After having early access from Net Galley, grateful for the opportunity to read Robert Jackson Bennett’s second instalment of A Drop of Corruption, after previously reading The Tainted Cup.

This book was brilliant- I loved the constant twists and schemes that unfolded. However, it lost some stars for me as I felt it became a bit repetitive, however the last 30% of this book wrapped up so well. I can’t wait to read more from Bennett! 3.5 stars.

One of the rare occasions where I enjoyed a sequel more than the first book! I think because a lot of the more basic world-building happened in Tainted Cup, Bennett was able to not only write a much more developed and twisty mystery (I actually GASPED at least twice) but also add more depth and texture to the setting. Yarrow's swampy decay, the steampunk yet magical mystery of the Shroud. I could picture the scenes in this book so crisply and deliciously. Also, as always, extra points for disaster bisexual lead. I eagerly await the next book in the series!

I’ve said this many, many times when talking about Robert Jackson Bennett’s books, but it bears repeating: he’s up there with the best fantasy authors of recent times. Each of his books is creative and compelling, and populated by characters you don’t want to stop reading about. A Drop of Corruption simply proves this further.

The Tainted Cup was always going to be a hard act to follow, but A Drop of Corruption has a good go at it. I think, marginally, I would rate book one higher than book two (only marginally!), but it’s still an incredible sequel. And, really, the only reason for that is there wasn’t an immediate ‘oh fuck what are the implications of this’ moment towards the end.

But anyway! A Drop of Corruption takes us to a new canton, this time the farthest reaches of the Empire, where there is a tension between the Empire and the vassal rulers of the place, made worse by the inexplicable disappearance (and subsequent death) of a Treasury officer.

First and foremost, I love the worldbuilding in this series. It’s so vibrant and detailed, so that you can sense it come to life in the words. Yarrowdale is a starkly different backdrop than Daretana, but both are immersive locations in the world, themselves as much characters as the people in them. I could honestly have just read a book with no plot except exploring the locations within the Empire.

As it was, the plot here is a gradual one, slowburning until all of a sudden it catches fire and you’re left feverishly turning the pages to find out how it’ll all end. What I especially liked here is that Ana meets her match: she’s positioned as a brilliant detective, whom many of her colleagues struggle to keep up with (a trope I have, historically, not loved), but here she’s up against someone who seems even able to predict the future. It’s a fascinating puzzle and very deftly navigated in the book.

The growth of Ana and Din’s relationship is also an aspect of this one that I enjoyed a lot. They have such a fun dynamic that I would read a never-ending series of their adventures, if I could. They play off one another so well and the ending here (no spoilers!) is one that I particularly enjoyed. All of the side characters too are memorable and fleshed out, and I really hope we get to see some of them again.

So, what are you waiting for? Get your hands on this series today, don’t waste a second!

A Drop of Corruption was mine and it is an absolute gem of a read. I had already been awed by Robert Jackson Bennett’s imagination in Tainted Cup and he definitely builds on it in the sequel delivering world-building so vivid and filled with lush, biopunk-inspired elements that are both strange and mesmerizing. The story itself is a brilliant blend of a Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery and political intrigue, which will definitely keep you hooked and turning pages.

While it’s a sequel to Tainted Cup, this book tackles a completely new case. So if you’re hesitant to dive in because it’s part of a series, don’t worry—there are no cliffhangers to leave you hanging! The characters are sharp, the dynamics and banter between Ana and Din soo captivating, the plot is razor-tight, and the conspiracies are layered enough to make your head spin—in the best way possible.

It’s rare to find a book in fantasy these days that are this original and gripping, and for me, it was the perfect way to kick off 2025. Five stars and more for this brilliant sequel!

This is a great follow-up to the first book in the series. I loved returning to these witty and entertaining characters, plus the world it is set in is so different from our own, but also somewhat similar.

