Catnip. Give me more locked-room fantasy murder mysteries every year until I die. The book also dodges my feared potential trapdoor of spiraling the scope out too wide - Bennett slips in another little hook for expansion of focus but it's just enough to be intriguing, and so far only relating to character backstories rather than some world-changing superplot like some fantasy series devolve into. Top-notch work.

This is the incredibly satisfying sequel to The Tainted Cup, but I think readers could also enjoy beginning Robert Jackson Bennett's fantasy mystery sequence here. (They'll then immediately want to read The Tainted Cup, but as there are no spoilers, they'll be fine.) The investigative team of Ana and Din tackle another another complicated murder in another distant and volatile corner of the empire--the region is different, but the puzzles are equally delicious and the stakes are equally high. This one begins as a locked room mystery (in a decaying kingdom that is about to finally join the empire), but it turns out that the room, the lock, and the mystery are all more intricate than they appear at first. I was hooked from the first page, and, like other readers, I strongly suggest you read straight through to the excellent author's note (even more applicable today than when it was originally written).

Thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for my free earc in return for an honest review. My opinions are all my own.

I have a soft spot for locked door mysteries. When one is investigated by a remarkable duo who thrive on thinking differently? This reader can’t get their hands on the book fast enough. While you don’t need to read “The Tainted Cup” to enjoy this second volume in the Ana and Din mysteries by Robert Jackson Bennett, they are both enjoyable reads and the experience is richer when both are read.

From the opening sentence, Din’s growth as an investigator is apparent. Throughout this volume, we also see changes in Ana as she figures out being a mentor – both in general and specifically for Din. This mystery offers different nuances into the Empire of Khanum than was explored in the first book. In “A Drop of Corruption,” the tensions and cracks of all areas of society are more overt. Perhaps this is due to Din’s growing experience and his expanded worldview. Now he’s able to understand different nuances and broader implications of his general observations and his findings. His first interaction with Signum Tira Maro highlights this; she thought that he, as an inner ring investigator, would smell (due to her enhancements), “more expensive”... and further she states, “I apologize for not giving you a finer greeting... The true Empire lies a long way from here. Sometimes we forget its touch.”

Things progress from there, in many ways advancing similarly to the first book. Ana arrives later with her signature blindfold. Din is left largely to his own devices to figure things out methodically while Ana, on what seems to be wildly disparate tangents, deduces the same.

It’s a wonderful continuation of a story for those who love magical worlds, mysteries, and celebrate neurodiversity. "A Drop of Corruption" is an invitation to explore a world where magic, memory, and mystery collide. If you enjoyed "The Tainted Cup," this sequel will captivate you with its deeper exploration of the Empire of the Leviathans and the intricate challenges faced by its characters.

I absolutely devoured the first book in this series and was thrilled to start this second book. I wasn’t sure if this would be as good as the first… but it absolutely was. Bennett is an absolute master and pulling together a massive mystery with so many pieces. There’s a world building element that keeps getting deeper and I’m looking forward to learning more as the series continues.

I am so loving this series with Ana and Din! They have so many mysteries only they can solve, this one starting with a locked room murder in the kingdom of Yarrow which though is not part of the Empire, does contain the Shroud, a facility that researches and dissects the dead leviathans for new reagents and ways to survive and fight giant beings of the sea. I like that you learn more about the mystery that is Ana and they way she is, plus what keeps Din going and his own desires for the future. The evolving relationship between Ana and Din plus all the dark and twisty turns this book took made it easy to keep reading long past when I should have put it down. Their world keeps growing too and after this one which takes place on the coast of Yarrow, and the last which was by the sea wall (also on the coast), I am ready for a case that takes us to the inner realms of the Empire (especially after what we learn about Ana!).

If you want a super twisty murder mystery in the style of Sherlock and Holmes set in a fantasy empire shadowed by the giant leviathans of the sea attacking every wet season, then you will surely enjoy this series! I am already looking forward to see where the next book leads us and what Ana and Din must figure out to keep the empire safe.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this fantastic book in an amazing series!

Ana and Din’s friendship make the book. The world remained absolutely fascinating, and while the mystery was interesting, it proved to be predictable which slowed the pace of the book. Din also proved a bit dim in this installment. The clues have been sprinkled throughout, but he refused to see! I am intrigued to see where the next book takes us and in what situation our characters find themselves.

A wicked clever immensely fun sequel that ups the ante further on a remarkably fun and imaginative series
The Tainted Cup hit my shelves in Feb 2024 and immediately cemented its place as one of the books of 2024, a position it never relinquished despite other impressive contenders throughout the year. Naturally, the hype and expectation for A Drop of Corruption was sky-high. I am happy to say A Drop of Corruption is even better - a wicked, razor-sharp book that is a crackling locked room mystery on the surface, hiding a deeper conspiracy encompassing the strains of belonging to an Empire at its very core.

