The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh #bookreview #thriller #suspense #drama

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Title: The Night of the Storm

Author: Nishita Parekh

Publisher: Dutton

Publication Date: January 16, 2024

Page Count:  333

My rating: 3 stars

About the book:

From debut author Nishita Parekh, a fresh take on the classic locked-room thriller, about a multigenerational Indian American family marooned in a house with a murderer during Hurricane Harvey

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. . . .

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh is a thriller novel filled with some suspense and a lot of family drama. The story in The Night of the Storm is a stormy take on a classic locked room mystery featuring a multigenerational Indian American family.

Jia Shah’s life has been uprooted quite a bit lately after going through a divorce and becoming a single parent. Now just as Jia is having problem’s with connecting with her son they both must pack up and evacuate from the incoming hurricane.

The last place Jia wants to be heading is to her sister Seema’s massive house in Sugar Land but the hurricane is giving her no choice if she wants to keep herself and her son safe. Jia is worried that Seema’s husband has been a little to forward lately and with enough on her plate with her ex the close quarters with the entire family may be a bit too much to take.

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh is one that certainly started off pulling me right into the setting and story and I wish that I could say I kept up that excitement all the way through. I think this one was just layered with a little too much of the drama and not enough of the thrill for me. It almost felt as if it was all just a little too too much if that makes sense at all without me going into details. By the end I just felt this was an ok novel but not one that totally wowed me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Nishita Parekh immigrated to the U.S. from Mumbai in her teens and now resides in Texas with her family. She is a software programmer by day but a writer at heart. She is an active member of Crime Writers of Color, Sisters of Crime, a #RevPit contest winner, and loves writing about her experiences as a woman and immigrant. The Night of the Storm is her first novel.

A free excerpt for the novel was featured in Buzz Books 2023 and can be downloaded here: https://publun.ch/BuzzBook23