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.

The Tainted Cup was my most surprising read of 2024, and its follow up A Drop of Corruption was even BETTER. Giving this a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

The neurodiverse-coded Sherlock and Holmes duo of Ana and Din continues where they left off in solving buck wild mysteries across the land. Now that the world has been established, we can see a deeper dive into Din and his motivations and we learn more about the morally grey research the government funds with leviathans.

I'm really glad that this story took place during a period of time where leviathans were NOT attacking, because compared to book 1, I feel like we got a deeper glimpse into the "everyday" of the world and the consequences and impacts of said leviathan attacks without imminent doom hovering over everyone's heads. What amazes me is that this world still feels so alien and strange despite all the human characters. You can really see how these Lovecraft-like leviathans have just absolutely corrupted (no pun intended) the land and the people living on it. But the need to survive and to do whatever it takes to survive is such a human emotion that the story is so compelling.

I need book three like yesterday!

The second book in the Ana and Din mysteries took hold of my senses and imagination and sent me laughing into the abyss.

Disclaimer: I read this book as a tandem read with an ALC from the PRH Audio Influencer club and a Phusicla Galley from the publisher Del Rey. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I loved the Tainted Cup and this book was no exception. We are thrust into another mystery and Ana and Din set off across the empire to solve a murder/mystery that quickly becomes complicated and deadly. On top of the murder and its need to be solved quickly, Din is embroiled in personal issues that have him stressed and looking for relief in any way possible. Thrown into a world where nothing is as it seems, and you can trust literally no one, Ana and Din must work with a slew of people with different graphs and augmentations in order to solve a mystery that spans decades empires, and hold the fate of the entire world in their hands.

The comedy relief in this book was absolutely stellar. I found myself laughing out loud numerous times throughout this book. The mystery was absolutely mind-boggling. I thought I knew who was at the head of it numerous times, but I was always thwarted and sent back to square one. It was absolutely wonderful and complicated and included so many layers and different types of people. I enjoyed the murder mystery plot the most out of this entire book. We learn even more about Din and Ana and I loved the revelations surrounding them and their circumstances.

I can't wait for the next book. I'm sitting on pins and needles.

As other reviews noted, this is such a better book than the first because not as much world-building was necessary. There's still plenty new that is uncovered about how the world works and neurodiversity is taken up a notch in exciting and respectful ways.
The main characters don't develop quite as much during this story line as I would have liked, especially Anna, but there are so many other new characters that it's not at all needed to keep the story fresh and alive.
I was never a fan of Sherlock but having a series with an acid-dropping Sherlock and a wicked smart, sex-fiend Holmes is apparently the magic that keeps me interested in whodunnits!

These books are so strange because I feel slightly too stupid to be able to picture the world and the characters as accurately as Robert Jackson Bennett would probably like, but I find them to be great fun anyways.

The world of Shadow of the Leviathan is so alien, but the mysteries at the heart of each installment remain intensely fun and intriguing. It's also hard for me to actually predict anything, because there's so much weird shit built into the world that Bennett could whip out just about anything and I'd probably buy it. Titan blood? Reagents? Sure, sure, makes sense.

The banter between Din and Ana remains as entertaining as ever, and I appreciated that we got some good character development for the two in this one. There were certain elements I missed from The Tainted Cup, but book added a great character in Malo and I look forward to how this series continues to develop.

Bennett constructs a solid narrative that explores universal themes such as betrayal, loyalty, and the difficulty of distinguishing between good and evil in a world where moral lines are blurred. The author's writing is one of his defining characteristics. His prose is fluid yet never lacking in complexity, managing to combine moments of frantic action with slower, more reflective passages. The world-building is meticulous, with a well-developed political and social system that recalls the works of well-known authors like George R.R. Martin and Brandon Sanderson, but with a more political and psychological focus. The city that serves as the backdrop to the story is alive and tangible, almost a character in its own right, actively influencing the plot and the fate of its inhabitants.

Another strength of the novel is the characterization. Bennett excels at making his characters complex, showcasing their weaknesses and inner conflicts, which makes them human and, consequently, engaging. His ability to address political and moral themes through his characters makes the novel more than just an adventure story: it becomes an investigation into the human soul and the nature of power.

The tension that pervades "A Drop of Corruption" is palpable, as Bennett skillfully manipulates the narrative rhythm, and the element of mystery that permeates the plot keeps the reader glued to the pages with continuous twists that enrich the story and increase the desire to keep reading. However, it is a dense text, rich in subplots and with an expansive world that requires significant effort and imagination from the reader. There are also some unanswered questions by the end of the story, but this helps maintain suspense in anticipation of the next volume in the series.

The Shadow of the Leviathan series follow 2 investigators, Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol on their adventures and investigations through an imaginative, cutthroat world filled with mutated humans with superhuman abilities and giant monsters. Think Sherlock Holmes with Kaiju.

I enjoyed this second book in the series, but just a little less than the first installment. Like the first, the writing is excellent, the mystery compelling and satisfying, and the world building immersive. I liked that this book is set in a new location, introduces a new cast of characters, and reveals more of the world rather than retreading old ground. The first one focuses more on Dinios' secrets while this one unearths more of Ana's secrets.

While I enjoyed meeting a new cast, I found them less compelling than the first. I felt like there was so much action in this story that there was no time for character development, even for our two main characters. Kol felt a bit flat in this and Ana felt like a caricature instead of a three dimensional person. In book one, there were compelling secondary characters like the love interest Kepheus. I would have happily read many chapters about that burgeoning relationship. The love interest in this one, Sabudara, was a brief character sketch and I think only meant to provide some comic relief, so if you're looking for romance, prepare for disappointment. Finally, I found some of the violence and language times jarring at times; instead of naturally flowing with the story, they felt like an attempt to inject more edginess into the book.

My disclaimer is that I might be judging A Drop of Corruption too harshly. Tainted Cup was one of my favorite books of 2024 and my expectations were extremely high going in. While I still loved the world, the writing, and the surprises, I felt like book two in the series fell a little short of the magic of the first for me. That being said, I will definitely read book three (hopefully there will be one)!

Thanks to Robert Jackson Bennett, Del Rey, and Netgalley for the ARC.