A Drop of Corruption

Description

When a string of impossible deaths rocks the Empire’s far eastern frontier, investigator Dinias Kol and his enigmatic, reclusive patron Anagosa Dolabra are dispatched to a kingdom still being absorbed by treaty—and to a processing center that turns leviathan remains into the magic the Empire depends on. As Din and Ana probe a locked-room mystery that seems to defy both logic and law, they uncover a web of imperial rivalries, frontier politics, and the dangerous economics of corruption. Bennett’s sharp, character-driven style blends murder-mystery pacing with high-concept fantasy worldbuilding, revealing how power is extracted, traded, and concealed. At its core, the novel asks what it costs to keep an empire running—and how easily “necessary” systems can rot from within.

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