Title: A Drop Of Corruption (Shadow Of The Leviathan #2)

Author: Robert Bennett Jackson

Original Pub. Date: April 1st 2025

Genre: Sci-Fantasy/Mystery

Format: eARC

Publisher: Del Rey

Pages: 465

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☆☆ARC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆

The Highly anticipated sequel to The Tainted Cup (spoiler free review) is finally here! This is one I was counting down the days for release and after devouring it in two sittings I can say it was worth the wait! Our favorite foul mouthed genius Detective Ana Dolabra and her assistant Dinios Kol are back in full investigative mode as they travel beyond the Empire’s reach to Yarrowdale. This time an officer of the treasury has been murdered in the most unusual way, an abduction from his quarters while the doors and windows were locked. Every exit fully guarded and every departure/arrival is noted. He however has simply vanished leaving behind a bloody room with very little clues to what may have transpired. Strange cases call for the eccentric Ana and her partner Din but this case is different in ways that leave even Ana worried. Their killer seems to think like Ana and predicts her every move. A lot is at stake in this game of cat and mouse when they realize “The Shroud” is the target. Vastly protected and operated from within by augmented officers of the Empire, The Shroud is a mass that allows the Empire to study and dissect fallen Leviathans in order to harness their magical liabilities. Those that work within the Shroud have basically sacrificed their lives with no guarantee that they’ll be able to walk away. The Shroud is taxing on their minds and bodies, some have come to think that it would be best if it didn’t exist.

This one is going to be for the readers who enjoy a slowly unraveled mystery, it packs a ton of plot twists and turns that will keep you guessing at whether Ana could even solve this case. This time the killer is just as genius and presents her with a real challenge while also making it difficult to keep certain aspects of her identity and augmentations a secret any longer from her assistant Din. We see her physically ill while also insatiably hungry for the strangest foods that would poison the common man. We get some answers to the mystery that is Ana while also still seeing her serve raw and unfiltered commentary at the expense of Din and those he chooses to bed. They are the true definition of an odd pairing and it makes for such a good time! As always the sci-fi elements are in the background mostly seen in the setting of the story. At it’s core this is mostly a mystery with scifi/fantasy elements, the trifecta is easily one I can get wrapped up in and will definitely be revisiting when book 3 in Shadow Of The Leviathan series is released.

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Happy Sunday Bookies!!! this is my 1st time participating in Megan@BookSlayerReads Standalone Sunday, a feature where you select a book (not part of a series) that you loved & would recommend to others. Super excited to be participating in Megan’s feature since i’ve been eyeing it for weeks & racking my brain for a good standalone I could post. It seems like lately series are the norm but I would love to get some more standalone’s read & this seems like a great source for motivation. On to this Sunday’s pick…

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

Publisher: Vintage

Publication Date: October 24th 2000

Page Count: 311

Genre: Fiction/Mystery-Crime

Goodreads Synopsis:

Lionel Essrog is Brooklyn’s very own self-appointed Human Freakshow, an orphan whose Tourettic impulses drive him to bark, count, and rip apart our language in startling and original ways. Together with three veterans of the St. Vincent’s Home for Boys, he works for small-time mobster Frank Minna’s limo service cum detective agency. Life without Frank Minna, the charismatic King of Brooklyn, would be unimaginable, so who cares if the tasks he sets them are, well, not exactly legal. But when Frank is fatally stabbed, one of Lionel’s colleagues lands in jail, the other two vie for his position, and the victim’s widow skips town. Lionel’s world is suddenly topsy-turvy, and this outcast who has trouble even conversing attempts to untangle the threads of the case while trying to keep the words straight in his head. Motherless Brooklyn is a brilliantly original homage to the classic detective novel by one of the most acclaimed writers of his generation.

This week I chose Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem, a book that I read in college as part of my required reading. I didn’t know it then but this would go on to become one of my most favorite detective tales that has since stayed with me. I am hazy on many of the smaller details but I loved the narrator Lionel Essrog an orphan with Tourettes Syndrome & OCD. Lionel ends up working for Frank Minna (mobster) as muscle up until Frank is murdered. The book is narrated by Lionel & therefore you’ll get random bursts of his Tourettes as well as his need to count things as he sets out to solve the mystery of Frank’s murder. I fell in love with Lionel’s character & felt this need to see him be ok on his own. There are many heartfelt moments as well as humorous ones…straight out laugh out loud moments. I loved seeing Lionel navigate Brooklyn (my home sweet home lol), the borough isn’t portrayed in a positive light but I believe people have forgotten Brooklyn’s past before gentrification. I’d recommend Motherless Brooklyn to anyone who enjoys a good detective novel & wouldn’t mind being inside the mind of a person with Tourettes & OCD since it is narrated by the character with these mental disorders.

Quotes

“Tourette’s is just one big lifetime of tag, really. The world (or my brain—same thing) appoints me it, again and again. So I tag back. Can it do otherwise? If you’ve ever been it you know the answer.”
― Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn

“Guilt wants to cover all the bases, be everywhere at once, reach into the past to tweak, neaten and repair. Guilt like Tourettic utterance flows uselessly, inelegantly from one helpless human to another, contemptuous of perimeters, doomed to be mistaken or refused on delivery.”

― Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn

“Prince’s music calmed me as much as masturbation or a cheeseburger.”

― Jonathan Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn