Many people refer to the second book in a series as the sophomore slump. Bridge books tend to be extremely hard to write, as authors tend to know the start and the end of their stories but not how to connect the two. As such, it constantly impresses me that Robert Jackson Bennett’s middle novels are often his best ones. A Drop of Corruption, the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan trilogy, continues this trend by being a strong contender for one of the best books of the year (yes, I know it’s March). Having laid the groundwork for his world in A Tainted Cup, Bennett manages to tell a very captivating locked room mystery, rope me into the greater trilogy narrative, and speak to our current mounting political crisis in America simultaneously.

In the canton of Yarrowdale, a swamp-infested nightmare of a region, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. As Yarrowdale technically sits outside the empire, any outside assistance and policing must be handled with a delicate hand. Yarrowdale is home to the Shroud, an enormous weeping wound on the world that allows alchemists to process Leviathan corpses and build the thing that makes the Empire run: grafts. It is critical that any criminal elements in this unstable canton not affect the flow of commerce, but the Empire can’t march an army into foreign lands. To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant, Dinios Kol.

A Drop of Corruption is an immediate Bennett classic with all of his signature elements that I love more than anything. It has a compelling mystery that had me rereading every paragraph for clues, fucked up prose that somehow is beautiful one second and horrific the next, an engrossing setting with a gigantic eldrich horror on the horizon, characters you can’t help but fall in love with, and social commentary that feels incredibly timely. I loved A Tainted Cup, but the book felt like it spent a little too much time establishing the foundation for the trilogy and not enough time on its own mystery. A Drop of Corruption, on the other hand, has a mystery that grabs you the second you open the book and doesn’t let you go until the last page. I was much happier with the division of page space in this second entry, and the pacing as a whole might have been the best I have seen from Bennett ever.

Honestly, if you are a fan of the site, I almost certainly don’t need to sell you a Bennett novel. You know we love them, and you likely love them. the review could probably just have been an announcement that it’s out on April 1st, 10/10 stars, go read it. While I don’t really want to go into too many details about the story or the characters to preserve spoilers (though both continue to be great), there is one element of the themes I think would be good to talk about. In A Drop of Corruption, one of the central issues that Dinios is dealing with is a sense of purpose and direction. He is adrift in a capitalistic hellscape run by corrupt elites with all of the power and has witnessed time and again that his efforts aren’t doing much to change the direction of things and make them better. He is exhausted in many different ways and constantly questioning if there is anything in his life he has agency over anymore. This is why it is wonderful that one of the core ideals of this second novel is about how a little person doing what is right will always make a difference. Bennett shows that while one person may not be able to seize control of the world and fix everything, we can still be additive and make things better in our own small ways–and that these ways add up. Sometimes, we are forced to be in a place of reaction, watching power-hungry idiots break things out of an all-consuming sense of greed. It is demoralizing that we can’t stop in and just stop “crimes” from happening. But we can stand up and hold people accountable for what they have done, fix what is broken, and build a better world. Change is hard and awful work, and you need a light inside you that burns like a bonfire to stand up to the winds that will try to blow it out. Yet, one step at a time, we can improve things.

A Drop of Corruption is another fabulous creation in Bennett’s tapestry. It builds very successfully upon the intricate foundation established by A Tainted Cup and uses it as a launching point to reach new heights. The prose is haunting, as always, and the mystery feels like a modern classic. Corruption will absolutely be one of the best books of the year.

Rating: A Drop of Corruption - 10/10
-Andrew

RJB JUST DOES NOT MISS. I'm particularly in love with how everything will be going along at a good pace, and then towards the end, just ramps up into "holy shit excuse me WHAT". This is the good sort of "answered one question and leaves you with a thousand new ones" because it all ties into the expanding worldbuilding - all the threads and ties to what's already been revealed are there, it's just future developments and ramifications that you're left to turn over and over in your head.

We're once again following Din and Ana as they work to solve a mysterious murder that reveals itself to have deep-rooted political implications. This time, we're picking up two years after the end of The Tainted Cup, and travelling to Yarrow, a tribute state of the Empire whose negotiated contract end date is looming. So tensions are, of course, high and political machinations are many. As is typical of RJB's works, there's a lot of conversation about what it means to be part of one political system or another, and how those differences are further different for various social classes. The lands that form the city of Yarrowdale were sold to the Empire, but of course, right outside the city is still the kingdom of Yarrow, and so the two clash. With the addition of the Shroud, a mysterious floating laboratory focused on researching the leviathans in the bay, the situation is absolutely ripe for a big political blowup.

And this is where we find ourselves, and it is a delight to watch all of the complex worldbuilding and system building unfold once again; nothing ever feels infodump-y, despite the vast amount of information you have to take in to get up to speed with all of the players.

Even more fascinatingly, we get to delve deeper into the mysteries of the leviathans and their role in providing the grafts and alterations that form the backbone of the Empire's advancements. Of course, Ana's own alternations are a mystery never forgotten about, and while we don't have all the answers, we certainly have more clues, and it only makes you hungry for more.

With such a wide scope and having to explain the tensions between a monarchy versus an empire, there's less time this time around for a lot of character work - most of it happens in the text, in Din's quicker perceptions than last time and his greater tolerance for a lot of nonsense that has other characters reeling.

I'm very excited, once again, to see more, except this time I'll have to wait even longer for the next book, which is a tragedy of its own.

The Tainted Cup was one of my favorite reads of early 2025. I was thrilled to receive an ARC for A Drop of Corruption. If you liked the Tainted Cup, I’m confident you’ll love this followup. I won’t say this book is a step up from Tainted Up, but it isn’t a step down either. Both a fantastic books, and I can’t wait for the third installment. This is an easy 5/5 for me.

A Drop of Corruption was a great follow up to The Tainted Cup, catching up with Din and Ana one year on and in another far reaching part of the empire. Din continues to be a disastrous bisexual, somehow being more sleep-deprived, messier, and now in catastrophic debt. But he's also become more clever at untangling the webs around him. Ana is as delightfully crazed as ever, still searching for something interesting enough to hold her attention.

This book drops you not back at the sea walls fighting off another wet season, but in a world of kings, smuggling, and politics. It pushes Din and the readers understanding of the world, as well as challenging the ideas of heroism and leadership.

The mystery and fantasy elements blend into a page turning read, simultaneously driving you to try to unpick the mystery and to understand each new element of the empire that's shown. I think I could read about a dozen books in the Shadow of the Leviathan series and never get bored of them.

Another fantastic installment in this high-fantasy murder mystery series! The world building is incredible and I had a great time being in a different location from the first book. Ana and Din are still a fascinating duo and their connection is only getting deeper. The mystery itself was complex and crafted so damn well! I also loved the new friendships and connections that were made. But my favorite part? The author’s note at the end 🙌🏻

I cannot wait for more to come!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Robert Jackson Bennett for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book!

A Drop of Corruption is, quite literally, a web of mysteries. It is an intricate story that is captivating and unique. It involves political points of view, moral distress, conspiracies, and murder. Robert Jackson Bennett has done a fantastic job of weaving together several intricate threads and ensuring that everything had a neat, satisfying conclusion. No thread was left untied.

The world-building is phenomenal. It's vivid, easy to follow, and all the components make sense. I did not feel any sense of confusion or misunderstanding during this read. The nuances of injecting real-world inspirations were seamless and added a depth to the story that was endearing.

Ana and Din's dynamic is incredibly complimentary. They have an uncomplicated friendship that holds great respect for one another. Ana has a quirky yet highly intellectual personality. Ana's every move is thought-provoking and calculated. Din is someone with strong capabilities but seems to be navigating himself in this world. Din needs to be nurtured, not coddled. I found Malo to be a great addition to the character pool. Malo's brute-natured appearance was a good contrast to Ana and Din.

​A Drop of Corruption is a medium-paced book that has a gripping, complex plot with well-written characters.

