My Review: I’ve been waiting a year and a half for this book, and it absolutely was worth the wait. The first book in the Shadow of the Leviathan/Ana and Din Mystery series, The Tainted Cup, was such a fantastic combination of fantasy and mystery that it was nominated for Best Novel at both the Hugo Awards (SF and Fantasy) and the Edgar Awards (mystery). It won the Hugo - as it should have. (As I typed this in May 2026 the second book, A Drop of Corruption…

My Review: Lions don’t HAVE tusks - not in our world. Not even in the world of the Shadow of the Leviathan series, where Ana Dolabra and her assistant Dinios Kol travel around the empire shoring up the foundations by solving mysteries and restoring a tiny bit of order, one case at a time. Which should have been a clue to someone that something wasn’t quite what it purported to be. But “The Lion’s Tusk” was a legendary relic, making it the perfect wedding gift from a high-ranking church official to a rich reprobate that he hates and the despicable man’s unfortunate bride upon the occasion of their wedding.

My Review: There is something rotten in the state of the Empire. There are PLENTY of somethings ROTTING in the state of Yarrowdale, some naturally so, some deliberately so, some neglectfully so and some, even, all of the above. It’s a matter of which is which, which is what has brought Ana and Kol from their previous assignment to this rotting backwater on the edge of the Empire.

Един свят нападан от морски титани в продължение на векове, успял да създаде Империя бореща се с тях и създаваща невероятни изменения, даваща на хората преимушества. Но зловещи поредици от убийства…