The publisher renamed this series to the Ana and Din Mysteries while I wasn’t looking, and I only just realized. We are off to a great start. Well, the formerly called Shadow of the Leviathan series got its third installment this month, and as always, anything that Robert Jackson Bennett puts out does numbers with this crew. A Trade of Blood is the third installment in what I thought was going to be a trilogy, but now seems to be becoming a much larger series (which is a good thing).
For those unfamiliar, this series follows Ana and Din–a Sherlock and Watson allegory duo–as they move around an empire founded on biomancy and graftwork, solving crimes and taking down criminals. In typical Bennett fashion, there is a lot more body horror under the hood than you would find in a typical fantasy story, but that is what makes all of his books an extra-special spicy surprise.
A Trade of Blood, in particular, combines two subjects that have always begged for a metaphorical marriage: Romeo & Juliet and the meatpacking industry. The empire hungers for flesh, in a delicious-steak kind of way that also serves as a horrifying metaphor. In order to meet the enormous demand for beef across the resource-strained nation, long-feuding families compete to see who can corner the cattle industry with gigantic mutant supercows. Our mystery starts off with two lovers from opposite sides of the feud trying to run away from it all and rapidly progressing to something more akin to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It is up to Ana and Din to pull apart the threads woven between these two antagonistic groups and find out what really happened to this lovely couple.
Something I really love about this Bennett series is how it uses the episodic mystery structure to tell a larger story about the costs and horrors of empire. With Bennett, the surface layer is always fun, but hides a deeper narrative underneath. With Ana and Din, I appreciate how the focus is less on the “twists” of a who done it and more on what societal pressures and problems set up the crimes in the first place. Each of these mysteries has been depressingly tragic, a trend that I don’t expect to change as we continue with the series. As opposed to many other mysteries on the market, who perpetrated the crime feels so much less interesting than how they did it and the implications of the seemingly impossible methodology.
Peeling back the aforementioned top layer of A Trade of Blood, what this book is really about (unsurprisingly) is the American cattle industry and general industrial agriculture. Bennett’s observations about the collective demand for beef causing untold societal damage are both easy to follow and extremely well argued. The entire premise leaves me with a profound sense that Bennett has found a way to make a fun, mass-appealing story that is a delight to read–while also sneaking in important messaging to the masses that is both educational in how it ties to the narrative and illuminating in how well it is presented.
Robert Jackson Bennett will always be a day-one buy for me, and A Trade of Blood is no different, absolutely reaffirming my long-held belief. Everything that makes Bennet a master is present in this book, from his signature blend of horror and fantasy to his gripping world-building and tragic characters. Another ten out of ten for the recommendation roster; I can’t wait to figure out where A Trade of Blood will place on the Best of 2026 at the end of the year.
Rating: A Trade of Blood – 10/10
-Andrew
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
