A Drop of Corruption

An Ana and Din Mystery Shadow of the Leviathan, #2

by Robert Jackson Bennett

432 pages

English language

Published April 1, 2025 by Del Rey.

ASIN:: B0D4HRSDSJ

(4 reviews)

The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant fantasy-mystery from the author of The Tainted Cup.

“Wonderfully clever and compulsively readable . . . another winning blend of fantasy and classic detection.”—Publishers Weekly

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder—and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.

Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the …

The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant fantasy-mystery from the author of The Tainted Cup.

“Wonderfully clever and compulsively readable . . . another winning blend of fantasy and classic detection.”—Publishers Weekly

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder—and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.

Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud, where the Empire harvests fallen titans for the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat.

2 editions

Zivan reviewed A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)

The murder mystery is part and parcel of a complex strange world.

5 stars

I sometimes wonder why I read SF&F, why I need a speculative element in my, drama, comedy, thriller or cozy?

I think it is because they add a sence of mystery and wonder, learning about a different world with different constraints and seeing how our world is reflected within it's different facets.

A Drop of Corruption excels because it is not only another Dolabra & Kol murder mystery, but because of what we learn about the intricacies of leviathan science, the empire's past and future, it's relationship to an outlying kingdom and the people it grinds in its gears.

The murder mystery is part and parcel of a complex strange world.

It is also an excellent page turner. .

Tak! reviewed A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)

A Drop of Corruption

4 stars

A Drop of Corruption was a great followup to The Tainted Cup.

I love the universe, it's so delightfully weird and mysterious. Additionally, I appreciate that Din, despite being A Watson, actually does the majority of solving things and unraveling the story, instead of just floundering around until his Holmes solves everything.

enne📚 reviewed A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett (Shadow of the Leviathan, #2)

A Drop of Corruption

4 stars

This book reminds me a lot of the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy. Both are set out in the hinterlands, with a different focus and locale than the first book, but crucially both are there to establish the thematic question for the series. Here, that question is around the human nature of kings and emperors, and the complicated human desire for them.

Unsurprisingly, this series continues to be solidly in the mystery genre despite being blended with kaiju fantasy worldbuilding. It opens with a locked room murder mystery (and a missing body), has a brilliant Moriarity-adjacent mastermind, and ends with a dramatic reveal. This was true in the first book as well, but I quite appreciate how the details and clues are meticulously laid out for the reader to spot; even when there is a "our investigator must go into a fugue state to find answers" …

One friend who has been reading this series (and crucially has not read any mystery books) has been disappointed at the "small-ness" of the plot threads, where the climax is a mystery rather than a fantasy escalation, and the terror of the leviathans only looms in the distance. These books certainly do not have the escalation of ideas from his previous series The Founders Trilogy. However, following the Divine Cities example above, my prediction is that the final book is going to satisfyingly tie together the themes from the first two books while answering our questions about the nature of the leviathans and the silent Khanum emperor.

rated it

July 6