A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett

It is very rare for a sequel to surpass the impression left by the first novel. But, at least for me, Robert Jackson Bennett manages to do exactly that with A Drop of Corruption (for the Bulgarian translation, which is not yet available, we chose the title Капка поквара – ed.). Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol’s new case feels more like an intricate political thriller than a crime novel.

Ana Dolabra, as eccentric and brilliant as ever (yes, she does remind me of Sherlock Holmes), meets her Professor Moriarty, while Din struggles with his own doubts and inner demons. Looking back, the first book lacked some of this depth. This time, the narrative gives equal weight to the characters’ inner worlds and to the trials they must survive in order to catch the villain.

But to get to the plot itself – this time Ana and Din find themselves in the semi-autonomous kingdom of Yarrow, right on the edge of the Empire. They have to discover who murdered an official from the Imperial Ministry of Finance.

The case is as absurd as the one in the previous novel: the man’s room was locked from the inside, while the building itself stands inside a heavily guarded compound that no one could leave unnoticed.

As Din warns, Ana will need about twenty-four hours to work out how the crime was committed. And she does. But she soon realizes that the murder is only an entry point into a much larger conflict. Yarrow holds strategic importance for the Empire. Nearly a century earlier, its king signed a treaty under which Yarrow would become part of Khanum one hundred years later. That prospect faces resistance among some of the kingdom’s highest-ranking political circles. And Ana’s opponent is exceptionally dangerous. He is always several moves ahead of her, while his true objective seems to remain hidden in fog. Or perhaps he is simply leading Ana down the wrong paths.

In A Drop of Corruption, we learn more about leviathan blood and exactly what it is capable of. Yarrow is home to the so-called Shroud, where workers extract blood from slain leviathans — “the fuel for all biotechnology and alterations.” At the same time, a secret research project is also being conducted there, and it lies at the heart of the conflict. I’ll stop here before revealing too much.

All right, just one more thing – the ending is fantastic and takes us back to the golden age of detective fiction, when the detective (Ana) gathers all the suspects together to expose the culprit.

If I go back to The Tainted Cup, I genuinely find here much of what I felt was missing from the first novel. In A Drop of Corruption, Ana herself is far more active (yes, she still sends Din off to conduct interviews), but we also see her in a much more human light – relatively speaking.

Din himself is no longer simply the Watson who gathers information for the genius. He begins to question what duty actually means and to whom he truly owes it — the Empire, Ana, his family, or his own conscience.

The book is full of brilliant and witty lines, and this is my favorite:

“Pride,” answered Ana. “…But a prideful creature can talk themself into believing that every deed they do is legitimate. Thus, they both giddily and greedily spin their own doom.”

Perhaps it is unnecessary by now to say that the BOOKLOVERS rating is 5 out of 5 stars. Political and thriller elements woven into a classic detective story – and yet, at its core, we are talking about fantasy. Robert Jackson Bennett, unmatched as always