Read if: You want to read about a disaster bisexual being subjected to 'the horrors' by an eccentric genius detective in order to solve a murder

Ana and Din are back and I love their dynamic in this book just as much as the first book. Their relationship often drives this book and I think in this sequel you could see them coming to care for each other. Robert Jackson Bennett has created a main character in Din who embodies my experience as the reader - still learning things about the world but smart enough to figure out the mystery. There's nothing I hate more in a mystery book than when the main character takes ages to realise something that I as the reader figured out chapters ago. This series manages to deftly avoid this pitfall by having a main character who is likeable, smart, and who cares about the mystery and the world around him and in turn makes the reader care.

What I really appreciate about this series is that on the way to solving the 'who-did-it' mystery there are many smaller mysteries uncovered including personal secrets about our detectives. It makes these books compulsively readable and hard to put down. Just as one mystery is solved another springs up in it's place. This is a bad sign for my ability to get enough sleept but an excellent sign for an unputdownable mystery book.

The world building in 'Shadow of the Leviathan' is excellent. I could read 100 books set in this high-fantasy magic/science plant world. The unique elements of this world add to the depth of the mystery and the leviathans especially add a sense of both wonder and menace that I think should be present in every fantasy mystery book.

As much as I missed some characters from the first book, I loved the new characters introduced in this sequel just as much. This book introduces just enough characters to have a viable pool of potential murderers but not so many that you start to forget their names (a sin I am guilty of in many a fantasy novel).

An excellent addition to this series and one that has me hoping we see more of Ana and Din soon.

Review posted on Goodreads and rated on Storygraph

Wowza! Another excellent entry to the Shadow of the Leviathan series. Dare I say, I liked A Drop of Corruption even more than book 1.

RJB continues to dazzle us with his rich, immersive and imaginative world where we once again follow along Ana and Din as they solve another mystery. I love how this book feels like a game of Clue sometimes.

If you like your fantasy stories to be heavily featuring mysteries, look no further than this series.

Thank you Netgalley and Del Ray Publishing for a copy of this ARC. All opinions are my own.

A Drop of Corruption is the second adventure in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. The best way to describe these books is Sherlock Holmes is in a unique fantasy setting, slightly bizarre like Through the Looking Glass.

We follow out eccentric detective Ana and her long suffering assistant Din on yet another adventure. This time we swap the majestic Empire for a neighbouring kingdom and it is murder, mystery and clandestine activities in the jungle.

Ana is called to solve the mystery when a treasury officer appears to have disappeared into thin air, doors locked, guard posted at the doors. We soon discover that not everything as it appears to be and this not murder most foul.

Ana goes head to head with an opponent who a Moriarty type character and I was swept away on an twisty adventure, the game was afoot and I was completely engrossed.

Not only was the mystery riveting but so was the ongoing relationship between Din and Anna.

Anna….. well she’s an unfiltered individual who cares little for following social norms. Din takes it all in his stride and can handle her quirks unlike most people but starts to question if this where he is supposed to be, is he actually doing anything good or of significance.

I love The Tainted Cup and as often the case with sequels it’s hit or miss. This…. was a bullseye. I love love it!!

5 Stars if I could give it 6 I would.

I love these characters, this unique world and sincerely hope more is to come.

I loved reading A Drop of Corruption, good sequel to Tainted Cup, looking forward to the next book in the series!

This is an excellent follow-up to the first book in the series!

Robert Jackson Bennett's writing and world-building is once again lush and horrifying and fun to fall into. His world is grotesque and magnificent, and I am a huge fan.
Din and Ana are such a fun pair - Ana herself is a horrifying little woman, who is at turns brilliant and mystifying. Din is an excellent foil for her - am emotional companion to keep her (somewhat) stable, and humanize her. I also enjoyed Malo's presence in the story - both as the 'local flavour' and as an outside commentary on Din (since we spend the book in his mind).

In this book we once again have mysteries within mysteries - a real Russian doll of questions layered overtop each other. Every time you think something has been solved - BAM there appear 4 more questions. I enjoyed it immensely.
There were so many twists and turns and a red herring or two - I never once tried to make sense of things, because I knew that the answers would be rolled out in a fascinating, slighty chaotic reavel - and they were.
I enjoyed this story so immensely.

