Fantasy Whodunit: Solving the Murder in Yarrowdale in A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Information:

• Goodreads: 4.58 out of 826 Ratings (being Published April 1st, 2025)
• Age Category: Adult
• Genre: Fantasy, Mystery
• Series: Shadow of The Leviathan, Book 2

Summary:

Ana and Din are back at it, but Ana may have met her match. They’re in Yarrowdale, a city at the edge of the Empire – half way empire and half way under control of the Yarrowdale King. There have been discussions about Yarrowdale officially becoming part of the empire – unfortunately a death of the most curious nature takes place during the negotiations. Enter Ana and Din on their never-ending quest to solve the insolvable. It’s a locked room mystery with the killer completing tasks that, previously, were deemed impossible. So incredibly fun.

Review:

If you enjoyed the first book, I don’t see this sequel being a disappointment. The writing and tone of the story reminds me of if Knives Out and Glass Onion were fantasy and Benoit Blanc was an enhanced older lady. And I say that with the most love possible. It’s serious and has gruesome and horrible depictions of death. There are characters who are the definition of depravity. Yet it still somehow maintains such an upbeat and kind of funny way of telling the story. You have a gruesome and dreary atmosphere that’s told in a slew of comments that genuinely made me giggle. Out loud.

“You know, you are not a stupid person, Din.” “Thank you, Ma’am,” I said, pleased. “Or rather, not an unusually stupid person.” “Thank you, ma’am,” I said, far less pleased.

Let’s start with Ana and Din because they are, quite honestly, what makes these books absolutely perfect. Ana, this old woman with substance use issues and some manic tendencies, absolutely obsessed with finding patterns and solving issues. Din, this younger (?) guy who is a bisexual king, sleeping with whoever is willing to let him smash in order to find peace at night and be able to sleep. There’s something about seeing two people who are the polar opposites getting along and being just about the only people to fully accept one another. Watching the calm and ‘normal’ one handle the very not normal one with an air of almost begrudged amusement or even just being the only one able to roll with it is something I eat up every single time.

Though she slept before me like a child, this frail white thing remained beyond me. I gently lifted her blindfold from her nightstand and tucked it about her eyes again. “For when you wake, ma’am,” I said softly. Then I left.

This book has the main mystery of solving the murder(s) and find the culprit. It’s mysterious and interesting – I tried to guess what I thought was going on at 25%, 50%, and 70%. I will say I was partially right on one guess and there are moments that could lead you – roughly – to the right conclusion. But Ana’s ending monologues laying out how the killer did the killing (and the why) are always perfection. It’s dramatic and funny and absolutely bonkers. Loved every minute of it. Think of the ending of Knives Out and Glass Onion, where Benoit Blanc does his monologues and that’s exactly what Ana’s feel like, except she’s also somehow a little more sinister.

Din is struggling throughout this whole book. He wants a different job to be with the man who stole his heart in the first book and also have a job that feels more important and potentially more rewarding. But there are circumstances that hold him where he is and he doesn’t feel like he can tell anyone about it. He’s sleeping with anyone willing just about every single night because he can’t find enough peace to sleep without doing so. He’s struggling and he’s struggling pretty hard but trying to keep his head above water. He’s trying to find his place throughout this entire thing and, surprise surprise, Ana is completely aware of it. She gives him advice and comfort in the only way that makes sense for Ana, but it makes absolutely no sense to Din until later. It’s fantastic seeing Din grow to see the importance in what he does towards the end of the book. Even if he isn’t in love with it just yet, he grows to see why his job is needed and why Ana might need him.

Then she reached out, fumbled to find me, took me by the hand, and squeezed it: the first time she’d ever done so in my memory. “Then I thank you, Dinios Kol,” she said quietly. “I hope I shall be an instrument of service to you, just as much as you are to me. And..I can hardly think of a better watchman than you. I shall keep you close – for though you and I are small, together we can forge grand things indeed.”

Ana is a mystery in and of herself. She’s manic. She’s bonkers. She’s is terrifying. You see hints of what she may be throughout the story, with her doing even more insane things than she did in the first novel. The reader gets a hint of how her augmentations affect her more in this and how intense it can be. I’m so excited to read more about her and what she is and what she’s gone through – I truly hope her mystery is one that continues to be unraveled as we go. And it was so incredibly interesting to see how she reacted to having someone who appeared nearly as intelligent and spooky as her running around. It was even better for her to realize the killer had no huge, grand, outrageous reasoning and be so incredibly disappointed by how small it all really was.

I’ve already touched on the mystery, which I can’t talk too much about without spoiling it. I found it to be satisfying, even if Ana didn’t. The atmosphere and picture of Nature taking over and being this incredibly dangerous thing in this world and how grotesque it can be really lends to the almost gothic, foggy, and spooky atmosphere to the mystery itself. Even though the writing style is more upbeat, it allows itself to slow down when the time calls for it. I loved every piece of this book. The only critique I really have is towards the writing with Ana cussing nearly every other sentence. There are time when it feels like her natural speak and other times when it feels forced. I can also see how this isn’t for everyone. It is fantasy, but it’s an investigative mystery first. And if you’re looking for something a little more serious or don’t like Benoit Blanc’s movies, then I don’t know if you’d enjoy this either. For me, it’s nearly perfect.

I would love to know if you’ve read the first book and what you thought about it if you have. Do you plan on picking this one up when it comes out? I’ve already preordered a physical copy so that I can add in my annotations.

“This work can never satisfy, Din, because it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall aways persist. The duty of Iudex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well…the Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where all the powerful and cruel prevail without check. And tell me – does that realm look capable of fighting off a Leviathan? “