Fiction

Young and ambitious, Tayo Dabi is a rising star at Regent Detective Agency where she is a trainee detective. Driven by her passion to solve crimes – even as her brother’s murderer walks free – Tayo immerses herself in the job, delivering results that belie her newbie status.

But when Tayo is assigned a new, high-profile case, her confidence is shaken. Lawrence Gbade, a popular, wealthy contractor is murdered in his home, and as Tayo digs deeper things become less certain. Was Gbade’s murder a robbery gone wrong, or something much more sinister? Even as self-doubt sets in, Tayo has to battle resentment from older, more experienced detectives, an obnoxious male colleague and her growing attraction to Tony, the victim’s brother.

Romance meets crime thriller in this gripping story of betrayal, rage and the facades we put up to hide our true selves.

Taramade Johnson seems to have it all. But she is stuck in a dead-end marriage, consumed by her desire for Adam Okoya, a male colleague, and burdened with a secret that could cause her to lose everything.

Things start to come undone when it is revealed that the Johnsons’ Marine Compact Bank, led by the tyrannical Damelda Johnson, Taramade’s mother-in-law, is not as healthy as it would appear. A bureaucratic reformer, Banke Olumide, soon emerges and takes Damelda’s place as MD of the troubled bank.

Meanwhile, Damelda retires to hatch a plan that will put control of the bank in her grip again. But there are others who want the bank just as much as Damelda does. And for some, it is a battle worth dying – or killing – for.

Expert In All Styles explores, in richly-textured stories, the complex and often painful struggles of individuals with desire, despair, and hope within the social constructs of contemporary Nigeria.

The twelve stories in the collection range in setting and tone – from the joys of a family excursion in Maiduguri in The Lake Chad Club to an American-Nigerian family’s return to Lagos in Communicable Disease.
In this gorgeously crafted debut, Echeruo interrogates the dynamics of power – from the intimacies of domestic life, to the machinations of national politics and the fervour of religion – seeking always an understanding of the human condition.

Expert In All Styles is a thoughtful, incisive collection with memorably-drawn characters whose lives are as universal as they are particular.

Tall Tales is a collection of short stories that cover a diverse spectrum of experiences with emphasis on dark humour and exaggerations. The stories are full of humour, and bubbly with unforgettable characters. The first three stories (Query, Jekyll and Hyde and Monthly Performance Review) are based on the experiences of a banker as he carries out his daily duties.

Electric Pole highlights the bizarre ways life is lived and lost in contemporary Nigeria. Chronic Hunger is about the irony of life through the eyes of a starving 13 year old. New Money paints a picture of a dysfunctional society that blindly lusts after wealth regardless of its source. Child Abuse details a typical day in the life of a house girl but with a twist in the end. Sanitation Day is a satire of sorts. People have become one with filth with disastrous consequences.

In The Dream, the protagonist has a vivid dream about an eccentric spinster and her mango tree. Just a Little Robbery is about three boys who decide to rob a mall, only for one of them to encounter unwanted consequences. In The lift, a young woman enters a car ride that rapidly becomes a life and death struggle with a lunatic. When John’s car broke down in an unknown terrain, the sight of one lonely house was more than welcome. However, he soon discovers that all is not as it seems in the Half Way House. In Weight Problems, things go from bad to worse for an obese lady keen on suicide. Farewell Party is set in the far future, where perfection is everything and flaws are not allowed.