Dinios Kol once would have said that his eccentric supervisor, Ana Dolabra, would likely solve the average murder by the time he was done explaining the crime. But that was before they were sent to Yarrowdale. The far-flung province specializes in processing the blood of the monstrous leviathans that haunt the Empire of Khanum’s seas to create the modifications and medications that give the country its strength. Amid the canals of Yarrowdale, Din and Ana are met with a mystery that seems to proliferate on itself, full of false identities, impossible crimes behind locked doors and motives that even Ana cannot fully understand. To solve this crime, they must outthink a criminal whose prediction-making abilities border on the supernatural and whose web of schemes stretches further than they ever imagined—all while navigating a canton with politics as dangerous as its jungles.
Every Holmesian figure must have her Moriarty. And within the pages of A Drop of Corruption, it seems that Ana Dolabra has met hers. While criminal masterminds are too often limited by the imaginations of their creators, author Robert Jackson Bennett has crafted a plot that’s impossible to predict but perfectly believable once all the pieces come into clear view. And in Din, Bennet has created a Watson whose foibles match—and sometimes mirror—his investigator’s. For even as Dolabra matches wits with their foe, Din is slowly falling apart. Paying his father’s towering debts while simultaneously sending money to his family has left Din nearly penniless and dangerously anxious. He’s dissatisfied and disillusioned about his work and his less-than prestigious position in the Iudex, the empire’s justice department. The stress of it all makes Din desperate to drown his uncertainty in dalliances that rob him of sleep and (if Ana is to be believed) standing with his compatriots. A labyrinthine mystery supported by a compelling cast, A Drop of Corruption is a strong second entry in the logbook of Ana Dolabra.
