Review: A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett

A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: April 1st, 2025

Hardcover. 480 pages.

About A Drop of Corruption (from the publisher):

"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."

Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again with A Drop of Corruption. I loved The Tainted Cup when I read it last year and have been positively dying to read the sequel.

I'll admit, I think I loved The Tainted Cup just the slightest bit more than this one, but I suspect that has more to do with it being my first introduction to this world and the characters that grabbed me so much.

In A Drop of Corruption, we have another mystery on our hands, and Din and his peculiar advisor, Ana, are on the case. I love watching these two work through an investigation, but I have to say that I love learning about this captivating world and the leviathans that inhabit it. This time, the duo are on the scene of a possible disappearance and/or murder. The suspect appears to be someone who is capable of making someone vanish without any evidence left behind whatsoever, even in fully that are on very high floors with only windows and long drops below.

I still really love Din's narrative voice. It's a bit dry at times, highly intelligent, and is full of sharp wit. His interactions with Ana add so much to both of their personalities and development, especially as we see them interact and discuss not just the case, but occasionally some more private, personal matters as well--though these conversations are of course much rarer. I also appreciated getting to know more about Din’s background in this book, though there’s still a bit of mystery left surrounding him. It's also been interesting to see his growing disillusionment with his job and how that adds some extra layers of complexity to his motivations and even ability to do his job. He wants to do something more, something different, and struggles at times to see whether what he's doing is helpful or worthwhile. I found this to be a particularly relatable concern, and I think it also really adds to a better overview of where Din is coming from.

We also learn more about Ana, though once again, we aren’t given everything just yet--but what we do learn in this book certainly makes me eager for much more. I keep waiting for Ana's intelligence to become annoying as we work our way through the story, for some reason Bennet manages to write her in a way that doesn't feel obnoxious. He leaves her feeling stumped or uncertain in plenty of moments, which made her still feel like a real person despite her seemingly enhanced abilities and odd traits.

My biggest issue with A Drop of Corruption is the pacing. It was quite slow at times, and I actually found myself struggling to get through parts--not because it was bad, but because it felt like we were stuck in repetitive motions. It lacked the page-turning elements that would have kept me reading more quickly. It felt like there was a lot of Din gathering information, reporting it to Ana (who is inevitably doing something weird, perplexing, and/or revolting), then Ana having some cryptic idea, Din then carrying out the idea the following day, and repeat. And while all of this is generally interesting, this cycle got a little old at times. I imagine that might be much of what it's like to be an investigator of sorts at times, but as a reader I expected slightly more riveting content sometimes.

I’d say the first half to two-thirds of this book had the slower pace I've described above, but once we got into the meaty developments--especially those involving the leviathans and broader world-building--things really pick up for me and I was once again captivated and remembered why I've been loving this series so much.

This world is so vivid and I tended to feel the same sense of unease or dread that Din does when he happens upon something horrifying or deeply unsettling. There's a thick atmosphere of things being not quite right in this setting, and it leaves me feeling--probably much like Din--eager to get out.

What keeps drawing me to this series is the underlying sense of something vast and much deeper and grander that's happening behind the scenes. I am dying to learn more about this world, the leviathans, and everything in between. There’s so much left to explore and so many mysteries and things that are left unsaid or secretive, and I can't wait to see how this story continues to unfold. If you enjoyed The Tainted Cup, I think you'll have a fantastic time diving back into this world! If you haven't yet started this series, what are you waiting for!?

*I received a copy of A Drop of Corruption in exchange for an honest review. This has no affect on my opinions.*

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org

Can't-Wait Wednesday: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, A Billion Butterflies by Jagadish Shukla, & Strangers in the Land by Michael Luo

 Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

A Drop of Corruption (Shadow of the Leviathan #2) by Robert Jackson Bennett
Publication: April 1st, 2025
Del Rey
Hardcover. 480 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"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."

I've already read this one (and my review will actually be up soon) but I'm still so excited for it to be released! 

A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory by Dr. Jagadish Shukla
Publication: April 22nd, 2025
St. Martin's Press
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"From an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth. Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, seven contenders compete to replace him. They are exceptional warriors, thinkers, strategists—the best of the best. Then one of them is murdered. It falls to Neema Kraa, the emperor’s brilliant, idiosyncratic High Scholar, to find the killer before the trials end. To do so, she must untangle a web of deadly secrets that stretches back generations, all while competing against six warriors with their own dark histories and fierce ambitions. Neema believes she is alone. But we are here to help; all she has to do is let us in. If she succeeds, she will win the throne. If she fails, death awaits her. But we won’t let that happen. We are the Raven, and we are magnificent."

This sounds so interesting! I've never given all that much thought to the history of weather prediction and all that comes along with that, so this sounds like it could be a really informative read. 

Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America by Michael Luo
Publication: April 29th, 2025
Doubleday
Hardcover. 560 pages.
Pre-order: Bookshop.org | Amazon

From Goodreads:
"'What history should be--richly detailed, authoritative, and compelling.'—David Grann, author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon

Strangers in the Land tells the story of a people who, beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, migrated by the tens of thousands to a distant land they called Gum Shan­––Gold Mountain. Americans initially welcomed these Chinese arrivals, but, as their numbers grew, horrific episodes of racial terror erupted on the Pacific coast. A prolonged economic downturn that idled legions of white workingmen helped create the conditions for what came next: a series of progressively more onerous federal laws aimed at excluding Chinese laborers from the country, marking the first time the United States barred a people based on their race. In a captivating debut, Michael Luo follows the Chinese from these early years to modern times, as they persisted in the face of bigotry and persecution, revealing anew the complications of our multiracial democracy.

Luo writes of early victims of anti-Asian violence, like Gene Tong, a Los Angeles herbalist who was dragged from his apartment and hanged by a mob during one of the worst mass lynchings in the country’s history; of demagogues like Denis Kearney, a sandlot orator who became the face of the anti-Chinese movement in the late-1870s; of the pioneering activist Wong Chin Foo and other leaders of the Chinese community, who pressed their new homeland to live up to its stated ideals. At the book’s heart is a shameful chapter of American history: the brutal driving out of Chinese residents from towns across the American West. The Chinese became the country’s first undocumented immigrants: hounded, counted, suspected, surveilled.

In 1889, while upholding Chinese exclusion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field characterized them as “strangers in the land.” Only in 1965 did America’s gates swing open to people like Luo’s parents, immigrants from Taiwan. Today there are more than twenty-two million people of Asian descent in the United States and yet the “stranger” label, Luo writes, remains. Drawing on archives from across the country and written with a New Yorker writer’s style and sweep, Strangers in the Land is revelatory and unforgettable, an essential American story."

This is another one that I think will be incredibly enlightening and will have so much to learn from. Hopefully I'll have a chance to check it out!