Ana and Din are back with another strange case.
A Treasury officer goes missing from his guarded room. Only one entrance, windows bolted from the inside. Very curious.

That's all I'll give away.
This is just as good as book one. Maybe even better. I love Ana and Din. They are so complex. I also loved the addition of Malo and hope to see more of her character in the future.
This is one of the best series ever in my opinion.

"Before there was memory, before there was history, there were the leviathans: the colossal, monstrous creatures that lumbered ashore each wet season and went wandering the plains, bringing death and panic with them."

Ana and Din return in this sequel to The Tainted Cup, this time venturing beyond the reach of the empire to solve an impossible mystery. A treasury official has vanished into thin air from a locked room, a vault has been robbed, and the security of the most important Imperial facility might have been compromised. As Ana and Din unravel this mystery, Din begins to worry that Ana has at last found an adversary she cannot outwit…

"The drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the Iudex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it."

The Tainted Cup was one of my top books of 2024, and A Drop of Corruption surpassed every expectation. I heaped praise on the first book, and I must do the same for this sequel. I adored every aspect of this. Robert Jackson Bennett has become one of my favorite authors. I would buy and read his grocery lists at this point.

This book catches the reader’s attention from the very first line, with that grim description of the leviathans I quoted at the beginning of this review. It maintains this with a twisting, fabulous mystery worthy of the likes of Agatha Christie. This is such a lovely, complex murder and political mystery. The plot goes from a locked room mystery to a bank heist to political intrigue without missing a beat, without ever feeling trite or contrived. The pacing is perfection, and the plot is masterfully done. I adored how every clue was worked into seemingly unimportant dialogue and narration and how seamlessly it all fell together. The reader feels the same triumph as Din and Ana solve the mystery and finally reveal the complete puzzle. This is one of those fantastic mysteries that makes the reader want to immediately read it again to marvel at all the clues hidden in plain sight.

At this point, I have to gush about the world-building. The world-building is phenomenal. For anyone else, it would be enough to write a world where these giant monsters threaten an empire. Fighting these monsters would have been the plot of this whole series. Robert Jackson Bennett takes this world what seems like fifteen steps further--he has created a society where these creatures are a facet of everyday life, the magical abilities of the Imperial officers are normalized, and there is always some mystery to investigate. There is something so incredibly vivid about this setting of the grandeur of a declining empire shadowed by the presence of these terrible leviathans. The thematic elements of A Drop of Corruption were wonderfully executed, with discussions of the corrupting influence of power, cultural clashes and cultural relativism, and the nature of autocracies, all worked in seamlessly.

Finally, I cannot express how much I adore Ana and Din. I could write a dissertation on how much I love the two of them. I even love the side characters of Malo and Thelenai. They are all just so wonderfully fleshed out and flawed in their own ways. These are characters that feel real in a way so few manage. The Sherlock-Watson dynamic of Ana and Din is so perfect, and they continue to play off each other wonderfully.

I could read a dozen more Ana and Din adventures happily and without complaint.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Del Rey and Robert Jackson Bennett for the opportunity to review an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

5/5 stars
includes: a locked room mystery, a bank heist, a phenomenal mystery, a bisexual MC
song recommendations: Main Title - John Paesano & Braden Kimball, Little Dark Age - MGMT, Pulling a Thread - The Chamber Orchestra of London

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

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 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."

Fantasy locked room mystery!?! My two favorite genres in one!

Many thanks to Net Galley for a complimentary ebook I exchange for my honest review,

A Drop of Corruption was one of my most anticipated books this year. I loved everything about The Tainted Cup, and Ana Dolobra especially. This book was another twisty, complex mystery that demanded all of the Dinios Kol’s wit and wiles to unravel. Meanwhile, we got a much deeper look into the world of the Empire and the magic systems that underlay it. I can’t wait for the next installment!

A Drop of Corruption is the second of a series - an Ana and Din Mystery - that combines sci-fantasy and mystery.
It is a rather bleak land run with magic gained from dead leviathans.
Ana and Din are investigators sent to a remote area of the empire where a tax official has disappeared and then parts of his body are identified. As they investigate, Ana and Din discover a complex plot which could affect the Empire.
The story flows well; it is a little long. I enjoyed this book - it is a unique series.


First off, thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for an ARC of A Drop of Corruption.

I fell in love with this world, the characters and the writing from reading the first of this series. Reading the second installment only made me more dedicated, solidifying this series as one of my favorites…for a myriad of reasons.

Ana and Din make such a perfect team, playing on each other’s strengths in their work while also building and maintaining a bond that (though hilarious) is heartfelt and genuine. The witty banter and intellectual insight mix together in a flawless combination. They are the mystery-solving duo we never knew we desperately needed as readers.

Being a fantasy novel is not the only thing going for this incredible book. The mystery that our adventurous pair finds themselves embroiled in is planned, executed and paced to twisty perfection. Solving this mystery will keep you turning pages from start to finish and hypothesizing until the very end.

Bennett does a phenomenal job of building a world that is captivating and compelling, creating an atmosphere that makes you want to be a participant in all of the exciting happenings. It is worth noting that while this world contains wonderful multitudes, sometimes there is more than meets the eye, The author's afterward is not to be missed or set aside with this one.. Bennett delves into another deeper message regarding some of the common over-arching tropes within the fantasy genre, and our own society, that makes for a thought-provoking read of its own accord.

All in all, Bennett has exceeded my already high expectations with A Drop of Corruption. Now the only problem is finding the patience to wait for the next adventure

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
Genre: Mystery l Fantasy
Length: 480 pages
Release Date: April 1, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley for the e-arc and DelRey for the finished copy.

I am convinced that RJB has cracked the proverbial code on what elements you need in a great fantasy mystery. The Tainted Cup was one of my favorite books I read in 2024 and A Drop of Corruption is in contention with one of my favorite reads of 2025! I made a fatal mistake in reading A Drop of Corruption, The Sword of Kaigen and Blood Over Bright Haven all in the same year.

A Drop of Corruption picks up shortly where The Tainted Cup left off, with two of my favorite characters I have read recently in Din and Ana. I love this duo so much, they are clever, hilarious and most of all the series thus far is a page turner. I think the reason I love this series is so much is because I don't read a lot of mystery anymore (I fell in love with reading Nancy Drew as a kid) and this book reminds me how much love I have for the mystery genre. It's a perfect concoction of wit, humor with fantasy elements and I'm hooked! I had no idea who the culprit(s) were until the very end or how it was accomplished. I know sometimes mysterys can we overwrought with twists and turns but I don't find that to be true of this series. I just have so much damn fun with this series and I can't wait to read the next one!

Superb.
From the stunning cover to the pertinent afterword, and every bit in between, this was both an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.
Jackson Bennett has given us some damn good tales before now, but this series almost leaves one lost for superlatives.
The characters are so well-drawn as to commit them forever to the pantheon of Almost-Real (just when you think fiction is jaded, and unlikely to ever excite you too much, along come Ana and Din); the plot is a delicious mix of fantasy and murder mystery (but also, court and family politics, social upheaval and personal enfranchisement); the world-building is truly spectacular - this series should become a classic for that alone; the prose is dense in service to this scene-setting, but never arduously so; and the pace is just perfect, never flagging, effortlessly sweeping the reader along on a river of discovery.
What elevates this from a mere fantasy novel, however, as seen in the author's afterword, is the exploration of power and individual responsibility, the evolution of cultures - and a possible blueprint for understanding that the status quo in our own societies need not go unchallenged.
My thanks to Netgalley for the DRC of this brilliant book, and to Robert Jackson Bennett for shining a light into the dark corners - in a very entertaining way.

