Esperance
Adam Oyebanji
Hardcover/Ebook
ISBN: 9780756419912
DAW, May 20, 2025, 432 pgs

Ethan Krol could be any hard-nosed Chicago detective. He’s a little bit overweight, generally grumpy, very racist, but otherwise dedicated to his job and the safety of the city. When he’s called in on a murder case involving a father and son who were somehow drowned in seawater in their Illinois living room, it’s tragic and puzzling but not otherworldly. Like any thriller, the story seems to revolve around a strange, grisly murder being solved by an anti-hero cop whose personal life is in shambles, with a little help from his understanding colleagues.

Then, Abidemi Eniola appears out of nowhere in Bristol, England. She claims to be a Nigerian immigrant but speaks like she’s in an old Hollywood film, pays for things with real diamonds, and has superhuman body augmentations fuelled by nanobots. She’s also determined to find the last living descendant of the owner of a cargo ship last seen in 1791. After acquiring a street-smart goth sidekick who doesn’t ask too many questions, Abi starts an investigation of her own. When Ethan and Abi’s paths eventually cross, they find themselves confronting a killer bent on avenging an ancestral crime too horrible to forget.

A lot of books have tried to speculatively reckon with the sordid legacy and terrible crimes of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This is one of the more clever and unexpected takes on the concept. Esperance weaves science fiction, detective drama, and historical fact together to explore thoughtful themes and create a satisfying payoff. I realized where everything was going and what the big twist would be fairly early on but still wanted to see how it all came together anyway. I wasn’t disappointed. The details built to a conclusion in a way that feels earned, even though you know what’s coming. I’m not quite sure I agree entirely with the conclusion, but it makes sense and tells a good story, so I still enjoyed reading it.

This is helped by quick pacing and a deceptively light tone—for a book about slave ships; this really isn’t that heavy until the final act. Without giving too much away, Abidemi’s nano-augmentations, strange way of speaking, and general fish-out-of-water status led to some delightfully funny moments that almost distract you from how deadly and dangerous she can be due to her almost magically advanced technology. When she’s thrust into action, it’s exciting to see her move. Some of the fights and chases are cinematically suspenseful.

Ethan, on the other hand, is a lot more traditional and a lot less interesting overall. He’s meant to be an everyman lens on the science fiction weirdness that suddenly surrounds a seemingly normal murder investigation. For that purpose, he works perfectly. The book is split evenly between Abidemi’s actions and humor and Ethan’s more matter-of-fact procedural investigation. Given how far out the story gets, his presence is needed, but I did wish at the end that he was a little less by-the-numbers and matched the weirdness of the rest of the characters a little more fully.

I went into this book blind, only knowing that it was a science fiction thriller, and was pleasantly surprised at how deftly it handles culturally fraught subject matter while balancing a really interesting story and a fun cast of characters. I’d recommend it to fans of either genre but also to folks who want to read a fresh, science fictional take on post-colonial revenge stories.