This book, like the first, is a highlight in regards to the two main characters, Din and Ana. I love how they interact, and how they work together. In the second installment, Bennett takes us to a completely different City and on a new adventure. This book is filled with twists and turns, which makes it almost unputdownable.

Sadly, at least for me, all the twists and turns got a bit out of hand, and I could no longer keep up with the speed at which things were happening. Still, Din is a very captivating character, so I also couldn’t stop reading.

This book is for you if you’re looking for an enticing world, interesting characters and a plot filled with twists and turns, betrayals and death.

Another awesome investigation piece set in a super interesting world. I felt this book gave me even more depth into the world of Din and Ana. I enjoyed that.

The pacing was great and it was just go go go. Although I must admit some part felt repetitive and was just almost there to allow a little more banter between our MC’s.

Where the book fell down for me was lack of characterisation depth as a book 2. I was hoping to get to know more about Ana and Dins past and just more about them too.. but this book fell short. Yes we get some more at the end but it just wasn’t enough.

All in all it’s another fabulous story that I thoroughly enjoyed. I only took a while to read because holiday season got in the way!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to access this ARC.

I am of the strong opinion that is is always difficult to match the magic of a truly great read. Time and time again, I find the second book in a series to be lacking from the original thrill of the first - either the characters do not hold shape or the pacing is off. This is absolutely not the case with the second installment of Robert Jackson Bennette's The Shadow of the Leviathan series and I spent several days unable to put down A Drop of Corruption.

Once again, we return to the unlikely duo of Din and Ana and their investigation into a new murder, this time in a northern seaside town where the Shroud lays off shore and is essentially the super secret manufacturing facility for dead titans. Expanding on the epic worldbuilding that Bennett introduced us to in The Tainted Cup, the reader gets a glimpse of a more rural culture that is still steeped in an ancient monarchy and has its own rules and customs outside of the Empire's grasp. Quirky new characters, including a bloodhound type investigator with a nose for criminal activity and lots of suspects with hidden agendas and secrets add depth and amusing interactions with both Din and Ana.

What I love most about this series is that the clues are divined out almost in real time. As a reader, we are given the exact same information as our main characters and nothing is held back. There is never any "surprise" reveal of information that either Din or Ana has held onto that has not been revealed. Ana is just as stumped at situations as we are and until the story progresses and the investigation unfolds, the mystery cannot be solved.

That being said, I took personal pride in this one that I had a suspicion early on based on some vague information given as to the killer's identity and was happily proven correct by the end. That is not to say that this mystery is easily solved. Like Ana, although I had suspicions, they were not proven until enough evidence was collected to confirm.

I will continue to read this series as long as Robert Jackson Bennett continues to write them. The books are whipsmart, quirky, and utterly captivating in the worldbuilding and mystery storytelling. Hopefully the next one will have a publication date that coincides with a holiday or vacation as I know that nothing will be accomplished for several days as I devour it and lose myself in the shadow of the leviathan.

Recommended for lovers of genre bending fantasy and Holmes and Watson styled mysteries. Although each book has a self-contained mystery, I recommend reading the books in order from the start as to get to know the characters and their quirks.

Thank you to NetGalley, Del Rey, and Robert Jackson Bennett for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC of A Drop of Corruption.


While not having read The Tainted Cup, I can now say I am very eager to go back and read the first of this series, as no spoilers occur, and it can be read without reading the first. As a detective mystery set in the Khanum, this book took me on a journey from what I thought would be a straightforward who-done-it to uncovering a bigger plot I hadn’t seen coming.

The characters are potentially my favourite part about this book, each had flaws, hopes and aspirations, some of which were not realistic or may not be achieved. I felt that this made the book much more realistic, with not every aspect being perfect about the people. Ana is an eclectic but loveable detective, din is having a bit of a crisis throughout the book, and malo is struggling between helping the yarrow and getting the hell out (but not knowing how).

