Interesting premise and mystery, unfortunately I found the characters hard to click with and the story’s pacing was a bit off for me. Others will definitely enjoy this one; however, it just didn’t work for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this one.

Lake Michigan is a freshwater lake. There are no bodies of saltwater closer than the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles away. Unless you’re counting the gigantic saltwater tank and the Shedd Aquarium, which Chicago Police Detective Ethan Krol is forced to think about in this puzzle of a case.

The double homicide that he’s been called to utterly defies explanation. But as the lead investigator, he’s going to be required to both explain it and solve it, regardless.

A man and his baby son have been murdered, at home in their luxury apartment. Along with a barracuda. The two humans died by drowning – in seawater, while presumably the barracuda died from lack of the same. The man’s wife, the mother of the little boy, was in a profound coma in a nearby room. There are no marks or wounds on either of the bodies, but the man has plaster dust under his fingernails.

It’s a mystery – and it’s only the first of many.

When Krol reaches out to his fellow cops in the U.S. and even Interpol looking for any similar cases ANYWHERE he feels like he’s ‘casting his bread upon the waters’ or perhaps leaping and hoping the net will appear. Both turn out to be apt metaphors.

In either case, he’s successful – at least in discovering that there are other cops with similar cases who have been left just as puzzled as he is. A case in Nigeria a few years ago involving the dead man’s brother. A similar case in Rhode Island the next day. Meanwhile, a black woman of Amazonian proportions arrives in Bristol, England out of absolutely nowhere, with a mission to find the descendants of the captain of one very, very old shipwreck for reasons that she keeps very much to herself even as she eludes the police on what seems like a criminal rampage.

As information trickles and then pours in, it becomes obvious that all these events are linked – but to what? Something that combines Sherlock Holmes’ aphorism that “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” with Occam Razor’s “simplest explanation is usually the best one,” (for really wild and improbable definitions of ‘simple’) and plugs the whole thing straight into Clarke’s Law that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Escape Rating B+: This is one of those ‘mystery wrapped in an enigma’ stories that’s very much a part of the rising wave of SF mystery, and it does an excellent job of being both by starting the story from both sides of that SF + mystery equation.

It’s not like murder in Chicago is a new thing – not even among, let’s call it the upper, upper middle class. Which puts the frame directly around the wife, because the odds are that if a spouse is murdered, the other spouse had something to do with it.

Krol knows how to do his job, figures out that the frame doesn’t fit, and keeps on with dogged police work. (I do love me a good, solid, police procedural, and this is certainly that even as the procedures lead Krol straight into SFnal territory.)

At first, it’s the SFnal side of the story that is more than a bit, well, ‘out there’. So to speak. When Abidemi Eniola appears out of nowhere outside Bristol, she’s clearly a fish out of water. She’s dressed like an extra from a gangster movie, and talks like one as well. All her words are in English but they are combined in ways that don’t make sense. Or don’t make sense anymore, like she learned the language somewhere very isolated or very much behind the times.

(She talks like an extra from the Star Trek: Original Series episode “A Piece of the Action”.)

Abi needs a guide to the world in which she has found herself, and finds that guide – as well as a surprisingly loyal friend, in Hollie Rogers. Hollie helps her navigate while never knowing what she is leading – and being led – towards.

As Krol follows the trail by discovering the victims after the fact, Abi follows the same trail by researching who those victims will be. Of course they meet in the middle.

Which is where the truth comes out. A truth that is a huge spoiler, but also a truth that asks some equally huge questions about justice vs. vengeance, acknowledgement vs. reparations, and especially about what is owed and who should pay it.

I found the winding, twisted paths of this story’s mystery utterly fascinating, even as the SFnal aspects recalled Rivers Solomon’s historical fantasy, The Deep. And I adored the historical research that led to the ultimately very SFnal conclusion.

Howsomever I have to admit that the bittersweet parting at the end threw me off just a bit. OTOH, its conclusion is utterly right for the story and ties a perfect bow around the friendship between Abi and Hollie. But the way it reaches that perfect conclusion doesn’t quite make logical sense – unless, as has been true for their entire relationship, there’s something that Abi isn’t telling Hollie because she’s afraid that the truth will be too hard to bear.

Esperance starts with a wild mystery—a father and son drown in seawater despite being nowhere near the ocean. What? How?!

