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A Trade of Blood

Robert Jackson Bennett

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 spilled, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos.

To deescalate 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 …

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 spilled, the whole of the empire may be plunged into starvation and chaos.

To deescalate 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.

Engllish language

Published Aug. 11, 2026 by Del Rey.

ASIN:: B0FSJRWLY2

Reviews

Soh Kam Yung reviewed A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennett

A murder mystery that turns into an infection of the system.

4 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 …

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.

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