SPOILERS
Chris Bohjalian writes potboilers designed to become TV movies or series in which each episode or each break for a commercial needs a cliffhanger to keep us tuned in. Red Lotus is making the book club rounds but has yet to join other Bohjalian novels like Flight Attendant and Midwives on the screen, but I can imagine the agent’s pitch. We have a romance between an attractive ER doctor (usually called “the ER Doctor” so we don’t mistake her for a nurse) and an athletic pharmaceutical researcher of dubious character. We have an exotic setting in Vietnam. We have hospital drama. We have a mental illness involving scalpels. We have the tragic loss of a parent. We have the tragic loss of a daughter. We have mommy issues. We have a private eye. And best of all, we have rats and a plague.
I must stop because the referee just penalized Bohjalian fifteen yards for piling on. ( )

DNF ( )

Chris Bohjalian constantly follows the darker side of humanity that this reader finds distressing. I had read The Flight Attendant and now look at the airline employees in a different light. This somber novel deals with rats, their ability to adapt, and the spending of plagues. Exactly what a person needs to read in the wake of the global pandemic with Covid. The small chapter fillers in between the regular chapters covered the evolution of rats. An interesting discussion, but one of terror. The story ends with very little hope for humanity in the wake of greed, hunger, and power. Alexis, the main character, works as an ER doctor in New York. Her father died while Alexis was still young. Her mother, Dina Remnick, works hard to provide for herself and her young daughter. Enter, Austin Harper, a salesman, who could sell snow to an Eskimo. While Alexis and Austin bicycle in Viet Nam, Austin disappears. Later, Austin and his bicycle are found, and the saga begins. So many people circle around Alexis and her quest to discover the truth of Austin. What does the story leave the reader? Trust no one. The good guys die in the end. A very foreboding story. ( )

WOW....didn't know where this was going. Kind of freaky coming out on the heels of Covid. Reminds me a bit of some of Robin Cook's novels. No spoilers here, but begins as a nice couple on a bike trip!! Held my interest. I different turn of subject for this author. ( )

It appeared that the author has done his study on the bacteria plague and antibiotics. It is an scenario on the extreme, but it serves well as cautionary tale. ( )

For a thriller about a pandemic, it was rather plodding and flat. ( )

Great story ( )

Alexis's boyfriend Austin is killed in a hit and run while they are on a bicycling trip in Vietnam. But there turns out to be a lot more to the story! Austin doesn't seem to be who he said he was. It turns out some of other characters in the book aren't either--and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out who the "good guys" were. I guess Alexis does too--and I wish she had gotten there faster. As usual with this author, I couldn't put the book down, as the mystery travels from Vietnam to the US, and back again. Quite the ride! ( )

"But I know well that no good ever comes from mistaking manners for kindness."

I read a lot of thrillers and I realized a while ago that what makes them really resonate with me is great characters who develop over the story and experience moments of real emotion. When I have bought into the characters and feel that emotional pull that is when the book rises above being an "airplane read" and becomes a book I truly enjoy. Chris Bohjalian does that wonderfully in "The Red Lotus." He also nails the thriller/mystery part of the book, and that is very important, but because he spends time and care creating our characters and imbuing them with realism he was able to hit me with two major emotional blows at the conclusion of the book. As is the policy of this review site there will be NO spoilers, not even the slightest hint of one, but I really felt not only the conclusion of the complex and interesting story but of the story arcs for the characters. I devoured this book in two days and it truly was one I did not want to put down. ( )

Flat characters. Disappointing ending. ( )

The first time Alexis saw Austin, it was a Saturday night. Not in a bar, but in the emergency room where Alexis sutured a bullet wound in Austin's arm. Six months later, on the brink of falling in love, they travel to Vietnam on a bike tour so that Austin can show her his passion for cycling and he can pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war

But as Alexis sips white wine and waits at the hotel for him to return from his solo ride, two men emerge from the tall grass and Austin vanishes into thin air. The only clue he leaves behind is a bright yellow energy gel dropped on the road.

Where did Austin go?

Why did he really bring her to Vietnam?

And how much danger has he left her in?

Thank you Goodreads and Doubleday Books for a chance to read The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian!

I have never read anything by Chris Bohjalian before this book. But when I found out that I won this book I looked him up and heard a lot of mixed reviews. But for the most part people thought he was a good. So, I looked forward to reading this book when it arrived. But I found myself having trouble staying interested in this book. It wasn’t a horrible book. I finished it. I was just expecting more I guess because of the reviews I read from his other books. So maybe I set my expectations too high. But I will not give up!! I think I will try another book from him and see if I like it better. Happy reading everyone! ( )

Frtyyyyu I can’t speak highly enough of THE RED LOTUS.

If your preferred genre is thriller but so many books billed as "psychological thriller" don’t do much for you, if you want a literary thriller and one that is intelligent, THE RED LOTUS is for you. This book is a 5-star can’t-put-it-down read, and Chris Bohjalian obviously assumes his readers are smart.