“Vice & bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist”

This time around, the eccentric and brilliant investigator Ana Dolabra and her assistant, the engraver Dinios Kol are sent to Yarrowdale, a canton at the very edge of the Empire to investigate an impossible crime - the disappearance of a Treasury officer into thin air from a locked room. Yarrowdale is a critical component of the Empire, a kingdom that signed a 100-year succession to the Empire (whose time is nearing now) and also houses the Shroud, a mysterious deadly island that serves as a high-security research facility enabling the Empire to harness the deadly magic of fallen Leviathans. Yarrow is an incredibly strategic asset to the Empire while still not being part of the Empire and there are rumblings of discontent even as the powers negotiate on what belonging to the Empire actually means. That is the simmering powder keg that Ana and Dinios find themselves enmeshed in. Complicating matters is the presence of an antagonist who is a match to Ana and is always a few steps ahead (in some cases, a few years)

“Little men with muddy, ugly little mind, who fall to common corruptions just like anyone”

Make no mistake, this is a book that starts off running and doesn’t slow down at all. While the murder mystery gets solved pretty quickly, it is just the tip of the iceberg. The book is pretty much unputdownable even as examining the motives of that missing officer throws light on the history of the Empire, its complicated relationship with the ruling classes of Yarrow, and what the Shroud actually represents. Secret, many of them classified, find their way into the light even as Ana takes it on herself to unravel this piece by piece with increasingly unhinged wicked delight

“You’ve all the prudence of an inebriated cow!”

Quentin Tarantino has this style wherein you know that the violence is about to erupt but he keeps dragging that moment, building the tension and the hype exquisitely until you can’t stand it anymore. Robert Bennett does something similar with Ana. Unhinged Wicked Chaotic Delight is what Ana unleashes and it is best served in small doses to maximum effect. Any moment that she is on screen, it is an absolute hoot - not because she is funny (she is) but because she is a proper agent of chaos. Delighting in unraveling expected decorum and conventions, and keeping people perpetually on the balance, Ana steals the show. When we first meet Ana, we are almost 10% into the book - he makes us wait and wait and her entrance is worth the hype. In the absence of Ana, Dinios Kol is our narrator of this world & while he does remain as bemused with Ana as he did in the first book, he has gotten used to her eccentricities a fair bit. He gets his own journey of sorts as he is conflicted about his duty and the manner of serving the Empire - his arc is a good one through the book even if it pales into significance next to Ana’s history and her role in all of this. But he is the beating heart of this story

“These giant, inexplicable things, thundering ashore, bringing so much death and strangeness with them. That’s what faith and the divine is, isn’t it? A line stretching from little beings like us, to the ineffable, the incomprehensible”

The author titled this series, The Shadow of the Leviathan, and each book has essentially done tremendous justice to the title. Everything that the Empire is all about has been because of the Leviathans and even (maybe especially)in death, these Leviathans continue to shape the narrative and the future of the Empire. While we don’t see them in this book, the Leviathan’s presence is always felt. The world-building from that standpoint feels very dense and lived in and bringing together Yarrowdale and Shroud lends to the denseness of it all. The enhancements and augmentations that the Empire works on due to the Leviathans are further explored here as we come across newer innovations. While it still doesn’t hold a patch to the tree exploding from a man’s torso as it did in the first book, there are still some amazingly etched sequences here as well. The author has painted a beautiful wonderful world but these books are concerned with the dirty happenings of the Empire down to its brass tacks - the dichotomy of that is what makes this series work. On the surface, the mystery and conspiracy can potentially find their place in any book or any world but juxtaposing them with this richly imagined world truly makes this series a very special one and one full of surprises that can spring anytime

“Why, it’s the….. the crushing disappointment of it all. The investigation ends. It’s all over now. No more riddles, no more need for imagination. And all was so small, at the end.”

There is a lot to love and genuinely nothing to complain about. I did recently learn that this was going to be a trilogy and so that is something I can complain about - There is just so much more I want to know about this world and so many more mysteries to uncover with Ana. Wicked, Imaginative, Chaotic, Unputdownable, and a lot of fun, A Drop of Corruption has rocketed up to the best book of 2025 already

Rating - 5 Leviathans on 5

A Drop of Corruption is the sequel the 2024 fantasy hit The Tainted Cup deserved. Not only are we dropped back into the brilliantly original and frightening world Robert Jackson Bennett created, but we are returned to beloved characters and introduced to new rising stars.

