Esperance

The murder seems impossible—two victims drowned in seawater, found in a Chicago high-rise more than 600 miles from the nearest body of saltwater. More murders follow in Rhode Island and Nigeria. The only link between the victims, the murderer, and the woman chasing them all is their descent from a long-sunk ship that carried enslaved people and left behind a terrible legacy of guilt, grief, and a debt that must be paid—one drowning at a time. Oyebanji (Braking Day) skillfully blends the speculative and mystery aspects of the story into a compelling whole: the dogged determination of a cop in way over his head, set against a seemingly superpowered criminal dead-set on writing an old wrong, even as a woman out of her own time and place chases after them both, hoping to stop one or the other to expiate her own sins.