A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett is the third book in the Ana and Din Mysteries series, formerly known as the Shadow of the Leviathan series. It is 400 pages and was published by Del Rey in August of 2026.

Genre

Fantasy, Mystery

This post will discuss the series as a whole before focusing on the latest installment.

The Ana and Din Mysteries, featuring an investigative duo that have often been compared to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, are first and foremost murder mysteries unfolding in a fantasy setting with some hefty worldbuilding. Each book’s plot follows these two unraveling the puzzle behind a grisly murder that often winds up with far-reaching political implications. Additionally, each addresses the nature of civilization and the question of whether people exist to serve their nation, or vice versa.

The Empire of Khanum is arranged like a succession of spoked wheels, with the the wealthiest citizens living in the center, the farthest from the outer ring’s sea walls. This is because every wet season, leviathans surface from the deep and try to breach the walls, destroying everything in their path. Branches of the military are dedicated to shoring up and defending the wall from the monstrous titans. Some people who serve the empire are given grafts or suffusions, altering their abilities in specific ways. Our main character, Din, is an engraver; he has been cerebrally altered to have a perfect eidetic memory of everything he sees and hears. He carries little vials of different scents with him to use as cues to associate with particular memories. With this ability, he acts as the eyes and ears of the exceedingly eccentric, and brilliant, Ana, the investigator to whom he is apprenticed.

Each entry in the series offers clever and twisty mysteries, the charming and hilarious relationship and banter between irreverent Ana and sincere Din, and lessons that go beyond magical mayhem to say something about the ills that come part and parcel with society.

And of course, the series has wonderful representation and inclusion.

If these things sounds like your jam and you haven’t yet picked up this series, what are you even doing?!

Now on to the specifics of Book 3, A Trade of Blood.

Description

Brilliant detective Ana Dolabra must prove a man’s innocence to stop a civil war in the third book of the series that began with The Tainted Cup, named an Edgar, Hugo, and World Fantasy Award Finalist and one of the best books of the year (New York Times Book Review, NPR, Elle)—from the bestselling author of The Founders Trilogy.

In the canton of Sapirdad, two of the Empire’s most powerful families are moments away from going to war with each other, their hundreds of retainers gathered with swords drawn. If blood is spilt, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos.

To de-escalate matters, someone must do the impossible: prove that one family’s eldest son is innocent of a gruesome and unforgivable murder, despite the incontrovertible evidence against him.

It is with this undertaking that the great detective Ana Dolabra is tasked, her assistant Din at her side—and the two find themselves racing with great speed and little dignity to the scene.

As ever, the impossible proves little obstacle for the deadly combination of Ana’s intellect and Din’s keen eye, and mere hours after riding into the dusty town, Ana glimpses the greater pattern behind the crime. A deeper, subtler web of death is being woven in plain sight, by a mastermind with an ancient magical technology at his disposal.

But even Ana’s uncanny insight is of little use when each new suspect she uncovers ends up dead–with each new killing calculated to bring tensions between the two rival clans past the boiling point. And as Din pursues their adversary through the canton’s wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses, he finds his loyalties divided in unexpected ways.

Opening Line

“It is an inarguable truth, you know,” said Ana, “that most people are absolutely enthralled by dead girls.”

My Thoughts

This is another interesting and complex murder mystery for Ana and Din to solve in the fantasy world of the Shadow of the Leviathan series that began with The Tainted Cup and continued with A Drop of Corruption.

Our beloved duo is sent to a new location in the third ring of the Empire to investigate what appears to be a clear cut murder between two gentry clans, although this time things seem a little too pat to be left unquestioned. And once again, the story furthermore touches on some philosophical topics and those regarding the ills of society and potential pitfalls inherent in great civilizations.

“How you’ve grown,” I said softly.
“Is dread the same as maturity?”
I filled my glass. “In the Empire, perhaps.”

I have to say, even though the murder mystery that serves as the impetus of this adventure was compelling, it’s the world-building that really hits for me here—specifically the lore surrounding the history of the Empire, its founders, and its pantheons. But the fact that this murder utilizes a feature that often seems to really work for me in my fiction (this part is discovered early in the investigation, not to mention shows up in the cover illustration, but fair warning for readers who like to avoid anything even a hint spoilery, I’m referring here to parasitic fungal horror) serves as an added bonus. This time we get to meet one of Din’s family members. And though the interactions between the eccentric and foul-mouthed Ana and her straightman assistant are perhaps growing a bit stale, they continue to offer some levity amidst murder and a dark lesson about so-called civilized people being all too willing to tolerate the suffering of those they deem inferior for the sake of maintaining their own creature comforts. I do feel bits of the mystery were a little easier to unravel on my own this time, and I wasn’t sure I felt Din needed another dalliance at this point in the series, but the latter at least was a nice opportunity to present this bit:

Though a voice had spoken within me—not my memories, merely my experience—whispering: These things never last.
To which I had responded: Nothing does.

In all, this was an engaging story that was further enhanced by the new things revealed about the Empire and its history, and I will be happy to see where the series takes readers next.

Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

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