Our duo from book one are set upon another mysterious case that has them stretching their humanly modified powers to the limit to try and figure out how bodies are being abducted seemingly out of thin air. Of course there are larger things at play that our characters will have to unravel while keeping their own lives. Having Din and Ana back in my life feels so right that it pulled me back to this book time and time again.

I’m obsessed with the world that Bennett crafted and every time I return, I find more and more to love about it.

I am such a new Robert Jackson Bennett fan. I was picked to read the first arc in this series, so I jumped at the chance to read the next book. Ana and Din are such fun characters to read. The world that Bennett has created in these books sucks you right in. I look forward to reading more about this pair.

Can I give this 6 stars?? Wow I didn't think anything could top the first book but this one did! I am so obsessed with these characters but especially this world. It's so fascinating in every way to me and I cannot wait for more!

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: This was an excellent follow-up to the first book in this series. I think I enjoyed it even more because we learned so much more about the background of the characters and about this amazing world. I was reading this at the same time as Alien Clay by Tchaikovsky and that probably wasn't the best decision since both books have some similar themes to them. However, I really enjoyed this.

Kol and Ana have been called to the canton of Yarrowdale to investigate the disappearance of a Treasury officer. The mystery leads them to a high security compound known as the Shroud. The Shroud is a mysterious compound where the Empire harvests fallen leviathans for magical bits that enable the citizens of the Empire to modify themselves to aid in their survival.

This book blends amazing world-building, intriguing characters, and a complex mystery together to make for an excellent story. This is an engaging read but not necessarily the easiest read; the plot and mystery are complex, and the world is complex as well. The world-building here really drew me in. Yarrowdale isn't officially part of the Empire...yet. However, Yarrowdale is of extreme strategic importance because of the Shroud and what the Shroud means to the Empire.

I loved getting to learn more about this world and how the bits from the leviathans are used to give the citizens of the Empire an edge in survival. I also adored getting to learn more about both Kol and Ana's background. Ana was a true mystery in the first book, and we are finally getting a deeper glimpse into her mysteries and background in this book, and it is absolutely fascinating. I also enjoyed watching Kol try to figure out the future path he wants to take, he never wanted to serve as an engraver, but the longer he stays working with Ana the more he starts to see how he is impacting the Empire in an important way.

The mystery was well done too. It tied in very nicely with the politics and overall world here. It keeps you guessing. I think the only complaint I have about this series so far is that sometimes the police procedural qualities of it get a bit too bogged down in details, but I suppose that is necessary to give readers the clues to solve the mystery. Sometimes all of the fine details slow the story down a bit too much for me, though.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this. I love the world-building here; this is an absolutely fascinating world. I also really enjoy the complex characters and learning more about the background of both Kol and Ana. The amazing world and characters, coupled with this very well done mystery, make this an excellent and engaging read. My only small complaint would be that I felt like some times there was too much time spent on the fine details of the mystery and this slowed the story down some. However, I am not a huge fan of police procedurals in general, so if you are, you will love this. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Ana and Din continue to be an entertaining and compelling crime-solving duo. Here, they are tasked with solving a disappearance which escalates into a murder case. I found my engagement ebbing and flowing throughout though I appreciate the impressive world-building and creativity. Loved Malo!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

Firstly, the mystery itself was fantastic. I figured out most of the culprits and answers in The Tainted Cup, not that it took away from my enjoyment. In this sequel, however, I had a harder time keeping up with Ana's thought processes, and felt the mystery was smarter and even better written. The investigation, twists and turns kept me riveted. I actually think Bennett may be one of the best mystery writers I have read. His reveals and developments encourage a re-read, and always make me stop to reflect on earlier text, because his breadcrumbs are so perfectly laid. They were harder to follow to one result in this story, but once I had the answer, they fell into place.

Bennett's mysteries also contain some real scares and horrifying descriptions. What occurs about 1/3 of the way into this novel is as disturbing as any horror I've read. I love that genre as well, so I thoroughly enjoy his darkest ideas. That being said, Chapters 22 and 23 are especially unsettling. For a fantasy-mystery, this goes full throttle. I do think all fantasy and mystery readers can agree that the deaths in his books create real stakes, and that he explores the inevitability and destruction of nature in a terrifyingly beautiful way. As long as you're prepared to be a bit freaked out, it's pretty awe-inspiring.

As for the new cast, I grew to love Malo. She was the person I latched onto, as her growth was reminiscent of all the characters I loved in The Tainted Cup. She was introduced as a straightforward, two-dimensional archetype, but she evolved and blossomed, and I love her nuanced personality. Her rapport with Din was especially welcome in tenser moments.

