Actual rating: 3.7

“Jenson is a better storm tracker than any of those fancy scientists down in Key West. He can feel a big one coming, just by the wind and the waves and his barometer. If he’s worried, you should be too. For that matter, all of us should.”

Vanessa Lafaye is a vivid storyteller who brings her characters to life and manages to transport the reader to the tropical heat of 1935 Florida effortlessly. 

I picked this novel up at a second hand book sale because I liked the title and the blurb intrigued me. I had never heard about it but although it deals with several heavy themes, I enjoyed reading it. I thought that the author managed to create several memorable characters and captured the racial tensions quite well. Her descriptions of the hurricane managed to convey a strong sense of its fearsome and destructive power. Although Heron Bay is a fictional town, the force 5 hurricane that hit the Florida Keys on Labour Day 1935 and the subsequent destruction and loss of life that it caused was real.

“Where’s it heading?” “Can’t tell yet. It’s playing games with us. Ships are reporting that it moves, then stops, then moves again in a different direction. Like it can’t make up its mind.”