Synopsis
The brilliant detective Ana Dolabra may have finally met her match in the gripping sequel to The Tainted Cup—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.
In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, 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.
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.
Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future.
Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire’s greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.
Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.
Review
Woo boy. Two books in and this is shaping up to be one of my favorite series of all time. Last year Robert Jackson Bennett’s A Tainted Cup made its way onto many Top 10 lists, including my own. It was a unique take on a murder mystery set in a fascinating fantasy world. The world he set up in these books is so intriguing, but Bennett keeps the reader at arms length with the mystery he tantalizingly sets up in the foreground.
When the Pandemic started and everything was shut down, my wife and I binge-watched A LOT of British and overseas television shows. A good many of those shows are murder mysteries. Some are set in the modern age, some in a bleak and dreary 1970’s English countryside and others dating back to the Victorian age. But each of those shows had a certain rhythm to them. The good ones are a constantly moving dance between the detectives and the killer, weaving a story that’s too good to look away.
A Drop of Corruption hits all the notes that a good murder mystery features, including the dramatic reveal at the end with the detective gathering all the evidence and potential killers all in one place, only to drop the other shoe as the investigation wraps up.
What really puts A Drop of Corruption over the top and will land Jackson yet again on Top 10 lists in 2025 is the compelling characters he adds on top of the fantasy world and folds them expertly into the mystery.
Our Sherlock in this story is Ana Dolabra and the Watson is our POV character, Dinios Kol, or Din for short. I’ve seen plenty of shows and read plenty of books where the characters are paper-thin and are just avatars for the original Sir Arthur Conan Doyle characters. Bennett wisely adds layers upon layers to these two. Din gets a little more attention as the readers’ eyes on his world, but both have intricate details that set them apart from detective duos in countless other tales.
There is just the right amount of body horror, ala Jeff Vandermeer, that keeps us and the character’s guessing and on their toes, folding itself neatly into the mystery but acting as a threat to our lead characters as well.
In just two books, Bennett has built up and created a world that I want to know more about. His track record seems to indicate this will be a trilogy, but I definitely wouldn’t mind at all if we get more from Ana and Din after a third book in this series or even branching out with other side characters we’ve met along the way. I love these books and will be one of the first in line for what Bennett has for us next.
Thank you to Del Rey for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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