I loved this book just as much as the first! Once again, the characters were the real highlight. Din and Ana continue to shine, and they’re surrounded by a cast of side characters that are just as interesting and complex.

What I really enjoy about Robert Jackson Bennett’s mysteries is how they steadily unravel, with twists and discoveries happening throughout rather than relying on one big reveal at the end. It keeps the story engaging from start to finish. As expected the second book expanded on the magic system, which added even more depth to the world. I also really liked how we got even more adventure woven into the mystery, by having Din do the field work (e.g. the jungle part)

The leviathans still feel a bit like a side plot for now, but I can’t help but wonder if they’ll take on a bigger role as the series continues. Either way, I can’t wait to see where the story goes next!

Robert Jackson Bennett simply cannot write a bad book. I've come to this realization after embarking on his third series now where each book I've read is better than the last. There's not much more room to go honestly and I don't understand how he constantly tops himself. Another thing about Bennett that's really impressive is that none of his series follow anything similar toa certain formula. They are all completely different in tone and worldbuilding.

A DROP OF CORRUPTION continues the murder mystery Shadow of the Leviathan series in amazing fashion. Fantasy mystery is tough to do write but Bennett injects another intriguing investigation while not shirking the fantasy elements one single bit. And that's what truly makes these book so fun is that just when you forget you are reading a fantasy novel, a giant leviathan shows up to attach a city. There's also enough magic elements to delight any reader who likes a little sorcery in their life.

I won't get into to many details as this is the second book in an ongoing series but suffice to say I loved this book even more than the first. I suspect its because I know these characters that much more and have gone along with all of their exploits and experienced them getting into one perilous situation after another. This book ramps up the action as well so it was a much quicker read than the first which understandably had to set up the world and the character background stories.

The ending left me totally rocked as Bennett always seems to do and I look forward to the next one with much anticipation. Robert Jackson Bennett may just be one of the top 3 fantasy authors in the game right now. His body of work is enough that I believe that can be said with utmost confidence. Treat yourself to this brilliant series and then go back and read all of his other books if you haven't yet. A DROP OF CORRUPTION blew me away and I'm sure that when this is all wrapped up it will take its place along the other stupendous series that Bennett has penned. I can't believe how much talent this guy has!

CHARACTERS
🔲 mary-sue party
🔲 mostly 2D
🔲 great main cast, forgettable side characters
🔲 well-written
✅ complex and fascinating
🔲 hard to believe they are fictional

PLOT
🔲 you've already heard this exact story a thousand times
🔲 nothing memorable
🔲 gripping
✅ exceptional
🔲 mind=blown

WORLDBUILDING
🔲 takes place in our world
🔲 incoherent
🔲 OK
🔲 nicely detailed
🔲 meticulous
✅ even the last tree in the forest has its own story

ATMOSPHERE
🔲 nonexistent
🔲 fine
🔲 immersive
✅ you forget you are reading a book

PACING
🔲 dragging
🔲 inconsistent
✅ picks up with time
🔲 page-turner
🔲 impossible to put down

RJB did it again.

Oh, Robert! Once again striking the nail on the head with a timely tale of autocratic regimes — and I know everyone else is saying it but, please, read the author’s note on this. What a relief it is to see an author so succinctly express the illness of the idolatry of power.

So, the book: the mystery was as intricate and tightly wrapped up as it can be expected from this series, which is very, and it had me pointing fingers left and right, and even had me writing down a list of suspects (!!!) to keep an eye on. Ana is constantly astounding and amusing and alluringly mysterious, Din is a beautiful bisexual disaster in debt. What more can you ask for.
I also had a beautiful moment of synchronicity too, because just as had my own Ana moment (picking up, digesting, regurgitating and reconstructing what was being served raw in front of me) it started to rain. We’ve been on a dry warm wave these past couple of weeks here where I live, and the cold wind and sweet sounds of water against the glass window at the same time as I figured (some of) it out was like a reward.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey/Random House and Robert Jackson Bennett for this. What a book.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars—

A sequel better than the first! Dolabra and Kol are back at it, and more entertaining than ever. While I enjoyed The Tainted Cup quite a lot, I found the mystery at the heart of A Drop of Corruption a bit darker, more engaging, and more entwined in the wider world-building of the empire. I enjoyed understanding more about the source of magic and power in the empire.

