas. The descriptions feel less intense, the ideas more and more in line with normal trends, and a general lack of desire to ‘go for it’. This whole book felt far more tame and tepid than this series has billed itself. It’s tough for me to look at the work Bennet was doing in book 1 and compare it to this entry and feel like he’s continued trying to push the envelope. I have some broader concerns about this ‘flattening’ being more and more common in the big publishing houses. It just felt safe, and I don’t pick up Robert Jackson Bennett books to read something safe.

Between this and A Drop of Corruption, I’ve largely dropped any hopes that book 1 kindled for a thematically complex series. I know Bennett can do it too: his City of Stairs books are a masterclass on that front. My expectations have been adjusted however, and any future installments will mostly be slotted in when I want something fun and readable.

What Worked For Me:
That was a lot of me ranting. The good news is that if you’re mostly here for a fun Murder Mystery, this one continues to deliver. I managed to guess the major elements pretty early, but it was a really satisfying progression through the different layers of the crime. Bennett has talked extensively about the difficulties he had with the more intricate planning that mysteries required when he wrote The Tainted Cup, and the pace he’s putting these books out makes me think he’s got a good system going. It’s a fun mystery, and the creepy zombie mushrooms are an excellent way to apply pressure to Din in ways that go beyond ‘someone wants to stab you’.

I also really liked the crumbs Bennett gave us in the epilogue! It added a little more juice to the story, though I felt like it came far too late. It also had more to do with class structures than agriculture. This is great, but I wish he would have built this into the plot proper a bit more. There continues to be a great trail of breadcrumbs that seem to be setting up for some really fun corners of the Empire, and I’m guessing that we’ll get a little more each book about Ana’s secrets. I can’t wait for when we finally go to the inner walls!

Conclusion: a fun book, but not one that impressed me as much as others in the series

• Characters: 3
• Setting: 3
• Craft: 4
• Themes: 3
• Enjoyment: 3