The Red Lotus: A Novel

“When ER doctor Alexis visits Vietnam for a bicycling tour with her boyfriend Austin, she believes they are there to see the countryside and to allow Austin to mourn an uncle who died in the Vietnam war. As the plot of Chris Bohjalian’s The Red Lotus develops, Austin’s real motivations are revealed and Alexis is forced to confront all she did not know about him while also uncovering a scheme that could result in millions of deaths.

Austin disappears within the first few pages of the novel and Alexis, along with a private investigator she hires, spend the bulk of the book unraveling the mystery of what happened. Along the way, research related to pathogens tied to the plague keeps Alexis intrigued not only by what really happened to her missing boyfriend but also by the strange and terrifying science at the heart of the story.

The book takes a few predictable turns, and an event late in the novel seems somewhat implausible given other similar moments earlier in the book, but the suspense is consistent throughout. If you have an aversion to rats, this won’t be the book for you, and in the middle of a pandemic, it may be a difficult read for some. However, if you are a fan of Bohjalian’s other work or are looking for an engrossing mystery, you are sure to enjoy The Red Lotus.”