A Trade of Blood
Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: A-
What I’m Talking About:
When Romeo slays Juliet in a horrendous way, that is only the beginning and now Din and Ana must come and root out the evil that is stalking this farming community. Robert Jackson Bennett’s Shadow of the Leviathan series of fantasy mysteries continues to rivet me to my seat and keep me flipping pages madly to discover what comes next.
A Trade of Blood is the third of a series where each installment builds on the next even with the fresh mystery offered up with each new release.
Din and Ana have traveled inside the third ring to rich farm lands that are closer to the core of the empire than Din has ever seen. The region is dominated by two wealthy clans. One grow the monstrous beef cattle that feed the empire and the other grow the grain on which these cattle feed. Both created augmented products to keep up with the demands of more, more! They have long been sworn enemies (and no they are not the Capulets and the Montagues, though there is definitely a tip of the hat to that particular Shakespearean play) and now two of their young people have fallen in love with the enemy. Or not, since the young man seems to have slaughtered his lady fair during one of their secret monthly trysts.
The families are on the brink of war and the local constabulary are not up to investigating this case and keeping the families from warring and disrupting the empire’s valuable beef industry. It looks pretty straightforward at the outset, but Din and Ana are not long on the scene when they discover their first dark piece of evidence that this case is much more complicated.
Din is also faced with a startling and not completely welcome face from his past even as he delves into hunting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and learning how the local culture including more of the empire’s augmented infra-structure as pertaining to agriculture plays a role. He is also growing more than a little unnerved by a new upgrade in his own augments and the unsettling mystery at the heart of a nearby forest that relates to the ancient people who came before the empire. How does it all tie in? As more people are killed, will it lead to the hidden plot and perpetrators in time?
A Trade of Blood is just as dark and gritty as the earlier books and their is a sense of the evil and foreboding that comes with further revelations about the case as well as more of the world within the rings of the empire.
Beyond those external conflicts and developments, there are further revelations about Din and Ana. Secrets that scare him almost as much as the insidious weapon the killer is using.
I couldn’t put this book down once it got going and the end was as suspenseful and exciting as I’ve come to expect. Shocks, twists, and wry wit made it match and exceed my expectations. I am eager to see what comes next in this series and can’t plug it to other readers enough.
My Rating: A-
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
The heir to one of the Empire’s most powerful families sits in jail, accused of murder. His hands are covered in the victim’s blood, and he can neither deny his guilt nor explain his actions.
But if the great detective Ana Dolabra cannot save him from the noose, the farming canton of Sapirdad will explode into war, threatening to plunge the whole Empire into starvation and chaos.
As Ana investigates—her assistant Dinios Kol, as ever, acting as her eyes and ears—she fears her task is even more daunting than it seemed. For this murder is just the latest in a deeper, subtler web of death, woven by a mastermind with an ancient weapon at his disposal.
With their customary skill, Ana and Din pursue their adversary through the canton’s wild ranges, sprawling ranches, and reeking slaughterhouses. Yet even they are not prepared to learn the horrifying secret behind their opponent’s powers.
Release Date: August 4, 2026
Publisher: Del Rey
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan #3
Genre: Fantasy Mystery
Format(s): hardcover (400 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley