I've finished: The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
This Holms and Watson duo really captured me. The fact that the setting isn't London, but a province near the seawall that protects a biotech empire from seasonal attack by giant leviathans makes it much more appealing.
The biotech isn't mimicking current or future technology, it mainly enhances natural abilities. The augmentations have repercussions and unwanted side effects.
The story is toled in first person by Dinios Kol, an engraver, augmented to have perfect recall. He is very competent but suffers from imposter syndrome as he tries to hide his dyslexia from his superiors.
Kol is assigned to assist the eccentric genius investigator Ana Dolabra, an over sensitive woman that has to blindfold herself in order to manage the amount of information assaulting her brain. Kol assits her by going out into the world and recalling what he's seen and heard.
As the plot thickens, we learn more about the empire and its ills.
As mysteries go, our attention is pointed towards many clues, the satisfaction is more in watching competent people do a good job in the face of adversity.
The Tainted Cup is a real page-turner and I found it hard to put down.
https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/a97ae9ff-1aa2-4ea9-a547-f290ac647b61
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![Text: Strong Women, Strange Worlds presents Third Thursday QuickReads of Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror by Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar [with color photo of fair-skinned woman with long, curly dark hair; she wears a black V-neck with embroidery], Nora Peevy [with sepia-toned photo of woman with cat-eye glasses, devil horns, and straight hair worn short; she wears a dark crew-neck T-shirt], Dani Finn [color art portrait of a fair-skinned person with plastic-framed glasses, blond hair worn short and over the ears, and a light blue button-up with a pattern], Angela Acosta [color photo of a woman with medium-brown skin, glasses, and long, straight, dark hair; she wears a pink button-up], Laura Blackwell [color photo of a fair-skinned woman with cat-eye glasses and graying shoulder-length hair; she wears a lavender pointelle cardigan, and Violette L. Meier [color photo of a Black woman with long braids; she wears a black blouse] / March 20, 7pm EDT Free on Zoom / Preregister now at StrongWomenStrangeWorlds.weebly.com](https://stockroom.wandering.shop/media_attachments/files/114/162/479/188/090/109/original/76c93a8d1eb652a5.jpg "Text: Strong Women, Strange Worlds presents Third Thursday QuickReads of Sci Fi, Fantasy, and Horror by Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar [with color photo of fair-skinned woman with long, curly dark hair; she wears a black V-neck with embroidery], Nora Peevy [with sepia-toned photo of woman with cat-eye glasses, devil horns, and straight hair worn short; she wears a dark crew-neck T-shirt], Dani Finn [color art portrait of a fair-skinned person with plastic-framed glasses, blond hair worn short and over the ears, and a light blue button-up with a pattern], Angela Acosta [color photo of a woman with medium-brown skin, glasses, and long, straight, dark hair; she wears a pink button-up], Laura Blackwell [color photo of a fair-skinned woman with cat-eye glasses and graying shoulder-length hair; she wears a lavender pointelle cardigan, and Violette L. Meier [color photo of a Black woman with long braids; she wears a black blouse] / March 20, 7pm EDT Free on Zoom / Preregister now at StrongWomenStrangeWorlds.weebly.com")
