“A Trade of Blood” by Robert Jackson Bennett
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Rating: 4/5 Stars.
Another wonderful instalment in the author’s series of mysteries involving Ana (the superb analyst) and Din (the observer who never forgets a detail). Sent out to quickly investigate a murder that involves the son and daughter of two rival families that provide most of the meat and feed the Empire depends upon to work, they quickly realise that all is not as it seems.
Ana deduces that the murder has been preplanned by another, and driven by an organism that infected both the murdered and murderer. Tracking down the real suspect is no easy task as the body count mounts. And the infection has been spread to many others, leading Ana and Din to re-examine old bodies to discover the extent of the murder plot against the families.
During the investigation, more details on how the Empire works and the history of the races that gave rise to the Empire is revealed. And it is not a pretty picture: to feed the desire of people to eat meat, cows made huge by the blood of the Titans are reared. These cows require lots of feed, giving rise to the two rival families (one breeds the cows, the other provides the feed) and the enslavement of a cat-like species to collect the feed (there are not enough people for that task).
But as the investigation would reveal, this enslavement is not limited to humans. To the races that created the Empire, other humans are just like the cat-like slaves. In the end, Ana and Din may have solved the mystery, found the real killer and saved the Empire from a family feud: but is it an Empire worthy to be saved? It is possible the author may address this in a future book.
Book read from 2026/08/11 to 2026/08/13.