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Week of May 19, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of May 19th include LIES AND WEDDINGS by Kevin Kwan, an outrageous comedy of manners about a forbidden affair that erupts volcanically amid a decadent tropical wedding; MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT, a jaw-dropping thriller from Riley Sager, in which a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend --- and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood; Taffy Brodesser-Akner's LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE, an exhilarating novel about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance; and the paperback original WHISTLE by Linwood Barclay, a supernatural chiller in which a woman and her young son move to a small town looking for a fresh start, only to be haunted by disturbing events and strange visions when they find a mysterious train set in a storage shed.

Kristina McMorris, author of The Girls of Good Fortune

Oregon, 1888. Amid the subterranean labyrinth of Portland's notorious Shanghai Tunnels, a woman awakens in an underground cell, drugged and disguised. Celia soon realizes she's a "shanghaied" victim on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor. Although well accustomed to adapting for survival --- being half-Chinese, passing as white during an era fraught with anti-Chinese sentiment --- she fears that far more than her own fate hangs in the balance. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, revelations emerge of a child left in peril. Desperate, Celia must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown.