Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Houston. Meanwhile, single mom Jia Shah is already having a rough week: her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan, has just been suspended from school for getting in a fight. Still reeling from the fallout of her divorce—their move to Houston, her family’s disapproval, the struggle to make ends meet on her own—now Jia is worried about Ishaan’s future, too. Will her solo parenting be enough? Doesn’t a boy need a father?
And now their apartment complex is under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia’s sister, Seema, has invited them to hunker down in her fancy house in Sugar Land, and despite Jia’s misgivings—Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been just a little too friendly with her lately—Jia concedes it’s probably the best place to keep Ishaan safe during the hurricane. With Jia’s philandering ex scrutinizing her every move, all too eager to snatch back custody of Ishaan, she can’t afford to make a mistake.
When Vipul’s brother and his wife show up on Seema’s doorstep, too, it’s a recipe for disaster. Grandma, the family matriarch, has never been shy about playing favorites among her sons and their wives. As the storm escalates, tensions rise quickly, and soon someone’s dead. Was it a horrible accident or is there a murderer in their midst?
With no help available until the floodwaters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn’t commit—or becomes the next victim. . . .
Release Date: Jan 16, 2023
Publisher:Â Penguin Group
Imprint: Dutton
Price: $14.99
Jia Shah is a newly divorced Indian-American mother of a teenager. She decided to give her and her son Ishaan a fresh start by moving from Chicago to Houston. Even though her sister, Seema, also lives in Houston, Jia and Ishaan aren’t having an easy time adapting to their new life. When Hurricane Harvey strikes the area, Jia and Ishaan accept shelter with her sister and her extended family to ride out the storm. Jia is hiding a secret from Seema, but she isn’t the only one with something to hide. Now in addition to navigating family tensions, it seems there is a murderer in the house and everyone else is now in danger.
The Night of the Storm includes a murder mystery, but I would classify most of the book as a domestic drama as opposed to a mystery or a thriller. Things would already be complicated between the characters, but everyone staying together worrying about the storm makes things even more tense. I didn’t really warm to Jia or most of the other characters. You weren’t supposed to like some of the characters, but there were only one or two out of all of the characters that I was rooting for. Jia overreacts to almost everything, so it’s hard to tell the red flags from the red herrings when Jia tries to figure out who the killer is.
I enjoyed learning about the Indian-American customs that are mentioned throughout the story. I appreciated Jia’s insights about one of the characters who isn’t Indian trying to fit in with her husband’s Indian family, reminding her of how she felt as a U.S. immigrant. However, sometimes Jia had too many observations and asides that slowed the pace of the book. I am glad the suspense picks up as the storm continues. I like the dramatic showdown near the end of the story as well as the book’s shocking ending which helped raise my rating of the book.
~ Christine
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