The Storm
A Novel
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4.4 • 63 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A January 2026 Indie Next Pick • "This gripping page-turner feels like it was ripped from the juiciest headlines." —People • "Sexy and full of surprises...an ideal curl-up-by-the-fire read." —Real Simple
Hurricane season can be murder...
St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town, the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms, and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984.
When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunnit than in how a successful true crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. With him is none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all, but the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.
As the summer heats up and another monster storm begins twisting its way towards St. Medard’s Bay, Geneva learns that some people can be just as destructive—and as deadly—as any hurricane, and that the truth of what happened to Landon Fitzroy may not be the only secret Lo is keeping…
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A small Alabama town’s dark secrets surface during the buildup to a hurricane in this atmospheric mystery. When writer August Fletcher comes to St. Medard’s Bay to investigate an unsolved murder, he brings with him Lo Bailey, the local woman accused of killing her wealthy, politically connected lover decades ago during the infamous Hurricane Maria in 1984. All innkeeper Geneva Corliss cares about is whether the book August’s writing will bring some business, but as another hurricane bears down, she discovers more secrets buried along Alabama’s stormy Gulf Coast. Author Rachel Hawkins keenly understands the ways lives intermingle in small Southern towns, using the complicated histories of the town’s women and their struggles with love and wealth to drive this classic mystery. By beautifully layering relationships that go back to childhood, Hawkins weaves a taut web of suspense. Thanks to a talented cast of narrators, The Storm’s women become real, and the tension becomes deadly, making for an undeniable thrill ride.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A woman returns to the Alabama tourist town where she was humiliated decades earlier in this sleek suspense novel from Hawkins (The Heiress). In 1984, Landon Fitzroy, political hopeful and son of Alabama's governor, died under mysterious circumstances in the gulf town of St. Medard's Bay. His mistress, 19-year-old Lo Bailey, was accused of killing him, but a highly publicized trial acquitted her of wrongdoing—though that hardly stopped the rumor mill. Now, 41 years later, Lo returns to St. Medard's Bay with writer August Fletcher in tow. The pair take up residence at the Rosalie Inn, now run by Geneva—the daughter of Lo's childhood friend, Ellen—who starts to suspect that Lo might be more interested in revenge than correcting the record in print. Hawkins toggles back and forth between Lo's return to St. Medard's Bay and the days leading up to Landon's death, marking each timeline with the name of a contemporaneous hurricane. She shrewdly orchestrates the plot twists in each story line, folding in letters, emails, newspaper articles, and excerpts from August's unfinished manuscript to raise new questions and ratchet up suspense. When the pieces finally click into place, readers will be more than satisfied.
