The Storm

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. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary. (Jan.)