- Available Now
- Newly Added eBooks
- Most Popular eBooks
- Try Something Different
- See all ebooks collections
- Available Now
- Newly Added Audiobooks
- Most Popular Audiobooks
- Try Something Different
- See all audiobooks collections
1 of 1 copy available
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. . . .
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
January 16, 2024 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593786819
- File size: 288788 KB
- Duration: 10:01:38
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
November 6, 2023
Parekh’s disappointing debut squanders her intriguing idea to set a closed-circle mystery in Houston, Tex., during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Jia Shah, recently divorced and stuck in a dull data-entry job, is struggling to raise her teenage son, Ishaan, who’s just been suspended from school. Jia’s worries that the suspension might threaten her custody of Ishaan, which her ex-husband is contesting, are displaced by frantic news reports about the hurricane. Fearing her home will be flooded and possibly destroyed, Jia heads to her sister Seema’s house, where Jia and Ishaan try to ride out the storm along with Seema’s family. Adding to Jia’s anxiety is her clandestine entanglement with Seema’s husband, Vipul—the details of which are gradually revealed to the reader. Reports that burglars are targeting abandoned homes near Seema’s escalate tensions further. As the storm worsens, one of Seema’s neighbors joins the family for refuge, and someone in the home is killed. Parekh’s strong concept gets bogged down in mostly milquetoast family drama, and the final solution isn’t worth the slog. There are signs here that Parekh has a bright future, but this misses the mark. Agent: Lori Galvin, Aevitas Creative.
-