The Night Of The Storm is a thrilling ride. This was the perfect locked room mystery with so many unique parts to it. The hurricane, itself, is its own character and adds so much tension to an already tense situation. I was interested in seeing how Parekh would get to the conclusion and I was surprised and completely satisfied.

Recently divorced, Jia is struggling to make ends meet as a single mother. Her son Ishaan has been suspended from school, and her ex has been threatening to get full custody. The threat of a deadly hurricane forces her to evacuate and take shelter at her sister, Seema's, which is the last thing she wants to do. Seema's husband, Vipul, has been a bit too friendly and flirty with Jia recently. The thought of being stuck in their home all night puts her on edge. Vipul's younger brother and his wife are also at the house. Seema's mother in law dotes on her other daughter in law, causing extra tension within the home. When a mysterious neighbor shows up at the door, and then someone ends up dead, Jia realizes that surviving the storm may be the least of her worries.

Dysfunctional family drama, murder, and surviving a natural disaster are just some of the angles of this wild story. This book kept me engaged and guessing the whole time. The ending was satisfying, but the "surprise" twist at the end fell a bit flat.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This story had promise for me because it takes place during Hurricane Harvey in Houston and I was living there then. But then this story just turned into a bunch of family drama and was just kind of all over the place for me.

I did enjoy the Indian background and details because I don’t really know anything about it, so it was nice to see a book focused around that. Good book for people who want BIPOC, like family drama and locked door thrillers.

Thank you NetGalley, Dutton Books and author Nishita Parekh for this gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.

Hurricane Harvey has just hit Texas in this exciting and isolated thriller, The Night of the Storm. Jia, a single mother, and her son go to her sister’s house to wait out the storm with some other people, but things aren’t what they seem. As the neighborhood quickly floods and people in the house begin to die, Jia realizes that she can’t trust her own family and friends.

I can never complain about a quick and addictive thriller, and The Night of the Storm was both of those things. I do feel as though I had to suspend some of my disbelief with a few aspects of this book, but I am totally okay with doing so sometimes when I’m really enjoying something. I’m a big fan of locked room mysteries/thrillers, but I think I’ve only read one that utilizes a natural disaster/dangerous weather to do so. I read it in just a couple of sittings and will be interested to see what the author writes next!

CW for murder, death, cheating, divorce, unwanted advances.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dutton for the ARC of the Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh.

As a lover of mystery novels, I approached The Night of The Storm, touted as a classic locked-room thriller set amidst the chaos of Hurricane Harvey, with eager anticipation. However, my excitement soon turned to disappointment as I delved deeper into the narrative.

The premise of a multigenerational Indian American family trapped in a house with a murderer during a hurricane promised an intriguing and suspenseful tale. Regrettably, the execution fell short of expectations, leaving much to be desired.

One of the primary issues I encountered was with the characterization, particularly that of the main protagonist, a mother grappling with the possibility of losing her son. While I understand the intention to evoke empathy and tension, I found the incessant focus on this aspect to be overwhelming and detracting from the core mystery. As a mother myself, it was disheartening to see the character's thoughts monopolized by this singular concern, ultimately overshadowing the development of the plot.

Furthermore, the reactions of the characters to the unfolding events felt remarkably out of place. After the initial incident occurred, the lack of genuine concern and the characters' nonchalant demeanor failed to resonate with the gravity of the situation. This inconsistency in their behavior undermined the credibility of the narrative and hindered my immersion in the story.

Additionally, as a resident who experienced the devastation wrought by Hurricane Harvey firsthand, I was disappointed by the superficial treatment of this catastrophic event within the novel. Rather than respectfully acknowledging the real-life struggles and hardships endured by countless individuals, the author opted to use it merely as a backdrop for their narrative, turning a tragedy into a mere spectacle for entertainment purposes. This lack of sensitivity and depth further detracted from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Nishita Parekh for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My first by this author and won’t be my last. This book has it all…a stormy ambiance, family drama, and murder! Kept me guessing until the end.