The first third of this book was straight fire, 5/5 energy. A wonderful, classic, closed-door murder-mystery narrative with interesting characters was exactly what I wanted. The book, however, devolves into a muddied political narrative out to critique autocracy that left a strange taste in the mouth when following characters who exist in an empire. While I theoretically understand what Bennett was attempting in critiquing autocracies (in fantasy at large), he inadvertently tumbles into just a big an issue of romanticising Empire. As a result, I went from thoroughly enjoying the set-up to a mystery, to finding predictable conclusions stymied by cultural critique. Nevertheless, I think there is a lot to enjoy in this, and I still greatly enjoyed the majority of my reading experience.

Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again!

This book definitely held up to the first in the series! The mystery was so intriguing and I loved the new characters that were introduced. The world building was phenomenal as always.

The only thing I wish I had more of in this book was more expansion upon the story/characters/world that was introduced in the first book of the series. While there was some, it somewhat felt like a new story in the same world as opposed to a continuation of the original story.

I would 100% recommend this book to anyone that enjoys fantasy or a good murder mystery (even if you’re not a huge fantasy reader)!

I received a a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and statements are my own.

Ana and Din are called to the outposts of the empire to investigate a disappearance, then a murder,several strange experiences all the while thwarting an attack on the Empire.
The world building is detailed and exotic , the author has way of bringing details vividly to life in an unsettling way- the image of Ana slurping live Oysters to a people turned into plants , to the life like Shroud are beautifully described. We learn more about the Empire and its society, the political intrigues and policy through the negotiations between The Empire and Yarrowland. I loved the touch of sci-fi to this fantasy in the grafts and enhancements that help people do their jobs and the fact these enhancements come with a significant price. The aurars ( almost super thinkers) are tormented by the abilities they have taken on for the greater good.
The underlying mystery is intriguing with plenty of reveals and twists and the relationship between Ana and Din develops and the mystery around Ana’s grows.. I almost cheered when Din finally accepted that the work Ana does in rooting out corruption in the powerful and making them pay is as important as defending the empire from a sea monster ( which feels weirdly important with way the world is in 2025!)
This book can be read without having to read the first book, but I would definitely recommend reading if you haven’t already.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with the ARC for this book for my honest review.

My rating - 3.5/5

tl;dr - Very well-written sequel that, while better than the first in almost every way, still falls short of its potential.

I didn't love The Tainted Cup as much as everyone else did, primarily because I didn't like either of the two main characters, but I did enjoy reading as the mystery slowly unfolded. Everything about this sequel, however, is better and I mostly enjoyed this story and thought it was very well-written.

While I still don't care for either of the two main characters, they are fleshed out more in this one which made things more enjoyable. I also enjoyed the new side character, Malo, more than any other character in the series so far.

I love the unique world in this series. But while the overall world-building and leviathans feel like they belong to an epic fantasy world, the author makes the stakes feel too low for everything going on in this world. Even if, by the end, you realize the stakes are high, it never felt that way to me. This series creates a world with a ton of potential that I unfortunately don't think either book has come close to hitting yet.

Overall it's very well written, has good dialogue, some humor, well-written characters (whom unfortunately I don't much enjoy reading about), and some really cool world-building (which felt out of place due to limiting scope of the story).

If you enjoyed the first book then I think you'll enjoy this one as it does everything better than the first.

The second book in a stand alone series, “A Drop of Corruption” further develops the characters introduced in Shadow of the Leviathan book one, “The Tainted Cup.” We continue following Empire detectives Ana and Din as they solve crimes in this sci-fi/fantasy series.

Bennett knows how to weave a tale and this one is convoluted. There are many suspects and it is impossible to see the end from the beginning. His characters are complex, their interactions engaging.

4 stars for book two. I enjoy a good mystery and that this is. The ending got a little more twisted than I would have preferred, but over all this is a read worth your while. My thanks to Del Rey and the author for this book. All opinions are mine.

I absolutely love this series, and A Drop of Corruption does not disappoint. Din and Ana are such well-drawn characters that you can’t help but dive headfirst into their mysteries, eager to see how things unfold by the end. While I do think this book is slightly less thrilling than the first in the series, The Tainted Cup, it’s still an incredibly solid read.

