The Tainted Cup

The Tainted Cup is advertised as featuring a “Holmes and Watson-style duo” (“The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett,” Penguin Random House, 2024). Such marketing materials connect investigator Ana Dolabra to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s iconic consulting detective character Sherlock Holmes, and Ana’s long-suffering assistant Din Kol to Dr. John Watson, Holmes’s friend and investigative companion. Holmes and Watson first appeared in A Study in Scarlet (1887). Ana indeed has many qualities in common with the odd, caustic Holmes, including her interest in mood-altering substances, which matches Holmes’s consumption of heroin and cocaine. Her affect, however, relies on modern interpretations of Holmes’s sensory acuity as related to neurodiversity or sociopathy (Sanders, Lisa. “Hidden Clues.” The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2009; Engelbrecht, Natalie. “Sherlock Holmes—Autistic or Sociopath?” Embrace Autism, 9 Apr. 2018).

In his author’s note, Robert Jackson Bennett cites another literary detective as the primary inspiration for Ana: Nero Wolfe, created by American author Rex Stout. Wolfe and his assistant, Archie Goodwin, appeared in 33 novels and 41 novellas or short stories (1934-1975). As an “armchair detective,” Wolfe, like Ana, does not investigate crimes in person, but relies on others to report the details of the crime; both Wolfe and Ana are avid readers.