I love a locked room mystery, so naturally I was excited to pick this one up. However, I feel like it missed the mark. The pacing was off. It jumped around from present to flashback within every other paragraph and it was hard to follow because of it. I found myself not caring at all about the characters. The main twist was blatantly obvious. I will say I enjoyed the smaller twist at the very end so all in all I'd say 2.75 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Nishita Parekh, and Dutton Publishing for an early copy of this book!

Thank you Netgalley, Nishita Parekh, and Penguin Group Dutton for the advanced reader ebook! This was a wild ride with so many twists. I love a dark thriller with a storm in the background! Did not disappoint!

4.25⭐️

I really enjoyed the “locked room” thriller with the twist of being set during a hurricane. I called some of the twists, while others took me by surprise. Overall a really good thriller, though I feel it could have been slightly shorter and not lost anything.

I wish the writing were stronger and more polished—there are a noticeable amount of plot hole and inconsistencies as well as some clunky prose—because the narrative drive is compelling. The tense atmosphere is described well, as are the family/cultural dynamics, so this was both a quick and entertaining read.

The Night of the Storm is a twisty, atmospheric, compulsively readable family-drama-meets-locked-room-mystery set against the backdrop of hurricane Harvey. I was hooked from the start, and completely absorbed all the way to the dramatic conclusion. I enjoyed the Indian cultural references, and the skillful descriptive writing brought the story and the tense, storm-lashed setting to vivid life. The characters were intriguing, as were all their complicated dynamics. And the pacing was taut and compelling, with just enough red herrings and twists to keep you guessing, although I did correctly identify a few plot elements very early on. I didn't love that the ex husband was given a pass for some really gross behavior, and one of the surprise alliances didn't quite ring true for me, but overall I had a great time with this book and I look forward to reading more from this talented and promising author.

I'm thankful to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with a free advance reader copy of the book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

This audiobook took me a little bit to get into. As I got further into it, I was hooked. Jia and her son go stay at her sister's house when a strong hurricane moves into the area. They were strongly encouraged to evacuate, but they were going to ride it out. Jia's brother-in-law has been acting inappropriately with her and she is hesitant to stay at their house. The mother is very strong willed and prefers traditions. The news is reporting break ins and it makes everyone in the house edgy. The neighbor comes over and they are all suspicious of him. This book is filled with one mishap after another. Just when you think you know who did what, you are left doubting yourself. There are so many family secrets and the lies all come forth at the end. I enjoyed the audiobook and the characters.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read this as an arc.

The mystery/suspense market tends to skew white, so I was excited to see this debut by an author of color. The Night of the Storm is a tale of family, betrayal, and the importance of listening to weather alerts.

A recent transplant from Chicago to Houston, single mom Jia Shah is in no way ready for her first major storm. She hasn’t even stocked up on bottled water! But when Hurricane Harvey decides to drop in for a visit, she has no choice but to start making some hard decisions. Harvey didn’t exactly pick the best time to stop by – her ex-husband has decided to reevaluate their custody agreement, and Jia, already struggling to make ends meet, isn’t sure where the funds will come from to wage this latest legal battle. Naturally, this is the moment her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan “chooses” to get suspended from school for fighting. Given that, Jia believes if she doesn’t make good decisions on how to handle this crisis, she may be deemed unfit and lose her son.

Her initial plan is for the two of them to wait out the bad weather in their home, but lo and behold, no sooner does she secure the necessary supplies than her apartment complex is placed under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia has no choice but to head to her sister Seema’s house just twenty minutes away. It’s not an ideal situation. Seema’s husband, Vipul, has taken to dropping by Jia’s place, ostensibly to help her and Ishaan, but his visits have taken on an undercurrent that has her deeply worried. Jia has no options left, however, since she has waited too long to leave town. She reluctantly heads to the multi-million-dollar mansion in Sugarland where her family is holed up.

It’s a full house. In addition to the regular residents (Seema and her husband, Grandma (Seema’s mother-in-law), and Seema’s daughter Asha), Vipul’s brother Raj and his (white) wife Lisa are also waiting out the squall there. It comes as a shock to most of them when they learn that the neighborhood is under a mandatory evacuation. Vipul and Seema had made it sound safe simply because Vipul refuses to leave. Only one other house in the area is occupied – the neighbor that Vipul has a beef with is also choosing to stand his ground rather than leaving his home to possible looters. Jia is far more concerned about the rising waters gushing down the street than vandals. Vipul and Seema live on a hill, but will that really keep them from being caught by flooding?

When an unexpected guest joins their party, the already tense atmosphere becomes nearly unbearable. And then people start dying, and Jia realizes that she just might have been safer trying to outrun the storm than she is sheltering from it in that house.

The mystery here is caused by and secondary to the family dynamics. And this is one messed up family. To Jia, our viewpoint character, most of the ills in her world are caused by Indian men. According to her:

“The British set up the first railway track, paving the way for modern transportation, but they turned a blind eye to the nation’s social ills and failed to modernize the fabric of the country they ruled for a hundred years. The southern and northern parts of the country each had their own flavors of this injustice. Whereas a North Indian woman came home after an eight-hour shift and proceeded to whip out rotis like a machine, the woman in South India woke up before everyone else to serve rice crepes for breakfast.”

Jia complains that:

“A country whose citizens ardently worshipped a thousand goddesses and elected a female prime minister in the 80s had collectively decided that not being born would always be a more appealing option than being born female.”

These attitudes, in Jia’s mind, are why she, as a divorced woman, is not a valued part of the Indian community, and her sister, who has born only one girl child in a ten-year marriage, is despised by Grandma.

In fairness, there are plenty of other reasons to dislike Seema and Jia. Jia, after upending her child’s life, is quick to accuse and verbally abuse him for every imagined slight he commits. She has sole custody and refuses any contact between Ishaan and her ex-husband Dev, thus cutting off a loving relationship between father and son with almost no warning and with absolutely no explanation. She has also refused to listen to Ishaan regarding any of the issues he is facing. Jia insists she loves him, but her behavior in no way indicates that.

We also spend the bulk of the text hearing what a great guy Dev is – an ever-present and engaged father, the kind of man who took care of all the maintenance for his wife’s car, cleaned snow from the driveway before heading to work, was funny and kind – but being kept in the dark as to just why Jia divorced him. When we finally learn what happened, it is pretty horrifying, but what is even more horrifying is that Jia cares only about herself in the aftermath. She doesn’t report the crime, nor does she take responsibility for her part in it, and in the end, overturns the one choice she had made to punish the perpetrator. That is to become a pattern for her.

Seema is shallow and selfish. Vipul is wealthy but old and ugly, and Seema happily spends his money while despising him. When we learn the full extent of what is happening with her, it is as horrifying as we have learned about Jia. This makes the ending, where Jia essentially colludes with Grandma and Raj to help Seema – since Asha allegedly needs her mother – both unbelievable and appalling.

To be clear, Seema and Jia are not the kind of wicked interesting that is the hallmark of today’s suspense market. They are petty, somewhat dim, and completely self-absorbed. But while I didn’t like them, I was impressed with the mystery. The writing is amazing, and Ms. Parekh does a lovely job of creating a well-paced, atmospheric locked-room thriller. The personalities of all the characters mesh feverishly together to set up the perfect storm that becomes their lives as they seek refuge from the wind and rain destroying the world outside their oasis. All the little pieces of past hurts and current tensions are skillfully woven into a tapestry that is taut, suspenseful, and believable. That these things all happen in this family is totally understandable – everyone but the children are deeply flawed, and it seems almost inevitable that this would be the result of the adults being forced to isolate as a group.

The outstanding mystery and intriguing look at how culture plays into human dynamics make The Night of the Storm worth a limited recommendation. The irritating leads can make it a slog to get through at times, and the ending is a tad difficult to accept, but if you can manage that, readers who like suspense stories centered around dysfunctional families should enjoy it.

I was excited to read this one with a lock room feel especially since I’m claustrophobic. There was a lot of drama going on in here which I thought we wouldn’t more about the storm and the murder. We were more submerged into the lives of the characters such as Jia and her drama. Jia was a very unlikeable character in the book. Over the book was ok for me.

Thank you to Dutton Books for an advance copy of The Night of the Storm.

