Shelf Pressure

Something strange lurks beneath the stacks.

When an aspiring mystery writer finds herself overwhelmed by an irresistible urge to use the bathroom every time she enters a bookstore, she stumbles into a bizarre phenomenon known as the Mariko-Aoki syndrome—and a far stranger mystery hiding in the store’s basement.

Part literary satire, part locked-room mystery, Shelf Pressure plunges readers into the shadowy depths of a beloved indie bookstore where plumbing problems, suppressed memories, and strange reader behaviors converge.

With dry wit, claustrophobic tension, and a uniquely bookish twist, Sunny Virdi invites you to laugh, squirm, and flip pages fast as the mystery unspools in the unlikeliest of places: the bowels of bibliophilia itself.