This series is shaping up to become a modern classic. The writing was excellent and the story wow. RJB does it again

Thank you to Del Rey/Random House and Net Galley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

First, a miscellaneous criticism of the physical book, which I bought. Why isn’t there a dust jacket? The same was true of the first book, and I’ve disliked it both times. Call me crazy, but if I’m spending $30 on a hardcover book, I expect a dust jacket.

This book wasn’t bad, but I definitely didn’t like it as much as the first one.

Ana is here and I love her and I love her energy, but Din is having a quarter life crisis in the front seat. Since he narrates the book, this makes it a little frustrating.

I swear every time a man has a crisis, he wants to join the army. Din wants to join the Legion (the ones in charge of fighting the Leviathans) real bad, and is unhappy being an investigator. I didn’t like this. It felt inconsistent with the first book, even if time has passed. It also made Din a little unlikable. The other issue he’s dealing with is his father’s debts. I didn’t mind this, but I felt like it was a missed opportunity to do more exposition about Din’s family. What are they like? How’s his relationship with them?

I wasn’t as interested in the mystery this time around. The plot in the first half felt a little unfocused. It came together in the second half of the book, but it felt like it was meandering for a while. This book felt more like a political fantasy than a mystery at most times, which is fine, but isn’t how to book was marketed.

Overall, it was fine. Better than a lot of sequels, even if it still disappointed me a bit.

“Because you are a reasonably smart boy. I suspect you shall come to realize what many Iudexii eventually learn— that though the Legion defends our Empire, it falls to us to keep an Empire worth defending.”

Fiction is underestimated by many, but good fiction, even with elements of science fiction and fantasy can be thought provoking - and sometimes, or many times it is with people or situations in very different worlds that we can find things in common and patterns (yes, seeing patterns is a reference to this book) in the overarching themes. A Drop Of Corruption is primarily a mystery in the vein of Holmes and Watson, but at its heart a commentary on autocracies and the need for functional police systems. Ana and Din travel to another city that is in the midst of treaty negotiations with the Empire to solve yet another seemingly impossible murder and soon find that the reasons behind the murder are layered with the political systems and covert operations there.

The book fulfills its premise with a scintillating mystery that keeps the reader involved, with several seemingly impossible situations showcasing Ana's prowess and Din's capabilities. The intricate plot has many players, with political intrigue, bureaucratic procedures as well as cultural clashes, all while dealing with a Moriarty-esque antagonist. The writing is measured with fair mention of various clues that turn out to be relevant later and it is a joy to be able to deduce a few of the solutions/ character revelations ahead of the confirmation in the book!

But more than this, the book also prompts questions on governing systems, the importance of policing checks in any bereaucracy or city, country or empire and the dangers of autocratic management, even if not quite Moriarty-esque. This is beautifully reflected in Din's own thoughts, problems, arguments and career considerations. It was interesting to see Ana mentor Din in her own way, but what was really satisfactory was that they trust each other more now than when they started working together. The secondary characters are given due weight, but Ana and Din's character sketches and growth take the prime consideration.

And to note finally, the world-building! Robert Jackson Bennett reveals more questions than answers in this book (a bit more than the first). But the empire foundation, the various organisations, the magic (or bio-chemical) system, the cultures all take a backseat next to the elephant (or the leviathan, if you will) in the room! The world-building is still focused on the empire, the people and their advances with the bio-chemical manipulations of leviathan matter and though we see more exotic uses of these, the book reveals quite little of the leviathans themselves and their origins. But this curiosity and the hints of Ana's origin story are keeping me hooked for the next book in the series. A minor quibble with the writing is RJB's use of a few Indian languages to pepper phrases through the book in the non-empire language, and my word associations weren't quite the associations this world used it for, which was jarring.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys Holmes and Watson mysteries and fantasy mysteries with good world-building. Looking forward to more in this series!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing group for an advanced copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

🌟🌟🌟🌟3/4🌟
[One star for the premise and the whole book; One star for the characters and their arcs; 3/4 star for the writing; One star for the world-building, One star for the plot and themes - 4 3/4 in total, rounded up to 5 stars.]

“This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And 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. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well … The Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where the powerful and the cruel prevail without check. And tell me—does that realm look capable of fighting off a leviathan?”

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. This is the second book in a fantasy mystery series. There is creative world building, and this gets deeper in this second story. I could not put it down. I would definitely recommend.

I really enjoyed this follow-up to The Tainted Cup and getting to know our main characters, Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol, much better. I would go so far as to say that I preferred this second instalment, as we delve deeper into the workings of the Empire. That being said, the latter third was a little overcomplicated, in my opinion. As this series seems to be getting better and better, I will for sure be picking up the next novel when it becomes available. I would definitely recommend the Shadow of the Leviathan books to both fantasy and mystery fans.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey for a the e-arc.

In this follow up to the Tainted Cup we follow Ana and Din on another mysterious adventure when they’re trying to solved a locked room and nearly impossible murder. This book’s mystery has several layers that challenge both Din and Ana’s brilliance. I enjoyed this follow up immensely, though the ending and last third of the book felt a bit overcomplicated. That said, I really enjoyed being back in this world with these characters.

Ana & Din are called to the canton of Yarrowdale to investigate the death of a Treasury officer. What they discover is the murder was just one piece of a puzzle that leads to The Shroud - a compound responsible for harvesting the dead Leviathans after each wet season. Any harm to The Shroud has the potential to crush the entire kingdom and this murderer proves especially good at eluding the Iudex and Ana and Din will be pushed further than they've ever been before.

Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again. Giving Ana and Din an intriguing mystery that deepens the mythology of the Empire while also giving more insight into the characters, and still making the Leviathan this great creature lurking in the depths.

I loved so much that this time around we got Ana and Din working closer together. Although he still acts as her eyes, the partnership, loyalty, and trust between them deepens. I like that they are becoming a unit and that Din is beginning to understand Ana even when a lot about her remains a mystery.

Speaking of mystery, the mystery proper is winding and twisting but also very compelling for all that it is a slow build. Honestly, this one took me so long to finish, but it was never due to the plot dragging, it was mainly due to me wanting to just slowly take in every small detail and enjoying so much the unfolding picture.

I love that this second book came about as the first book was one of my surprise reads of last year. I cannot wait to have Ana and Din continue to find justice.

Sherlock Holmes in a dark fantasy, this duology is full of blood and alchemy and not to be missed by fans of mystery and intrigue! I loved the gory details and constant twists. Don’t read if you have a weak constitution! You’ll fall in love with the characters and root for them at every turn. I hope we get more adventures of Din and Ana!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

Robert Jackson Bennett’s follow-up to The Tainted Cup opens up and deepens the world of the Empire. No longer concerned with the immediate survival of a city threatened by monstrous and mysterious leviathans, investigator Ana Dolabra and her aide Din are called to the edges of the Empire where another murder of an imperial officer is just the tip of a much larger conspiracy they must unravel. A Drop of Corruption delves into the extractionist politics and caste-like system of the Empire, without losing the wondrously imaginative world Jackson has built. As Ana gets, if possible, even stranger, Din regards her and their often dangerous or gross work with a wry combination of resignation and respect, love and fear, that helps ground the most uncanny parts of the story.

If not quite as propulsively compelling as the first, A Drop of Corruption is an excellent middle book for the trilogy that rounds out the central characters beautifully while setting up what is sure to be a massive finish.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Del Rey/Inklore for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the sequel to “THE TAINTED CUP”, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and therefore I had high expectations going in.

I’m not typically a murder mystery reader, in fact it’s not my genre at all, but I do love fantasy and strong characters, therefore this book works so well for me.

The world and magic system here feel very much in the plausible/clearly explained “Brandon Sanderson” style, which my scientific brain loves. I think this is called a “hard magic system”. The two main characters are the biggest assets of the books for me, they’re both complex and multilayered, and relatable - despite being very different. We have blindfolded, recluse, carnivorous genius Ana, and her dutiful and wearisome assistant Dinios (our POV), both of whom harbour their own secrets and motivations.

The story starts a few months after to emirate book finishes, with Ana and Din travelling the Far Eastern limits of the empire, to city of yarrow, to investigate an abducted case, which (unsurprisingly) escalates. I’m awful at guessing twists and turns, so the plot had me gripped, I had to buy the audiobook so I could continuously listen and read with minimal breaks.

It’s not possible to overstate how much I love the world that Robert Jackson Bennett has created. Although the scale of the story is generally focused on quite a small area/group of people, there are hints of the much bigger world in which the story resides and (possibly!?) a greater overarching mystery concerning the empire and the ethics of power. It concurrently feels almost “cosy” whilst exploring some pretty heavy topics and having so,e fairly gruesome scenes (the whole mushrooms and plants growing out of people is *shudders* so gross)l

Overall, highly recommend, I think this book would work for a wide range of readers not just those purely into fantasy or crime/thriller types books, it manages to blend so many different styles if totally transcends any one genre. Oh, and the style of writing is really good and easy to follow! 10/10

Rich fantasy with complex characters - mystery and imagination to the extreme. Take the logic and interplay of Holmes and Watson in a world of augmented abilities, leviathans, kings and slaves, secrets and betrayals and you will be tucked into this richly developed world, and complex plot. Bennett never disappoints and really delivers in this second installment.