Hurricane Harvey is on its way to Houston and that’s not the only storm Jia is facing. Jia is an Indian American single mom who is also divorced - two things that are frowned upon big time within her family & community. To add insult to injury, her pre-teen son was just suspended from school for fighting. With their home being in an evacuation zone and nowhere else to go, Jia reluctantly agrees to go to her sister’s house in the fancy suburbs of Houston despite feeling uncomfortable around her brother-in-law Vipul and some of his past interactions with her. There they join Vipul and Seema, their young daughter, and Vipul’s mother.

Not long after Vipul’s brother and his wife also show up and things grow even more tense and Grandma has always played favorites - amongst the son’s as well as their wives. As the flooding intensifies outside, a body turns up in Seema & Vipul’s home and everyone is left wondering if it was an accident or if one of them is actually a murderer. Jia goes on the defense, determined to keep her son safe and prove her worth as a mother and independent woman while they wait out the storm.


Well that was quite a debut! Nishita gives us a tense, suffocating, and slow burn thriller with an explosive finale that I did not see coming. The combination of so many claustrophobic events sets a whole mood for this book - a storm that requires sheltering in place, being forced into a setting with someone who makes you uncomfortable, someone who judges you, people you can’t relate to, outside forces beyond your control, feelings of adequacy, and more leave readers feeling trapped right alongside Jia.

Despite loving this book, Jia was not my favorite character. I typically like my female MC’s to be a little more sure of themselves and a tad more mature and Jia read like a YA FMC. However, given the context clues into Jia’s past, it’s understandable that she would present as a weaker character. The upside to this is that we do get to see quite a transformation in her throughout the book proving that once again, that we can endure and overcome experiences we never thought possible.

I know that a lot of people aren’t a big fan of the slow burn thriller trend we’ve been seeing lately or locked room thrillers as they can be very hit or miss, but I think Nishita was successful in both aspects and I am definitely looking forward to what she comes up with next!

3.5 Stars

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

This started out promising - single mother, Jia, is in the middle of a custody battle over her troubled adolescent son, has money issues, and is being harassed by her brother-in-law. All of this is happening as a catastrophic storm is getting ready to hit, forcing her and her son to seek shelter at her much more affluent sister’s house. With the brother-in-law, of course.
Unfortunately, it went downhill pretty quickly. Jia seemed to make one stupid decision after another, until it became almost impossible to sympathize with her. Then the plot (which seemed good enough in the beginning with the dysfunctional family dynamics) started getting more and more ridiculous - murder, scheming, backstabbing; pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.
Ultimately, a disappointment.
Thanks to #netgalley and #duttonpublishing for this #arc of #thenightofthestorm in exchange for an honest review.

** spoiler alert ** This locked-room mystery is the debut effort of Nishita Parekh, and a solid outing.

Jia Shah, newly divorced, has moved to Houston with her son, Ishaan, to be nearer her sister's family. As Hurricane Harvey bears down on the Texas Gulf Coast, the sister, Seema, urges Jia and Ishaan to leave their apartment and come shelter at her large home in a fancy suburb.

Also in the house are Seema's husband and daughter, her mother-in-law and brother-in-law and sister-in-law. As the storm waters rise, this extended Indian-American family (and one stranger) are stranded together. Is Jia's ex, Dev, lurking about, causing trouble? What's up with the stranger?

The pace of this novel is brisk, and I enjoyed the author's insights into the extended family dynamics and immigrant experience. With not one but two murders by the end of the book, I thought the plot got a bit over-complicated. But it was a fun read.

I received an early review copy from NetGalley.

This was the first book I have read by this author and I will be looking for more! I loved this book and the twists and turns!! I have considered this book one of my top reads in January! I would definitely recommend this book.

The Night of the Storm is a super tense read that focuses relationships gone awry, cultural tension, and lots of drama. I enjoyed the "lock-room mystery" trope, but I was disappointed with the characters, particularly Jia. I found her logic questionable, and she overall appears very weak (but will suddenly have a moment of strength or confrontation, and then go back to being relatively weak). I did appreciate the complexity of her situation and tension created for her internally as a mother with the pressure to always make the right decision for her son. Overall, this was a solid 3-star read for me.