Explore the saloons, brothels and Shanghai tunnels of Portland’s forgotten past with a new book that “brings fresh focus to real atrocities committed in the burgeoning American West.”

“The Girls of Good Fortune” is the latest from New York Times bestselling author Kristina McMorris, a Gresham High graduate and Portland resident.

The story is set in Oregon in 1888 and follows Celia, a half-Chinese woman passing as white, who has been “shanghaied” and is on the verge of being shipped off as forced labor. As she pieces together the twisting path that led to her abduction, revelations emerge of a child in peril. Desperate, she must find a way to escape and return to a place where unearthed secrets can prove deadlier than the dark recesses of Chinatown.

McMorris was partially inspired by the Hells Canyon Massacre of 1887, where 34 Chinese goldminers were ambushed and murdered. Despite having lived in Oregon her whole life, she had never heard of this piece of her state’s sordid history. She learned many others hadn’t heard of the massacre either, spurring her toward this latest book.

“The Girls of Good Fortune” is McMorris’ eighth novel to be published. Her debut novel, “Letters from Home,” was inspired by her grandparents World War II courtship letters. Her best-selling work was “Sold on a Monday” (2018).

The new fiction novel releases this month anywhere you enjoy buying books.