Review: A Drop of Corruption

/ Eric Primm

One of my favorite books of 2024 was the wonderful The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. It had everything I enjoy in a fantasy novel: beautiful world building, intriguing characters, and mysteries that build upon themselves. Well, Jackson is back with A Drop of Corruption, the second in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. I loved the first book; so, how will the second hold up? Does A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett live up to the first book?

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

© PrimmLife.com 2025

TL;DR

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett is the second in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. It’s a wonderful book that builds upon the first in the series. Ana and Din, once again, must protect the Empire in their unique way. Highly recommended.

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From the Publisher

The eccentric detective Ana Dolabra matches wits with a seemingly omniscient adversary in this brilliant fantasy-mystery from the author of The Tainted Cup.

“Wonderfully clever and compulsively readable . . . another winning blend of fantasy and classic detection.”—Publishers Weekly

In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, a Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—vanishing from a room within a heavily guarded tower, its door and windows locked from the inside.

To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial detective, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol.

Ana soon discovers that they are investigating not a disappearance but a murder—and one of surpassing cunning, carried out by an opponent who can pass through warded doors like a ghost.

Worse still, the killer may be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud, where the Empire harvests fallen titans for the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.

Din has seen his superior solve impossible cases before. But as the death toll grows and their quarry predicts each of Ana’s moves with uncanny foresight, he fears that she has at last met an enemy she can’t defeat.

Review: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Once again, Din and Ana find themselves on the edges of the Empire in the port of Yarrowdale. They have been called to investigate the murder of a treasury agent. The man was killed in a locked room with no visible means for for the assassin to escape. The treasury agents are in town negotiating the merger of a small kingdom with the Empire. A murder makes an already tense political situation even more ripe for disaster. The Empire needs the little kingdom of Yarrow because off the coast of this river delta, the mysterious Shroud sits. It’s where the ingredients for the Empire’s magical potions, drugs, therapeutics, etc., are harvested from dead titans. In other words, this is a valuable location for the Empire. As expected the small kingdom wants its freedom. Well, the aristocrats of the small kingdom do. The poor, the peasants, and the downtrodden don’t want to return to the feudal state. After all the Empire offers the potential for a better life for the poor.

Ana and Din arrive in country to get to work. Following Din is the financial company that owns Din’s father’s debt, which Din must pay off. With the posting to a wild and volatile part of the Empire, Din’s debt becomes even more cumbersome as the financial institution enacts a clause imparting harsher terms for the debt. Din believes his only way out of the debt is to leave the Iudex and become a soldier. As the investigation begins, Din gets caught up in local and Empire-wide schemes, again. His local guide, Malo, a Warden of the Apothetikals, guides him around Yarrowdale. Chasing an assassin that seems to be able to change his face and blend into the city or the surrounding jungles will test Din’s abilities. Playing the killer’s game and trying to get one step ahead of them will test Ana’s very sanity. On the very edge of society, the fate of the Empire’s magic rests in the hands of Ana and Din.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett is the second book of the Shadow of the Leviathan series. It follows in the same vein as the first book but evolves the characters and their interactions with each other. A Drop of Corruption is a first person account of Din and Ana’s investigation. While this books reads a little slower than the first, but it held my attention the entire time.

Thoughts

It’s not quite as tightly written as the first book because the focus of this book is Ana’s game against the assassin. Whereas The Tainted Cup was Din’s novel and felt driven by Din, A Drop of Corruption feels like Ana’s novel with Din being an errand boy. Readers follow Din around, but he’s not pushing the action forward; he’s reacting to situations as they evolve. This didn’t bother me as I found the mystery intriguing, and I think Din’s observations on his world and Ana to be wonderful. Though I do wonder how Bennett will balance Din as errand boy versus his own detective in upcoming novels. (And I do hope there’s more in the future. This is a series worth following.) As always in Bennett’s books, the world-building is wonderful. In the Shadow of the Leviathan series, I love the whole aesthetic. This is a world that has incorporated plants, and instead of the steel and concrete of our world, they have a leafy, plant-based construction. It’s excellent. In addition, the magic is cool and weird and gross. But where A Drop of Corruption shines is the expansion of the political world-building. In the first book, all the readers knew was the Empire. Now, we get a look at other civilizations and how the Empire deals with them. As the book progresses, we learn more about the history of the Empire and begin to see some internal political machinations. Bennett’s addition of these items expands his world into something even more messy than just aristocratic maneuvering.

Din and Ana

Din is a great character. I loved him in The Tainted Cup, and his character growth here is fun and interesting. Now that he’s risen in the ranks to leave his hometown, he’s learning that doesn’t necessarily mean the job gets better. He’s also learning that some jobs, while necessary and important, aren’t glamorous. He dreams of becoming a soldier because at least it’s proactive and, in his opinion, helps the Empire. He believes that solving murders is reactive and doesn’t help anyone. In his mind, being an investigator is not protecting the Empire or even improving it. This is a natural state for anyone, after all, even if you love your work, a job is still a job. There will be days you hate it, days you love it, days that make you think another line of work would be better. Din experiences that through the novel. Ana gives him a chance to experience other lines of work, though, in her requests. Din accompanies the Apothetikal Wardens upriver in search of pirates and smugglers. He visits the kingdom of Yarrow. Throughout, Din grows an investigator and starts keying in on the mystery of Ana herself.

Of course, Ana is very much her weird, wonderful, brilliant self in this novel. Bennett has created the perfect detective for his world in Ana. To be clear, she’s not a perfect person, but she’s the perfect character. Her frustrations, her pushing herself to her very limits, her interactions with other Empire agents, and even her abilities as a diplomat, all shine in this novel. She seems aloof, distant, and, perhaps, even analytically detached from the world, but that’s too simplistic of a reading. She cares for Din in her way. For example, more than once she orders him to rest for his own sake, knowing he won’t comply but still exhibiting concern. In this novel, she pushes herself to her physical and mental limits trying to understand and, then, out-predict the assassin. But she’s often frustrated as the assassin has already predicted her moves. Has she met her match here?

Conclusion

Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Drop of Corruption is the followup to The Tainted Cup that I wanted. It expanded the world, developed the characters, and provided an intriguing mystery. This novel solidifies the Shadow of the Leviathan series as a must read for me. Ana and Din can now be ranked among the best of fantasy detectives. A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett continues this wonderful series in ways that I can’t wait to see play out. Bring on book 3!

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett is available from Del Rey on April 1st, 2025. © PrimmLife.com 2025

8 out of 10!

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