For readers new to the series, Ana Dolabra is a Sherlock Holmesian figure with seemingly supernatural senses that allow her to parse out complicated mysteries, with a big dose of eccentric charm and humor. The world of the series, while fantastical, also feels somewhat like turn of the century England. In these ways, as well as the banter-full, collegiate relationship between Ana and her often nonplussed assistant, Dinios Kol, remind me quite a bit of the Emily Wilde series. So any fans of Heather Fawcett should certainly give these books a read.

As in the first book, my only real pet peeve with these books is a minor personal political one. I’m consistently annoyed with how pro-retributive justice and carceral state Ana is. Despite being an agent of the empire, she’s a rather quirky, neurodivergent outcast-type character, and it doesn’t always track for me when she consistently gets wildly horny for execution and lifetime imprisonment of the criminals she tracks down.

I will definitely be looking forward to the next book!

Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Huge thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Del Rey, Random House Worlds, Inklore for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Full disclosure, I 100% pre-ordered this book before reading the e-ARC. That was no way I wouldn’t because I adored The Tainted Cup (how could you not with that cover?!???). I also adore this author even though he made me cry over a sentient key.

Now, that we have all that out of the way, let’s talk about book 2 of the Shadow of the Leviathan series. There are not many authors that can start a story with about bad fish in the protagonist’s stomach, but here we are. Proving once again Robert Jackson Bennett is no ordinary author (see: cried over sentient key). We start with discovering the murder victim Din has been sent to investigate is not so much a victim as parts of a victim. And by parts, we find it’s closer to parts of parts. Parts of parts of an unwelcome guest in Yarrowdale, a tax official. (Hahahah, the only two constants indeed: death and taxes.) The way the title is woven throughout the book is incredible, not just as a theme but often the mechanism for the undoing of bad actors.

It never ceases to amaze me how Bennett writes such a lush and full fantasy setting and then smacks a full Agatha Christie style mystery in the middle of it, and it works. It works seamlessly. I am completely, utterly sunk in. It’s obscene, really. Quit hoarding all the talent, man. Leave some for the rest of us. At the core, the unveiling is complex and subject to the most basest motivations of man. The beauty is the way it’s unfolded to us.

I’d give this eleventy billion stars if I could. More Din and Ana, please!

eArc provided by Netgalley.

This was a masterpiece.

The world expands as we move to the other coast of the Empire. The science of the kingdom is at stake, and therein lies a mystery as Ana and Din go up against a genius capable of murder...and much more.

More fantastic world building, a first rate mystery, this second book of the series delivers more of the fantastic prose from The Tainted Cup. I fell more in love with this world and these characters, and I am already ready for Book 3. I hope this series continues past the initial trilogy, I cannot get enough of Ana, who is fantasy's version of Nero Wolfe, and Din, fantasy's Archie, as the work together to solve fantastic mysteries in a mythical fantasy world that feels mid 19th century, yet modern at the same time.

5 Giant Leviathon Stars!!!!

Thanks again to the publisher and Netgalley for the eArc.

Loved it, which maybe isn't surprising given I loved The Tainted Cup, too. This one feels even more solidly like a mystery that happens to be set in a fantasy world, though the fantasy elements are bit more understated. Some interesting exploration of imperialism/empire, as it's set in a not-yet-fully-integrated, sort-of-Empire-sort-of-not independent kingdom on the fringes of the Empire in a jungle environs.

The sequel had a strong mystery that kept me engaged, but unfortunately, it fell short in a few key areas. The side characters weren't as compelling as in the first book, which made it harder to connect with the story. The new location also lacked the charm and immersive world-building that made the first book so captivating. Despite these shortcomings, I still enjoyed the overall plot and gave it 3 stars. I’m invested enough to finish the series, hoping the next book improves on these elements.