Book Review: Storm Warning | David Bell

I typically love David Bell’s books. He has interesting scenarios that a regular person finds themselves in, and they tend to get much worse before they get better. His latest book Storm Watch is by far the most action-thriller that I’ve read by him, so definitely a change of pace from what I expected!

What is Storm Warning about?

A man living on a Florida barrier island must protect his family from both an approaching hurricane and a relentless killer.

Jake Powell is racing to get off the island as a powerful hurricane approaches. When he finds his best friend Dallas, the building manager, dead from a blow to the skull, Jake realizes there’s more than the storm to fear. There’s a murderer on the island, maybe even still inside the nearly abandoned building.

Dallas had repeatedly run afoul of the wealthy owners of the building by complaining about code violations and the precarious state of the condos. But he’d also once told Jake that every resident had a secret they’d come to Florida to escape. Had one of them killed to conceal their sins? As a dozen people shelter together in hopes of surviving the deadly hurricane, a second murder makes it all too clear: one of them is a dangerous killer.

What did I think?

This was my least favorite book by David Bell, though I still found it entertaining. I am not the right reader for this type of plot-driven thriller, because they are never my favorites. I’m a character-driven book girl! I’ve seen lots of love for this book, and there were plenty of things I enjoyed so don’t write it off because of anything I said!

Our main character Jake is living on a small island off the coast of Florida. Leaving behind his wife and daughter, Jake needed time away to have any hope of saving his marriage. This was supposed to be a temporary visit—Jake would live in an old apartment building set to be torn down and then eventually head back north.

Just as Jake is ready to leave, a category 3 hurricane starts barreling down upon the tiny island. Timing couldn’t be worse when he discovers his wife and daughter came to surprise him, and now all three may be trapped in the middle of a hurricane. Yikes!

Jake’s good friend Dallas is the building manager, and Jake checks on him before he is set to leave. But when he finds Dallas murdered from a blow to the head, Jake realizes there must be a murderer on the island. There were a lot of shady characters around with reasons to want Dallas dead, but the question is which one? Everyone comes to this island with a secret—no one else would settle here. As another murder occurs, the people stranded in the building must fight for their lives from not only the hurricane, but from one of their own.

I thought this was slow to get into (though not slow in pacing), because I just didn’t connect with Jake at all. As the murders began, the story gets much more interesting and from there I was curious about who was behind it all. There were plenty of suspects! The book is quick and action-packed, so I think many readers will enjoy that aspect!

This book had by-far the most surface-level characters I’ve read from Bell. I think it is fine for authors to lean into plot over characters, but that was the part of the book that lowered how I felt about it. I needed to care more about the people trapped in that building, but I didn’t.

This is an exciting and tense thriller. It’s dialogue- and action-heavy. A quick read with an entertaining plot that will appeal to those who like an action-adjacent thriller.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own.