The premise is super original, and I loved the way the story straddles mystery and sci-fi. Some parts really hooked me, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't struggle with the pacing. The middle dragged a bit, and I never fully connected with the characters the way I hoped to. That said, the ending made up for it—big time. It tied everything together in a way that felt clever and earned.

Oyebanji's writing has a strong voice, and I'm definitely interested in checking out more of the author's work. Esperance didn't totally wow me, but it was a unique read—and worth sticking with for the payoff.

Thank you to NetGalley and DAW Books for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Esperance is a speculative fiction novel which blends together police procedural, sci-fi and alt-history, written by Adam Oyebanji, and published by DAW Books. An impossible murder kickstarts a propulsive novel that doesn't explain much, letting the reader tie the knots between the two POVs, trusting them with a complex plot which hooks you until the end.

Detective Ethan Krol is investigating an impossible murder: a father and his son have been found drowned in seawater in a luxury condo in Chicago; at the same time, we are introduced to Abi, a mysterious woman who speaks like in the 1930s and claims to come from Nigeria, is also in the trail of this assassin, blindly followed by Hollie. Both characters will eventually cross their paths, starting a breakneck, globe spawning tale of impossible crimes, twists and turns, while they try to understand how and the motivations behind the murders.

Talking about the characters, on one hand, we have Ethan Krol, the prototypical detective that introduces us to the police procedural part of this story; struggling to understand how seawater might be in the middle of Chicago without any kind of tank, and discovering a chain of murders that he aims to stop.
On the other, we have Abi and Hollie; Hollie deeply admires Abidemi, and tries to help her as much as possible. The relationship between both is complicated, because while I think it might be a bit too fast in how it develops, it's also great to see how Abi can also get a bond with somebody that was a complete stranger when she arrived; Hollie might not understand what Abi is doing, but soon will prove her value.

We have a fast-paced thriller style of narration, softly introducing the sci-fi elements, without losing time in explaining them; the police procedural parts might be a bit too dense if you don't like the genre, but it is satisfying how Oyebanji doesn't hold readers' hand, letting them to form their own theories until the story collapses for the ending. While the reason behind the antagonist's acts might be a bit too thin (at least in terms of reasoning), it plays a good role in articulating the rest of the plot.

Esperance is a great speculative fiction novel, perfect if you prefer a softer approach to sci-fi with police procedural elements thrown in, in the style of Blake Crouch's novels; a nice standalone that I pretty much enjoyed reading!

There will be mild spoilers!

This thrilling novel grabs you and just won’t let you go until it’s done! Even though I had kind of figured out what was going on fairly quickly, the central conceit and twists and turns kept me hooked.

Ethan Krol, a detective, is called to the scene of a crime: A father and son have drowned in an apartment in Chicago. Plot twist: it’s not freshwater in and around them in the room, but ocean water. When other police departments—in Rhode Island, and Nigeria—contact Krol to tell him they have similar baffling cases, he becomes even more intrigued. And then he’s on the trail of a suspect, but it takes him far too long to realise he’s not dealing with something or someone ordinary.

A fair few recent SF works have dealt with supernatural vengeance for the trans-Atlantic slave trade (*Lost Ark Dreaming* by Suyi Davies Okungbowa and *The Deep* by Rivers Solomon come to mind). Generally in these stories, revenants come up from the deep to wreak their revenge on the living. Sometimes the plot is not centred on vengeance, though, but a reimagining of how those thrown overboard could have survived (or come back to life) and built new communities. Esperance, without giving too much away, is a bit of both.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that this is one of my favourite reads of the year. It combines many excellent things: it’s a police procedural with SF elements; Oyebanji’s tongue-in-cheek humour about oyinbos lands exactly right; and it works on the level of telling stories for healing, imagining a new narrative for descendants of enslaved people—not to mention vengeance, which is very satisfying. Oyebanji is also pitch-perfect in his writing style (with, obviously and presumably, excellent editing): There are no parts of the novel that feel extraneous or poorly written. There are no hanging threads or loose ends. Everything fits. And, finally and importantly, all of the characters in Esperance are well-developed and interesting.

This is a very smart novel, and I cannot recommend it enough. This is the reader’s dream: to come to a novel with high expectations and have them exceeded.

Thanks to DAW and NetGalley for early access.

A man from a technologically advanced world is drowning descendants of the captain and owner of the slave ship Esperance(hard from DAW) that sank during the Napoleonic era. Trying to stop him are Abidemi Eniola from his world and totally lost in ours, and Chicago Detective Ethan Krol who is trying to understand the impossible murders. Edge-of-seat excitement follows. I really liked this. Unfortunately no sequels are possible.

BOOK: ESPERANCE
AUTHOR: ADAM OYEBANJI
PUB DATE: MAY 2025
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REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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I requested this book because it's rare to see books written by Nigerians on Netgalley, and I always request books written by Nigerians about Nigeria or any other places. It's good if the requests are accepted and better if I liked the book. Well, I liked this one. The synopsis didn't prepare me for how good and suspenseful it was going to be.
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Going into this book, I thought it was just going to be a regular crime thriller book, girl, was I wrong. However, this book was a crime thriller with a fusion of sci-fi and Nigerian culture (Yoruba). I loved, loved seeing yoruba words mingled with the English ones. I could understand it because I'm yoruba, and it would have been nice if there was a glossary for others. In addition, I loved the advanced technology here, especially since it was an 'African' thing, something not regularly seen in books or mainstream media. The author did a wonderful job in describing the technology, I could imagine it, and it was amazing. Good job!
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The first murder cases were really surprising with no obvious clues. I was just as stomped as the detective. The beginning, as usual, was filled with more questions than usual for me, and I've read a lot of crime thrillers. But, then came Abidemi Eniola, a mysterious African woman with weird technology inserted in her body who arrived at England to look for a ship. I wondered how it all came together with the murders and I was satisfied with the answer I got.
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It was really worth it, reading this book; the crime thriller, the advanced African technology. It was well rounded, and I would definitely recommend it. However, it would have been better if it had been 50 pages lighter. The ending was okay, but I felt it was dragged, but it explained everything I was curious about, so I liked that and I was pleasantly surprised.
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Oooh this was a wild ride! It is brutal yet emotional, heartbreaking yet humorous, exciting yet still with well developed characters. Really, I don't think I can find a complaint for Esperance! Without giving too much away (since much of the fun is because the reader is trying to figure out the situation right alongside the detectives), there's a series of highly unsettling murders of innocent folks (this is not a spoiler- how can babies be anything but innocent, after all?) that are somehow connected, but so little is adding up. 

We follow a detective, and an initially unknown entity (as in, we don't know what her role is) and wait to see how their paths will converge. Both characters are flawed, yet both are also sympathetic (and Abi in particular is so witty, and her newfound pal will definitely crack you up). Add to it, it is absolutely impossible to not want to know whodunit, as well as the why. I also loved the historical part, and when it is all tied together, it's just done so well. Especially because it makes you think, a lot, and is so next-level morally gray that Clarke Griffin is suing for copyright infringement. 

Bottom Line: Exciting, dark, entertaining, heartfelt, and thought provoking to the core, I could not put Esperance down until I knew everything.

I found it so hard to actually care about this book, to the point were I often found myself skipping entire chapters.

As interested as I was in this book, it was just hard to care much about the plot and the characters,

Solid sci fi lite thriller. Esperance begins with a Chicago detective investigating an impossible murder. A man and his son found drowned with ocean water in a luxury condo. Soon after we’re introduced to an odd woman claiming to be from Nigeria with all kinds of odd behaviors and gadgets. After a few more inexplicable murders we end up on a journey that deftly switches between historical and cosmic.

Oyebanji is a new author for me and I really enjoyed this one. It definitely has that sci fi vein but isn’t overly in depth with the science aspects making it very accessible. The cast of characters is fairly large between our various protagonists and those impacted by their actions. I do think the story may have benefitted from a few less characters and more depth added to some of the main players. We never really get much background on the characters and at times I didn’t fully understand the motivations between them.

Overall if you like mysterious sci fi with a bit of a detective edge then I’d recommend Esperance. I found it difficult to put down and by the time Oyebanji starts revealing some of twists I was fully submerged into the book. Great read.

This book was an irresistible blend of science fiction, mystery, and police procedural. I found it to be a really good read, with twists and turns that are hard to predict and still carry quite an emotional punch with them. The elements related to race added a lot to the story, and I thought that it was an excellent ride the whole way through. Great book!

I was given an advanced reader copy of this title by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I loved the writing style and the unique suspenseful plot. Definitely recommend!

I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when I started reading Adam Oyebanji’s newest book, Esperance, but it grabbed my attention right from the start. And it starts with a most unusual crime scene. Three dead bodies on the floor of Chicago apartment on the 20th floor. A man, a baby, and a barracuda.The man and the baby seemingly drown in salt water. A seeming impossibility as there appears to be no source for the salt water, no fish tank or even bathtub in the apartment. So where and how where they drown and where is did the two foot fish come from? And what are the strange scratches on the ceiling? There was one other person in the apartment, the baby’s mother, but she can’t answer any questions. She was found unconscious in the bedroom and rushed to the hospital. And that is just the start of things. I had no idea where this sci-fi thriller would go, but it’s one heck of a tale. A wild blending of genres: part sci-fi, part detective tale, and with more than a touch of historical reference, it’s a story I won’t soon forget. Thanks so much to DAW and NetGalley for the ARC.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/esperance-adam-oyebanji/1146201962?ean=9780756419912&bvnotificationId=23a69838-36bb-11f0-a1fb-12db8c52136f&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/346785727

Adam Oyebanji writes excellent mystery&thriller novels. This one is amongst the best as it takes you on a labyrinthine ride that always makes you feel like there's something you don't know or understand.
Gripping, engrossing, and intriguing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

“Esperance" by Adam Oyebanji is a masterfully crafted sci-fi murder mystery that kept me hooked. Obeyanji seamlessly blends the intrigue of a classic whodunit with the imaginative allure of futuristic world activity, creating a narrative that is both intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant.

Oyebanji characters are richly developed, each harboring secrets and motives that add layers of complexity to the plot. Their interactions feel authentic, driven by sharp dialogue and nuanced relationships.

The pacing is impeccable, with twists and turns that genuinely surprise without feeling forced. Oyebanji meticulous attention to detail paints a vivid picture of the settings.
In conclusion, "Esperance" is a must-read for fans of both science fiction and mystery genres. Adam Obeyanji has delivered a compelling story that resonates long after the final page. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a thrilling, thought-provoking read.

Real Rating: 4.5* of five

Why you're reading this story will largely color your response to it. SFF readers might not vibe with the very significant police-procedural elements narrated by noirish Ethan the cop. Mystery readers might not love the time-travel, in the many-worlds sense, done by Abi the morally grey alternating PoV.

I'm the reader with a foot and nine toes in each of those camps, plus another entire foot in the alternate-history camp. (There are so three feet! Where? In between worlds where the vibrational body exists and has access to all body parts. Quit quibbling, this has two guys who drowned in the ocean discovered dead in their Chicago apartment!)

I'm so glad to read a thriller inflected with quantum reality, which I am all about in my reading. It felt a bit like Author Oyebanji decided this would be his book, and spent his time plotting the story to the detriment of developing either Abi or Ethan more fully. I'm okay with that because the resolution to the crime we're here to read about was so exactly aimed at me and my personal hobbyhorses. I disliked the detective Ethan's racism being foregrounded. It didn't cause any stars to disappear, but it did make me squirm. As I think that was the point of including it, I mention the fact of it for reader guidance.

Abi's intriguing back/foreground was something I'd read a whole book about all by itself. Hollie, the sidekick, was so pathetically enamored of Abi that it got a little uncomfortable. I mean, I totally get it, and I was a little bit there, too. But really cringe, Author Oyebanji, in that last bit about gbese.

What the gestalt of the book did not have, as I mentioned above, feels as though it was designed out by the author to leave the fundamental rocks under the story...not revenge, not even forgiveness can leach sin clean...in brightest contrast. It worked for me, I think it might work for all y'all who like your stories sleek, clear, and propulsively paced.

Four and a half shiny, hap

The mystery of the impossible death had me hooked from the start. But then when Abi is introduced to the story and the mystery of who she is and where she is from is brought to the pages, I couldn’t put this down. Her knowledge and her high-tech gadgets were intriguing. Her lack of knowledge of current events was concerning.

Detective Ethan Krol was an interesting character, but certainly a bit of a caricature of old school detectives (yet unfortunately still a very real classification of detectives): very dedicated to the job and a bit racist. I certainly saw some growth in his character as he got thrown into some wildly impossible situations and he began to realize just how out of his depths he might be.

Abi and Hollie’s interactions were my favorites as Hollie always was helping Abi to understand basic things that someone with knowledge of the present day would already know. The mystery certainly drove this story and I loved every second of it.

Thank you to @dawbooks and @netgalley for the eARC. All thoughts are my own.

This story opens with an impossible murder and it really hooks you with thinking about how! Starting as this thrilling police drama kicks the story off with a bang as we get new clues to the mystery. Then we get hit with a new POV from a strange person across the world and talks like she has never seen Earth before. Both of these early pieces, had me hooked as I couldn’t understand how these worlds would collide.

But, midway through i was just a little bored as this suspenseful build up just lets all of the air out. Where we aren’t getting more mystery and we aren’t solving the mystery existing. Then the next moments were predictable and didn’t hold the same exciting momentum from the start.

I really enjoyed the undertones and themes of this book. The racism, justice and inter generational trauma are all heavy topics but done well in this. I found myself in many thought provoking moments.

I do think if you are a fan of Blake Crouch stories you would strongly enjoy this as it reminded me a lot of those stories. I found myself enjoying this in the beginning but losing interest, i did think the end was good and satisfied my need for resolution but I think this missed the mark for me.

Adam Oyebanji’s first science fiction book was the generation ship Braking Day. He followed that up with a couple of accidental detective meets spy thriller novels in his Quiet Teacher series. In Esperance, Oyebanji delivers mashes these genres again delivering a twisty science fiction thriller powered by a police procedural. And it is a combination that works. Esperance is also self-contained and stand alone which is something that is becoming rarer in the speculative fiction world.
Esperance opens with an impossible crime. A Nigerian man and his baby son are found dead in a tenth storey apartment in Chicago. The impossible bit is that they apparently drowned, in the sea. Detective Ethan Krol (who has plenty of his own personal issues) is called in to this puzzling case and soon finds himself on his way to Rhode Island where a similar death has been discovered. Meanwhile a woman called Abidemi Eniola arrives in Bristol with some futuristic tech and speaking like she just stepped out of a 1930s gangster movie. Abi get some help from a local called Holly as she investigates the history of a ship called the Esperance which was docked in Bristol in the 18th Century. Unsurprisingly, these two characters will eventually clash.
Esperance is a scifi/crime mash up that is driven by some interesting ideas. Oyebanji ties the action specifically to events in the 18th century (based on a tragically true story) but also explores a clash of two very different ways of considering the concept of justice. But all of this is fuel for what is ultimately a twisty, energetic, page-turning thriller.
In Esperance, Oyebanji once again shows his deep understanding of genre conventions in the way he is able to bend, stretch and combine them to unique and interesting ends. He also anchors his action around two strong, well developed and very different characters, so that readers relish their encounter when it finally happens.

Esperance is an interesting story and a good read. While there were some aspects that didn't land for me, on balance I enjoyed reading it.

The concept is great - I love a good contemporary sci-fi with a historical mystery involved! There is a lot of intrigue right away, so it's an engaging story from the start. And I found the plot's progression and conclusion to be satisfying and suitable - which isn't always the case when a story opens with a high level of intrigue/mystery.

Most of the things that didn't work for me were in the writing style, and none of them were wrong or bad - just choices that I didn't personally care for. I considered DNFing very early on, as the opening chapters (which follow Ethan, the Chicago detective) read like someone trying to write a television police procedural, which simply isn't a genre I enjoy. Once Abidemi's story and character are introduced, though, it becomes clear that this is a stylistic choice rather than just how Oyebanji's writer's voice sounds, so it was easier for me to settle into it. (And to be fair, the police procedural voice does fade a bit as the story progresses.) I also didn't love Abi's 1930s gangster movie style of speaking - I respect the choice, the in-story rationale behind it, and the commitment to the voice throughout the novel; I just didn't love it and found it a little tiring. To Oyebanji's credit, he does a great job developing and presenting different writing styles for the different characters and storylines - these styles just weren't always my favourite.

As I said, though, on balance I did enjoy this book - the concept is solid and interesting enough to make up for the aspects that I liked less.