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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE NIGHT OF THE STORM

Nishita Parekh

A Novel

A fresh take on the classic locked room thriller that follows a multi-generational Indian American family who find themselves marooned in the house with a murderer during Hurricane Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey is descending on Houston. Meanwhile, thirty-something single mom Jia Shah and her son Ishaan are having a week. The twelve-year-old has been on suspension from his new school for striking a classmate and Jia is worried that their move to Houston and her divorce from Ishaan's father is negatively impacting him. And doesn't a boy need a father?

Now there's a mandatory evacuation in their neighborhood. They pack up to ride out Harvey in Houston's tony suburb Sugarland, where Jia's sister Seema lives with her husband and toddler. The only problem? Seema's arrogant husband, Vipul, has started blowing up her phone with cheesy love poems that will soon escalate to a mortifying photo. But to ensure her son's safety from the storm Jia must steel herself and go. After all, her philandering ex back in Chicago is all too eager for Jia to make a misstep so he can snatch back custody.

Vipul's brother and sister-in-law also show up to take refuge in Sugarland. Tensions rise as quickly as the flood waters as Grandma, the family matriarch, plays favorites among her sons and their wives. The family can't seem to stop bickering and then a neighbor reeking of alcohol knocks on the door. A few hours and two dead bodies later, Jia becomes the prime suspect. Marooned in the house with a murderer, with no help available until the waters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the real culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn't commitor becomes the next victim.

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 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.
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Book

Published 2024-01-16 by Dutton Books

Book

Published 2024-01-16 by Dutton Books

Comments

This dazzling and multilayered thriller has everything: a brilliantly twisty plot laced with intelligent social commentary, a stormy and claustrophobic setting, and characters who leap off the page and into your heart. It's a thoughtful story of sisterhood, the ups and downs of single parenting, and the complexities of starting fresh in a new place... and at the same time, a wildly entertaining thriller filled with secrets and mayhem that will keep you guessing until the final page. I loved it and I can't wait to see what Nishita will write next!

Parekh's impressive debut combines a variation on the locked-room mystery with social commentary on the immigrant experience and the role of women in Indian culture.

The Night of the Storm is a heart-stopping, fast-paced murder mystery wrapped up in family drama that is irresistible. A Desi "Clue," this story dives into the life of an immigrant woman trying to survive, while all around her people are struggling under the weight of cultural expectations. I couldn't stop reading this and want more from Parekh!

The Night of the Storm achieves an impressive feat of being a suspenseful page-turner and a considered exploration of identity, migration and motherhood. Family secrets, sibling rivalries and intergenerational conflicts are given life-or-death stakes in this taut and propulsive novel.

A story of natural - and unnatural - disaster that simmers with dread from start to pulse-pounding finish. Nishita Parekh breathes fresh life into the locked-room mystery with beautifully rendered single mom Jia Shah, her ferocious love for her son, and her sharp exploration of the pressures faced by immigrant women and mothers. Atmospheric, gripping, and satisfying - a debut thriller not to be missed.

The Night of the Storm opens with a hurricane and grows tenser with every page as a single mother and her child find themselves sheltering in place with a killer. Parekh augments this pulse-pounding premise with brilliantly drawn characters who must navigate family secrets, betrayals, and the cultural complexities of being an immigrant in America. I was riveted the whole way through!

...this locked-room mystery's strength is its setting and the atmospheric tension created by the hurricane. Read more...