Sometimes the second book in a series will suffer from the sophomore slump. Not so with A Drop of Corruption! Ana and Din have been expanded upon and their characters have grown so much in this second book. I loved seeing that they haven't just grown in good ways, but also bad. They feel real. I'm thoroughly. enjoying this series and hope to see another installment soon!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was so glad to get to dive back into the lives of Din and Ana! I have missed them since The Tainted Cup! This fantasy/mystery is just as good as the first in the series. Din and Ana are sent to Yarrowdale to solve another mystery. The cast of characters is unique but full of life. The storyline flowed quite well and I didn't want to put it down. It is outside of my typical genre, but the writing is very good and draws you right in. I remain in awe of authors who create an entire world in their brains and are capable at putting out there for the rest of us to enjoy.

After the harrowing case and succeeding events in the opening book, The Tainted Cup, Din and Ana are faced with a new macabre case that is only the tip of the tentacle and has ramifications for the whole empire. A Drop of Corruption was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and my expectations were high, but RJB met that and raised the bar even higher.

A Drop of Corruption is book two in the Shadow of the Leviathan: Ana and Din Mysteries set in a fantasy world. The set up of world and characters was strong in the first book so they really need to be read in order.

Din is sent ahead for this latest case to get started on the case preliminaries of visiting the crime scenes and meeting the local officer in charge. He’s unhappy because he wants to be a soldier on the front lines defending the empire and doesn’t see himself as very useful working as Ana’s assistant on criminal cases. On top of this desire to do something glorious, he’s being pressured even harder by his deceased father’s creditors who gouge him for even more each payment and are bleeding him dry.

Still, Din is diligent and even apart from his memory adaption that allows him to memorize and recall everything he has taken in with his senses, he observes and intelligently processes the early moments of the case. And, this case is a lulu from the start. A locked room mystery and a victim who doesn’t exist.

He’s also pretty good about getting along with the locals. The region is outside the empire, but tied to it. Things are politically volatile. This case might be the spark that ignites and destroys the tentative peace and negotiations.

Into this situation, Quixotic Ana shows up, here’s his findings on the case and startles every one with her brilliant, but shocking deductions. If she’s right, this simple though bizarre murder is only a small part of a larger well-crafted plot.

A Drop of Corruption is dense reading, but riveting from cover to cover. The world, the characterizations, the plotting and the writing that thrusts the reader deeply into the world of the book are incredible. Ana and Din’s relationship began and strengthened as detecting partners in book one, but book two is what goes to the heart and challenges Din to find meaning in what he does and to get a strong inkling into the mystery that is Ana, his boss.

The plot built slowly, with blips of excitement along the way so that the tension was taunt by the time the climax rushed over the reader in waves of breath-stealing twists and reveals, rather than one big moment. Some I saw coming, and it didn’t take away from the excitement one iota.

Now, I am left satiated, but jittery for the next adventure for this pair. I recommended the first book as a favorite read of the year and here I am, pronouncing the second just as fabulous as the first. Run don’t walk to get this series.

This book was everything I didn’t know I wanted in a sequel and I hope this series continues for a long time. A unique premise, a vibrant voice, and a captivating story all at the same time can be pretty rare. This series has it.

The first in this series, The Tainted Cup, was quite cathartic for it’s bizarrely murdered, privileged nobility and bureaucrats. Rather than up the catharsis (which, frankly, is a shame), this book burrows further into the world building. The mysterious Shroud is the powerhouse of the Empire, where the might and magic of the titanic creatures of the first book are harvested and distilled into the potions and elements that keep things powered. If the Shroud is threatened, the Empire is threatened… and the Shroud is being threatened.

Politics, locked door mysteries, and deadly swamps… what more do you need?

This was one of my most anticipated reads of 2025, and I have a bit of mixed feelings toward it. Mind me, I enjoyed it and I think it is a great book, but still… I think that in this case, my expectations didn’t help me. I think that the first book is, on the whole, better than this one, even if, to be honest, this is still a good book and it does not suffer from second-book syndrome.
It’s just that, for a totally personal point of view, a bit of the sense of wonder that for me was a great component of the first book, is not so present, and I was more involved in the story while reading the first book, while here, something was missing. It was a really small something, to be honest, but still…

That said, I think that this is a solid book, it has a fascinating world-building, and here we get to explore more of this strange and vivid world, and this I really appreciated. The world-building is one of the strongest features of the book, and the possibility of exploring it more, and to see how things work on the border of the Empire was fascinating, and it added more complexity to the story.
And okay, I think I may have lied, because I said that the world-building is one of the strongest feature of the book, and it is true, but it is also true that, aside from personal tastes, this book has a lot of strong features: the characters are over the top, the plot is captivating and complex, and we get a lot of answers in this one, but these answers make you ask more questions so… as you can see, there are a ton of good things going on for it.
Anyway, back to the world-building for a second more. The Shroud is a fascinating invention of the author’s mind, and all things related to it are, in their way, mind-blowing.
The social commentary and the social themes are also interesting, and I was fascinated by them. It offers some interesting points of view, that’s for sure.