One thing that stands out in this book is the political undertones, which, while fascinating, might be why I feel it doesn’t quite hit the same high notes as the first book. But that's just a small thing in the grand scheme of the story. The introduction of new characters, including one who I hope will show up in future books, is a great addition and adds some fresh energy to the series.

Bennett's ability to blend fantasy and mystery is truly impressive—it’s surprising that no one has done it this well before. Honestly, he has a real knack for it, and I doubt anyone could pull it off as seamlessly as he does. As long as Bennett continues to write in this world, I’ll be eagerly reading along.

I’m giving this one 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good mix of fantasy, mystery, and complex characters!

I just finished reading the second book in this series, and I have to say—it left me wanting more. The way the story moves through different times and places keeps things fresh, but the core remains the same: a gripping mystery filled with fascinating characters. It reminds me so much of a Sherlock Holmes case, especially because of Ana. She is, without a doubt, the heart of the story.

Ana is like Sherlock in so many ways—her quirks, her sharp mind, and even the way she sometimes blinds herself to the bigger picture while honing in on the smallest details. But what makes her truly compelling is that she is a mystery herself. This book gave us a glimpse into her backstory, but it’s not nearly enough. I need to know more.

The fantasy elements add a unique twist, making the cases feel both familiar and fresh. I can’t shake the feeling that the author is carefully unraveling Ana’s secrets bit by bit, and we’re only just scratching the surface. There has to be another book after this. If not, I’ll be left with too many questions. Who—or what—is Ana, really? I can’t wait to find out.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey and NetGalley for their generosity in allowing me to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A sequel that lives up to the first book of the series (and maybe surpasses it?)

If you enjoyed the first, you'll also enjoy this. You'll get more of Ana being her weird self and bossing Din around to solve an impossible mystery, more freaky warpings because of titan's blood, and more interesting world building.

This time, we leave the Empire and travel to Yarrow, a key site for processing the leviathans killed in the empire and using them to create the reagents needed for all the grafts and enhancements. There some political intrigue as the region is set to become part of the empire soon, though they don't really want to. A treasury agent part of the group working on this negotiations goes missing from a locked room and bits of him turn up later. Ana and Din embark in their quest to solve the mystery, with the help of apoth warden Malo to guide Din through the swamps and jungles.

I may have enjoyed this mystery even more than the first. I liked Malo and her and Dins dynamic working together. Seeing more of the titans blood and The Shroud was cool. And the revelations. Oh man. Can't wait for more!

Dinios Kol and Ana Dolabra return in A Drop of Corruption, by Robert Jackson Bennett, to solve another impossible mystery. I had a great time with the series opener, The Tainted Cup, but I think this book is even better. This book marries classic locked room mystery to highly inventive fantasy and I loved every page.

Din and Ana have been dispatched to the sweltering, muggy, decaying kingdom of Yarrow, on the edges of the Empire, to find out what happened to a missing Treasury agent. Their only clues are parts of the agent (turtles might have eaten the rest), a splotch of blood on the agent’s pillow in his locked room, and a few witnesses who remembered that the agent twitched his fingers when he talked. It’s not a lot to go on but, with Din serving as her eyes and ears, Ana starts to piece things together. Before long, our protagonists are up to their eyeballs in conspiracy, deception, and villains who are dangerous because they very much believe they’re acting for the greater good.

Throughout the mystery, Din struggles with his assignment. He wishes he could be doing something more concrete, a job where he feels like he’s actually making a difference. Digging into sensitive cases that are hushed up as soon as the guilty are identified, over and over, is far from satisfying. In The Tainted Cup, Din was assigned to work with Ana Dolabra because her eccentricities chased away all her other assistants. He’s only a member of the Iudex because it offers a way to pay off his father’s crushing debt; he’s not called to serve justice the way Ana is. At least, he thinks he isn’t. Over the course of the novel, the corruption and injustice all around him get under Din’s skin.

