Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Bennett continues to make genre-blending appear effortless in his stellar third Ana and Din novel (after 2025’s A Drop of Corruption), a suspenseful whodunit set in an immersive and imaginative alternate world. The endearing duo of Ana Dolabra, an eccentric genius, and her assistant, Imperial Investigator Din Kol, whose augmented abilities allow him to perfectly recall crime scenes, are tasked with probing a murder. The solution initially appears obvious: Castus Armenta, a member of a powerful family, was seen fleeing an inn covered in blood; the butchered corpse of his secret lover from a rival family, Zansay Burav, was then discovered within. But as the Burav clan cries for Castus’s head, Ana and Din’s examination of the murder site reveals anomalies, most notably that the victim herself seems to have deliberately staged some aspects of the scene after being attacked. For his part, Castus has no discernible motive and no memory of what happened. The investigative scope widens as each of Castus’s three siblings also perish under odd circumstances. Meanwhile, an unexpected reunion unsettles Din, one of several complications in his personal life that could impact the inquiry. The case is as clever and fairly clued as ever, and it’s a pleasure to revisit these sharply drawn characters. This series shows no signs of slowing down. (Aug.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Imperial snoops Ana Dolabra and Dinios Kol are back on the job, digging into a feud on the edge of the realm. One way to get ahead in the bureaucracy of the Imperial Iudex, Ana tells her ever patient sidekick, Din, is to solve the murder of a young girl, “that veryspecific death, which is a mere fraction of all unlawful activity across all the Empire.” They’ve landed just such a case: a young woman who’s been butchered most expertly, complete with “a bundle of dark, gleaming innards [that] had slipped out to pool upon the floor beside her.” The frontier is the turf of two families, the Buravs and Armentas, who dominate the cattle business on one side and the feed business on the other and who are thus intertwined, like it or not. When young Castus Armenta is arrested for murdering the unfortunate young woman, Zansay Burav, he can’t remember anything—though, unfortunately, he’s known to be a master of “the gutting of the cows.” The discovery of a weird fungus complicates the present and adds intrigue to a past that involves not just Din’s familial backstory but also the origins of the Empire itself. Bennett spins an ambitious tale, packing a lot into a book that’s a touch shorter than others in the series, including none-too-subtle hints that maybe eating cows isn’t so good and that the food industry has an interest in developing additives to “condition and control any population of animals,” humans included. As ever, Din is stolid and hardworking, Ana irrepressibly obscene (“Might this tawdry shit have a faint whiff of something fascinating?”). But she’s also smart and philosophically bent, instructing Din on that bloody ground, as they draw closer to the solution, that “what we do to the beasts in the field we may still one day do to our very kin.” Fantasy meets procedural with a side of veganism, and it’s good merry mayhem. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

The third book in Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan fantasy-mystery series begins with Ana and her assistant Din traveling to a region renowned throughout the Empire for its agricultural products. Ana is incensed at being assigned to investigate the murder of a young gentry girl (such an uninteresting task!), but Din reminds her that the murder suspect belongs to another clan, and there may be many more casualties if the families go to war. Once his investigation commences, Din discovers that his abilities have matured faster than expected. He now hears an internal voice that provides insights based on the memories he has accumulated over the years. Ana says she had expected this development. Still, Din’s initial report on their current case leaves her aghast at the scope and planning involved in the murder. Something sinister and much larger is at work, something that could threaten the Empire itself. Series fans will be delighted with the Romeo and Juliet–inspired plotline involving a complex mystery that astounds even the peevish detective. The introduction of a member of Din’s family plus new hints about Ana’s history will have readers eager for their next adventure.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Ana and Din are back with their third investigation, after The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption. This time the murder they've been sent to investigate appears deceptively simple, a tale of feuding families, star-crossed lovers, and a bloody end to a romance that is likely to result in an even bloodier civil war. The murder scene is too neat, the motive is too pat, and the clamor to kill the murderer and release the body of his victim are too strident for anything to be as simple as the feuding families want everyone to believe. Ana and Din are determined to find the truth no matter how deeply they must dig to get to the bottom of a series of impossible murders hiding a secret that reaches back to the worst parts of the empire's history and into the depths of one broken man's heart. VERDICT Another highly recommended entry in the "Shadow of the Leviathan" series for readers who enjoy fantasy/mystery blends. It will also appeal to those who are looking for new, different, and fascinating recreations of the greatest detectives and epic fantasy readers craving a dangerous world to plumb to its depths.—Marlene Harris