My drawback with this sequel was the character infodump that it opened with. One of my favorite things about The Tainted Cup was the slow, mostly implied development of its characters. We were trusted to understand conversations and context clues, and it took an entire novel for us to know Din, which worked very well for me and many other readers. It feels as though the author summarizes Din's character here for new readers, which is a bit strange in a sequel. To be honest, the delivery was so much more heavy-handed that I didn't feel my former affection towards Din for quite a while. In example, many of us liked the subtle romance in book one, so Din's hook-up attitude was an unpleasant shift that seemed meant to YELL, "he's bi! Queer character!" There was a lovely slow burn gay romance in book one, so we don't need this reductive personalization to know Din's fluidity.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with A Drop of Corruption. The expository beginning kept me from giving this entry 5 stars, but I have loved my time in Ana and Din's world, and will happily continue with this series. My gratitude to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey for allowing me to read this eARC. All opinions are my own, and as unbiased as possible.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review. This book was a little bit more complicated or challenging for me than book one. I absolutely loved the characters, old and new. The story developed a little slow but I loved the conclusion and Ana’s wits to solve yet another mystery with Kol’s assistance.

The second book follows Ana and her assistant in a locked room mystery but the book still has insane world/magic building throughout. The duo attempt to solve a murder but in doing so it also uncovers deep themes rooted around politics and morality that had me second guessing the whole time. I feel like since majority of The Tainted Cup was establishing the setting and magic system that this book was much more easy to follow. We were able to have more crumbs of knowledge regarding Din's background and although I would've also like to see more development from Ana, this was still very well done. RJB was the first author I read a thriller fantasy novel and I adore this series. Too often the endings or climax of a thriller genre is pretty easy for me to guess but for once I felt myself not knowing what was going to happen until it actually occurred which is a breath of fresh air. The murder mystery "whodunnit" theme was well written and plotted to give readers the expected shock factor while also making sense. Can't wait for book 3!

A Drop of Corruption is the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series and reunites slightly insane investigator Ana Dolabra and her beleaguered assistant Dinios Kol as they try to solve a disappearance/murder/attempt to overthrow a backwoods monarch/maybe the entire empire. Much like the first book, a simple case quickly snowballs and leads readers further into the inner workings of an empire that relies upon the blood of giant sea monsters for their advancements. As a fan of fantasy more than mysteries and thrillers, I loved discovering more about Ana and the newly described Shroud where the dead leviathans are processed, whereas the whodunit is more of a staging grounds for the character development and world building. The author's note addressing the rise of authoritarianism is particularly timely.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an advanced copy of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review.

Ana is Din’s Sherlock Holmes and the pair take on a murder in an entrenching fantasy world - this is book two in the Shadow of the Leviathan Series. The Empire has lost an important spokesperson to the wild realm of Yarrowdale and they are not happy. Ana… I mean Din, is sent to investigate, with his hyper-photographic-memory, the murder and bring back the details to the blindfolded Ana to solve - and what an adventure this mystery was. I was suspense-d. I was engrossed. I was yearning for more after every word read. Robert Jackson Bennet is a god. Eh hem, I mean a phenomenal writer. I cannot begin to comprehend how someone creates such a unique and detailed world, then writes that in a way that you feel immersed in that world completely… Then, adds a mystery that keeps you guessing… THEN, makes that mystery thrilling, engaging, and completely unguessable until the very end. I was in awe after The Tainted Cup and was screaming at my screen when I got the email that I had been given an advanced e-copy of A Drop of Corruption. I cannot recommend this book, this series, and this author enough. What a wild and fun ride this book was.

5 stars - would give 10 if possible.

Trigger Warnings: Death, murder, mention of suicide, body horror, animal death, slavery/forced servitude, sex

the tainted cup was my favorite read of 2024, and i'm so glad to say i loved this one just as much!

as a murder mystery set in a high fantasy world, RJB managed to create a very balanced story, with a really good and layered mystery while also exploring societal themes within this world. the author's note is the cherry on the top, and can't be skipped.

Din and Ana remain such a great duo, and I liked that we got to understand some of their layers without taking away from the main focus of the plot. i can't wait to read where they go from here

Ana and Din's workplace banter is so well written!

The storyline was well drafted, a few twists I didn't see coming but the big reveal I pondered about halfway through the book.

From the minor details we get from Din and his personal life in book one I was surprised by the peak into his personal life at the beginning of this novel. Yes the character was present for some of the story but were those chapters necessary for the story, no.

4.5 stars, rounded up, because I liked this book even more than the first one. Bennett's fantasy mystery series 'Shadow of the Leviathan' is compulsively readable with fascinating characters and storylines. He manages to explore weighty themes and organically weave them in to the stories he writes without getting bogged down in moralizing. In A Drop of Corruption, we get an intriguing locked room mystery as well as a deeper look into both Din and Ana's characters. Din in particular grows throughout these two books and I can't wait to see where Bennett takes these two next! Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for a digital review copy.