A Drop of Corruption

Another fascinating detective and investigative story involving Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol. It starts with a locked room murder which is, of course, solved within a few chapters. But the repercussions of the murder would build up as the story progresses, until it would involve an attack on the Shroud, the mysterious and chilling artifact that the Empire uses to extract and process the blood of the Titans, that the Empire depends upon for its survival.

Unlike the first book, where suspects are investigated and then revealed as the story progresses, the identity of the murderer in this book is determined 'off-stage' halfway through the book. Instead, it is more of a CSI-type story, where the methods and motive of the murderer take centre stage. As the investigation progresses, we also get to see more of the author's world-building, as more biological augmentations are revealed, all possible due to the Titan's blood that is being distilled in the Shroud. And one of those augmentations would give the murderer the ability to predict what Ana would do, leading to a cat and mouse game between two masters of logic and deduction.

If not controlled, the Titan's blood can cause biological corruption and disaster. And it doesn't help that the Shroud is at the edge of the Empire, bordering a corrupt, autocratic kingdom that the Empire is negotiating with. And as the investigation continues, Ana discovers yet more corruption in the bureaucracy of the Empire itself. All of these corruptions would come to a head at the climax of the story, leading Dinios to make a decision about his future that he has been reconsidering after months of working with Ana at what he thinks is an unglamorous job.

While the identity of the murderer is given to the reader, the methods and intent of the murderer could still be deduced from the story, if the reader is attentive enough. This reader was able to make a few logical deductions before their revelation in this inventive story.

I didn't finish it at 100 pages. I quite enjoyed the first book but this one felt strange, the protagonist (Din) turned into a promiscuous, bitter young man whose sexual exploits didn't interest me in the slightest. It was like I was reading about someone else. The case and the setting were interesting enough but couldn't save it, it felt kinda repetitive to be honest. All in all, it was an uncomfortable read for me.

A Drop of Corruption was a great followup to The Tainted Cup.

I love the universe, it's so delightfully weird and mysterious. Additionally, I appreciate that Din, despite being A Watson, actually does the majority of solving things and unraveling the story, instead of just floundering around until his Holmes solves everything.

This book reminds me a lot of the second book in Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy. Both are set out in the hinterlands, with a different focus and locale than the first book, but crucially both are there to establish the thematic question for the series. Here, that question is around the human nature of kings and emperors, and the complicated human desire for them.

Unsurprisingly, this series continues to be solidly in the mystery genre despite being blended with kaiju fantasy worldbuilding. It opens with a locked room murder mystery (and a missing body), has a brilliant Moriarity-adjacent mastermind, and ends with a dramatic reveal. This was true in the first book as well, but I quite appreciate how the details and clues are meticulously laid out for the reader to spot; even when there is a "our investigator must go into a fugue state to find answers" moment, her revelations are all something the reader could have intuited themselves.

One friend who has been reading this series (and crucially has not read any mystery books) has been disappointed at the "small-ness" of the plot threads, where the climax is a mystery rather than a fantasy escalation, and the terror of the leviathans only looms in the distance. These books certainly do not have the escalation of ideas from his previous series The Founders Trilogy. However, following the Divine Cities example above, my prediction is that the final book is going to satisfyingly tie together the themes from the first two books while answering our questions about the nature of the leviathans and the silent Khanum emperor.