The society is far from perfect and struggling with power holds, the empire and the monarchy (diplomatically) fighting for control in Yarrow. It seemed everywhere you look, more and more secrets were being revealed.
It touches on the morally grey aspects of advancing your civilisation and helping others, with the costs compromising your moral compass. I found myself questioning which would be better, to not make the advances for the cost of few, or to make the advances for the benefit of all.

In the end, a drop of corruption had surprises around every corner, and telling you anymore would ruin it.

The Tainted Cup was my favorite read of 2024. A mix of fantasy and mystery, with a pair of unconventional investigators.
Its sequel, A Drop of Corruption, reveals secrets of this Empire and presents us with new perspectives on this world created by Robert Jackson Bennett.
Ana and Din go to Yarrow, lands beyond the Empire, to investigate the death of a Treasury officer. The dynamic between the investigators of care, bickering and trust is strengthened in this new endeavor.
Personal secrets revealed, more political conflicts and a great sense of humor, leave us wanting more.
Looking forward to the next adventure.

4,5 stars

"A Drop of Corruption" is an amazing continuation of the series and I already look forward to reading the next installment.

Din is a great narrator, the story moved at a great pace, and I really liked the world building. I also enjoyed trying to solve the mystery alongside the characters, and I think that the author does a great job at leaving enough crumbs for the reader to piece the plot together while still having the final reveal come as a surprise.

Not only did I devour this book, but it CONSUMED me in return!!! It was an assault on the senses; a masterclass in earth-shattering reveals, whiplash-inducing twists and turns, successive climaxes, and pinpoint-placed humor. It had me sitting up in bed next to my snoozing spouse at 2am, hyperventilating with my Kindle in hand because I could NOT go to sleep without knowing what happened next.

Ana and Din are called in to solve another impossible murder, this time in some backwater stuck-in-the-Dark-Ages town at the border of the Empire called Yarrow, where the very toxic and dangerous leviathan blood refinery called The Shroud is also located. As their investigation goes on, they find that the societal blight they've discovered is much deeper and far-reaching than they realize, and at the center of it all is a genius villain that can predict their every move.

This has everything I loved from Book 1 and more - sweet, bisexual Signum Dinios Kol in his Ho Era, and also in debilitating debt; Ana making even more amazing deductions and engaging in even more unhinged shenanigans, and INSIGHT into her backstory; more insane alterations and grafts and leviathan stuff and the BODY HORROR that comes with it; and meditations on autocracy, democracy, and civil service. As always, absolutely blown away by the worldbuilding and how intentional the writing is - I was highlighting almost every other line knowing that even the smallest, most insignificant detail would make an important comeback later.

I loved this so much. Gonna cry about it now. Bye.

This book was fantastic and even better than the first. The characters and their relationships feel so in depth and beautifully written. The mystery of this book led me on so many more twist and turns than the first in the series. The clues were sprinkled in perfectly throughout leaving me ample ways to form my own theories about who did it. The ending also left me reeling and now I am afraid I will be dying as I wait for the next book in the series. Easily a five star read and becoming one of my most favorite series to read.

In A Drop of Corruption, the stakes of Din and Ana’s investigation are higher than ever—failing could mean exposing the entire empire to a deadly contagion that would ultimately destroy it. And political hostility awaits them at every twist and turn of their investigation.

I wished that this sequel had included a little inkling of obvious romance like the first one did to break up all the bleakness a little more, but the romantic yearning was definitely still there and I think it will definitely be returning in the next book. Din continues to be one of my favorite protagonists ever—cunning yet vulnerable, extremely talented yet plagued with self-doubt. Problematic at times, but I still adore him.

An unusual duo is back - the eccentric, cheeky Ana with a razor-sharp tongue and mind, and the somewhat stiff , “Beg pardon” Dinios Kol.

This mixture is perhaps not explosive, but certainly jolting. Especially if you spice up these two personalities with the setting of the original world and the existence of huge sea monsters.