Then we have the characters, and as expected, Ana and Din steal the scene. They are not the only characters that we meet here, obviously, and some of them are quite interesting, but they are on another level. I feel sorry for Din quite a lot, because Ana can be a handful in a lot of different ways. And I didn’t remember her cussing so much or being so brash with Din in the first book, and poor Din is, as always, miles behind her, so I can understand the dynamics between them, even if I didn’t always appreciate them.
Anyway, Ana is brilliant as ever, and Din is her perfect counterpoint; he keeps her balanced, and I think he helps with her sanity, too. And what’s more, Ana is just so intriguing and brilliant. And her penchant for dramatic revelation is just so good! It’s like reading one of those mysteries from the golden age, but in a nightmarish world, with impossible murders happening and unexplainable things happening at every turn.

And that brings me to the plot. It is cleverly constructed, it is captivating, and it is full of twists and turns. It is a wild ride but, while in the first book I didn’t have a clue and I was along for the ride, because I wanted to understand what was happening and who was the culprit, here I had a solid grasp of who the culprit was way before Ana’s revelations or Din piecing it all together. I know this may seem counterintuitive, but I vastly prefer to not guess right. It’s that I am usually pretty bad at guessing, and my main reason to read mysteries and the likes is not to guess right before the revelation, is to be surprised by it. And if I guess who the guilty one is, I feel like things were too easy or too sloppy.
In this case, I am not really complaining, because the story is still captivating and interesting, and it is complex and brilliant but this was a small thing that I didn’t really appreciate.

That said, if you enjoyed the first book, you will enjoy this one for sure! (You may love this one more, like a lot of people did, or you can prefer the first one, like me, but in any event, you will have a great time with this one!). And if you haven’t read the first one yet, what are you waiting for??

“A Drop of Corruption” is a sequel to Robert Jackson Bennett’s “The Tainted Cup” from the “ Shadow of the Leviathan” series.

I am definitely enjoying this a lot. It is an urban fantasy mystery with a massively descriptive and detailed world. The characters are vibrant and I find the witty banters between Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol so humorous. The mysteries were very well-though of, multi-layered and gratifying. It is a perfectly-written complex murder and political mystery that is so exciting to read, There is active tension that hooks the reader until the very last page.

I can’t wait to read the next book.

Thank you so much Net galley and publisher for this brilliant advanced copy. The opinions stated in this review are entirely my own.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett is the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. Detective Ana Dolabra and her assistant Dinios Kol are solving another mystery together. When a Treasury officer disappears and then his body is found later, they are called in to figure out what happened. Dolabra is an amazing and unique detective that manages to solve anything that's thrown her way. And this story was full of twists and turns. There were so many characters and so many red herrings. I really enjoyed this story, but I feel like some of it could have been cut. But it was still very well written and fun to read. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

The Tainted Cup was one of my favourite books of 2024, so I was both excited and nervous for the sequel. Could RJB catch lightning in a bottle twice?
Turns out, yes.
A Drop of Corruption takes everything unique and wonderful about The Tainted Cup and levels it up. The biopunk vibes are squishier, the villain is more devious, and Ana is utterly fascinating and unsettling.
The core mystery once again has empire-destablising implications, and RJB doesn't shy away from commentary on the perils of both an ancient monarchy and the empire that is trying to replace it. No system is perfect, the narrative asks readers if that should stop us from trying to make things better even if our impact feels insignificant.
The mystery itself is engaging, but true to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries from which the narrative draws inspiration, it has been made twisty enough to require Ana's unique deductive capabilities. This isn't a mystery I could have solved as the reader, but the resolution is the perfect mix of surprising yet inevitable and the clues are all in the text, so the more observant reader may have solved this themselves.
I suspect this will find its way into my top books of 2025. RJB's worldbuilding and imagination are unmatched, and reading something that feels so gleefully weird is a delight.
Now excuse me while I go sit in the corner and wait for the next book to come out.

I loved this!! Such an interesting format for a fantasy mystery novel that kept me interested from the jump. I had a moment of being a bit confused, and then I realized I was reading the second in a series - but I feel there was enough background that I caught up quickly enough. There is banter, there is fun, there is humor, intrigue, and overall an interesting mystery to keep you going. I really enjoyed the magical elements and the world building, and truly felt transported to another time and place. Highly recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to provide my honest review.