In addition to the fascinatingly layered mystery and the beautiful character development in A Drop of Corruption, Bennett also gives us a rich setting that is so real that I swore I could smell Yarrow’s jungle every now and then. I adore the original magical science of Bennett’s empire, where plants are bred and trained to create massive buildings and humans can be altered to enhance the senses or memory or strength. Bennett drops just enough exposition to provide a sense of the long history of Yarrow and the Empire. Unlike a lot of fantasy I’ve read, this world actually feels lived in.

I am very curious to see what Bennett cooks up for Din in the next entry in the series.

Robert Jackson Bennett's skills as an author are amazing beyond my vocabulary to express. From the first book, A Tainted Cup, to this one, Bennett creates such an immensely capturing fantasy world with deeply lovable and complex characters.
While the first book may have felt like it left some of the worldbuilding and character development to be desired, this book sure made up for it. If the first book set up the basics of the world and narrative style, then this book followed through and established the missing world background and gave the characters new depth and motives. The main characters went from a Sherlock and Holmes-esque duo to two separate, tangible characters. Din's evolution as a character was the most drastic, with this story giving him a background and more personal motives to his actions.
The mystery of this novel is intriguing and fast-paced, maintaining interest. But it also doesn't move so fast as to be dizzying or hard to keep up with. In this mystery, Bennett creates a narrative to entertain the reader while also examining autocracies, religion, and human motivation in deeper manners.
Everything about this book just kept delivering. From the how and why of the murder, to the draw to want to continue reading to learn more about the characters, to the amazing ending that ambiguously leaves an opening for either more to follow or contemplation over the meaning of this amazing world Bennett has created.

What are wonderful journey back into the Empire with my favourite new detective duo, Din and Ana. This sequel builds beautifully on the world of the first novel, where as the first left me feeling a little bereft, the sequel starts to fill in the gaps of this world and answered questions I didn't even know I had. RJB writes this world beautifully and naturally, allowing the reader to come to their own revelations and making this world he has created the much richer for it.

The character work is also much more satisfying, we're allowed to get to know Din and Ana better, though she does remain elusive by design. Some of my favourite moments in the book were the quieter moments between the two of them, his exasperation at her wild antics, her slowly teasing conclusions out of him about the case and his own life and of course the way their dynamic as a dective and her eyes continues to develop. All just brilliantly done, and I can't wait to read more of them both.

Finally, I found the central mystery much more compelling this time around. This could partly be down to more familiarity with the world, but there is also just so satisfying about a master detective battling with against an equally brilliant criminal. And the way it unravels into such a human story was much more satisfying than in the first book.

This sequel takes everything I loved about the first book, and ramps it up even higher. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you liked The Tainted Cup, you’ll almost certainly like A Drop of Corruption. The only real question is how much you’ll like it. A Drop of Corruption retains so much of what made the first book excellent: clear, precise prose, creative world-building, delightful banter from Ana and Din, and a mystery that is even more clever and twisty than the first (though I also think it risks being more contrived).

My guess is many will like the sequel more. The tension is ratcheted up even further thanks to a more foreboding nemesis, a stronger atmosphere due to more evocative prose, and even better usage of the world’s promise for body horror. Ana is pushed to her very limit, and this brings out frightening and intriguing new dimensions to her character, further hinting at her mysterious origins.

For me though, it is Din’s character-arc that makes A Drop of Corruption fall just short of its predecessor. I didn’t find his continued conflict on whether to join the Legion or stay with Ana compelling. One, it felt like a partial retread of his arc from the first book. Two, it always felt like he was only ever going to make one decision; there was no real struggle involved.

Still, just like The Tainted Cup, A Drop of Corruption brings everything together for an emotional ending, this time with a timely message against kings and dictators. The mystery stands alone while also offering tidbits of the world’s broader mysteries. I’ll be eagerly awaiting the next in the series.