I love Ane Dolabre. I love with an ardent love. She is the cool aunt from the extended family who is always smoking suspicious cigarettes over a glass of brandy and talking about the times of her crazy youth. She's that aunt who gives no shit about everything and says what she thinks because she's already too old and tired to care. She's that hippie aunt who talks about acid trips and offers you candy, which your mother requisitions.

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Empire takes this saying very literally. We are left with an approximation of the process of extracting valuable substances, reagents from the bodies of Leviathans. After all, it is their carcasses that are the source of the transformations that some citizens' bodies and minds undergo. Another layer of the novel is Din's inner dilemmas, heart, financial and belonging. Din is searching for his place in life and the Empire, and is not entirely convinced that this place is with Ana.

The author, by his own admission in the afterword, is trying to add his voice to the discussion of power as such and its types in particular. We go beyond the Empire and confront its values learned in the first volume with the neighboring country. Yarrow is everything we love most about the Middle Ages. Or maybe we just hate it? You'll have to see for yourself.

I am extremely pleased with how the author leads the crime mystery. The beginning is again innocent, inconspicuous, just another corpse. Around the middle of the book, the only thing the reader knows is that he knows absolutely nothing. What follows is a confounding rash of new clues and threads to be investigated. The mystery grows once again into political machinations on a national scale. And although by the very end we are already able to guess the solution somewhat, the whole process of finding out the truth is extremely satisfying and exciting.

While, The Tainted Cup focused more on Din and the presentation of his person and skills, A Drop of Corruption brings us a little closer to the character of Ana. Only slightly, because she is an insanely complex and mysterious personality, I get the impression that she will surprise us more than once. However, in order to satisfy the curiosity of readers, the author smuggles in small clues and allows us, together with Din, to guess the probable solution to the mystery.

I am delighted with this series, in the face of the prevailing marasm on the fantasy market is undoubtedly a breath of fresh air. Great, intriguing characters, an original, perfectly constructed world and an engaging plot. The puzzles are brilliant and the politics of the Empire fascinating. The author's imagination deserves the greatest praise, as he introduces unusual plot solutions and ever more interesting personalities. I look forward to reading more.

Continued to love the world and the character of Din, and got better insight into other characters this time around. Didn't feel the way the story wrapped up was handled as well as it was in The Tainted Cup, as the pieces just resolved themselves moreso than the Din and Ana actually solving the case.

Bennett's fans will be pleased. His dry humor carries through from his other works, as does his strong voice. While this is the second book of the series, it stands alone.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the ARC.

I can imagine in many years the mysteries and travels of Ana and Din to be a household name. I read The Tainted Cup and could not wait for the second instalment. I want as many adventures and mysteries as possible please, as the characters are charming, the world building is excellent and the twist and turns are extremely engaging.


I loved a Drop of Corruption, it feels new and fresh- a different way to read fantasy. The Tainted Cup had a lot of exploration on who Din is, while the Drop of Corruption relied more on solving the mystery and trusted the reader to follow along.

This book is sooo great!

Al igual que con el libro anterior, disfruté mucho de la lectura.

Misterio + asesinatos + secretos + complot + fantasía + magia = ¡me lo llevo!

Ese final no lo vi venir. Desde el libro anterior me preguntaba por qué Ana no tenía pvs, pero aquí se explica… bueno, no se explica completamente, pero se revelan algunas cosas que dan contexto del porqué y te dejan intrigada de que pasará en el siguiente libro.




Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

dinios kol bisexual disaster returns!

i will admit that this book felt kind of repetitive to book one in terms of there's a mystery to solve, din is asking the questions, and ana works her wonderful mysterious magic to piece the puzzle together

but i still thoroughly enjoyed this one. i loved the new side characters and the new setting and just generally getting to explore more of this world - it was a blast. the way that fantasy and mystery/thriller mix together in this series is just fantastic and i need more asap

thank you netgalley + del rey for the arc!