Esperance

Esperance

Adam Oyebanji

#5896 of 8,085 books · #1346 in Science Fiction

Shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Speculative Fiction (2025).

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. 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 away 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 her 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. Abi is a target of Ethan Krol's investigations, and Hollie's life is about to become far stranger than she bargained for. In a clash of cultures, histories, and different ideas about justice, the consequences will be deadly…