A whip-smart thriller in the vein of Blake Crouch, Andy Weir, and Neal Stephenson, ESPERANCE plumbs the depths of a seemingly impossible crime rooted in racism, intergenerational trauma, and an inhuman concept of justice.

ESPERANCE
by Adam Oyebanji
DAW US; Quercus UK, May 2025
(via JABberwocky)

Detective Ethan Krol is on the twentieth floor of a Chicago apartment building. A father and son have been found dead—their lungs full of sea water hundreds of miles from the ocean.

Abidemi Eniola has arrived in Bristol, England. She claims to be Nigerian, but her accent is wrong and she can do remarkable things with technology, things that Abi’s new friend, Hollie Rogers, has never seen before. Abi is in possession of a number of heirlooms that need to be returned to their rightful owners and Hollie is more than happy to go along for the ride.

But neither Abidemi Eniola nor her heirlooms are quite what they seem. Abidemi is a target of Ethan Krol’s investigations and Hollie’s life is about to become far more uncomfortable than she bargained for. In a clash of cultures, and histories and different ideas about right and wrong, Hollie’s safety is very much at risk. Someone’s justice will have to give way, and the consequences will be deadly.

Of Scottish and Nigerian descent, Adam Oyebanji is an escapee from Birmingham University and Harvard Law School. He currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA with a wife, child, and two embarrassingly large dogs. When he’s not out among the stars, Adam works in the field of counter-terrorist financing: helping banks choke off the money supply that builds weapons of mass destruction, narcotics empires, and human trafficking networks.