THE NIGERWIFE

A British woman goes missing in Nigeria in this solid thriller.

Nicole Oruwari has lived in Lagos, Nigeria, for seven years, but she’s never really felt quite at home. The Black British woman moved to the city with her husband, Tonye, where they planned to raise their two sons in the palatial home of Tonye’s family. Nicole is a member of the Nigerwives, a group of foreign women in the city married to Nigerian men, and most of her social life revolves around the organization’s parties, seminars, and fundraisers. When one of her friends from the group suddenly leaves the country, Nicole withdraws and starts showing signs of depression: “The days went quickly and then not quickly enough….The hours passed in a haze. It didn’t seem to matter whether she stayed in bed or not.” Her relationship with Tonye begins to sour after she discovers bondage gear in his suitcase and a hotel receipt in his blazer; he gaslights her, and she eventually starts seeing a man named Elias—then she disappears after a boat trip. Enter Nicole’s estranged Auntie Claudine, a Londoner who flies to Lagos determined to track her niece down. She finds Tonye, his family, and the police unhelpful and suspicious, and Nicole’s friends fail to ease her mind with pronouncements like “All I’ll say is people in Lagos are not what you think. Everyone is hiding behind a façade that matters more than the truth. We play our roles too well.” But every blind alley and dodged question make her more determined to find out what happened to her niece. Walters is gifted at building suspense, and the novel’s ending is legitimately surprising. Her prose is fine, but her dialogue—sometimes funny—is the novel’s real treat. This is a more than competent thriller; it’s not earth-shattering, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s a satisfying thriller that works on its own terms.

A surprising ending and well-done dialogue make this a perfectly good way to spend a night or two.