Alexis, an ER doctor, and her boyfriend Austin, who works at the same hospital but on the administrative end, are visiting Vietnam on a bike tour. When Austin takes off for a solo bike ride but does not return by the appointed time, police in Vietnam begin their investigation. Soon thereafter Austin’s body is found, and a thrilling mystery begins.

Even after Alexis returns to the United States, the police captain in Vietnam continues his investigation. But Alexis can’t just sit and wait; she hires a private investigator to look into what happened and why.

Remember as you read this: almost no one is who they seem. ( )

Austen and his ER doctor girlfriend travel to Vietnam on a bicycling tour so that Austen can show her his passion for cycling and so that he can pay his respects to the place where his father and uncle fought in the war. But Austen vanishes after taking a solo ride. The only clues he leaves behind are two bright yellow energy gels dropped in the dirt road. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, navigating the FBI, Austen's prickly family, and her colleagues at the hospital, Alexis uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austen go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in?

Alexis thought there were unanswered questions about what happened and she started digging around and talking to people. When she hires a P.I. to help, the suspense starts to build as they find troubling information about Austen. I particularly liked the P.I. The characters and situations were mostly believable and this kept me turning the pages. I thought this was a good story about corruption and what some people will do for money. ( )

A fun read, slow build but good characters. ( )

The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian came out before the intensity of COVID pandemic became a reality. Reading it at this point through the lens of an actual global pandemic seems prescient. The mystery of this book is not really a mystery. The information about how a contagion might be developed and spread is frighteningly fascinating. The details about rats, I could do without! At the same time, a book about a possible fictional pandemic becomes an escape from the real one.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/01/the-red-lotus.html

Reviewed for NetGalley. ( )

I received the digital arc copy of this book from Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Is life crazier than fiction? I’m not sure anymore. It’s scary that our worst fears might actually become reality. I think that’s why I could just read this book with my usual ease. The author is wonderfully talented and eloquent with his use of words. I know whenever I open one of his books I will be impressed by the extent of his research and imagination.

Alexis Remnick is an Emergency Room physician who is used to the fast paced environment and complexity of issues which roll through the doors. She never expected to make a connection with a patient, Austin Harper, who came in one night after being shot in a local bar. It seems he was playing darts and a random person waving a gun caused the chaos in the bar. While Alexis is treating his wound she discovers he works for the hospital in administration.

Although they both lead busy lives they manage to embark on a relationship. Alexis maintains a connection with her investment banker mother, Dina Remnick, who works in Manhattan. She learns that Austin’s parents live in Lenox, MA where his mother is a retired middle school principal and his father an injured Vietnam veteran. Feeling that their relationship is heading in a positive direction after months of dating Alexis agrees to accompany him on a cycling tour in Vietnam.

Austin is an extreme cyclist who often travels to experience their adventures. He had been to Vietnam before and this trip he intends to pay respects to his uncle and father who fought in Vietnam. He breaks off from the group to find the area of combat by himself. No one worried initially since he is an experienced cyclist who always travels with water and his Psyche gels for energy on long trips.

Fear spreads amongst the cycle tour group when Austin never returns. A search party is employed in hopes of locating him worried that he might have encountered danger along the way. Eventually, the US embassy becomes involved and the case becomes more complicated.

Alexis returns to the US with so many unanswered questions. When she discovers that Austin lies about his intention for going to Vietnam, Alexis begins to wonder how well she really knows this man. Her investigation leads her to many unexpected places where she uncovers confusing and dangerous information.

This is a wild adventure which is interjected with the comments of someone who seems to hold the answers and is willing to do anything to protect that information. Chris Bohjalian doesn’t disappoint with this novel.
( )

What joy, being assigned a book about a pandemic during a pandemic. Thanks, Booklist! ( )

Wow! Spent the whole day reading this, couldn't put it down. Strangely apt for the time during Covid. ( )

The Red Lotus-A Novel, Chris Bohjalian, author; Rebecca Lowman, narrator
This is a diabolical novel about a scheme to cause a pandemic with the use of a biological weapon that spreads quickly, kills its victims and has no known treatment. Alexis is an Emergency Room doctor. While she is working her shift at the hospital, she meets Austin, a victim of a bullet wound. For the next seven months, they become an item, although they never discuss marriage or live together. He tells her a story about his relatives and their Vietnam wartime experiences, explaining that he wants to take a bike trip there, and at the same time, he wants to visit the sites of his family’s experiences there and to pay tribute to his father and his uncle. His father lived after being wounded, but his uncle did not survive the injuries he incurred as a soldier. He wants Alexis to join him.
Alexis and Austin travel together to a lovely inn in Vietnam, and one morning, Austin decides to take a bicycle ride, alone, without the group or an escort. When he does not return, an investigation into his disappearance begins. Slowly, Alexis learns that Austin is not the man she thought he was since he has kept many secrets from her and has told her many lies, as well. Who was the real Austin? Why did he travel to Vietnam? She wonders if he had another girlfriend there. She wonders if he had been kidnapped and was not the victim of a hit and run. What really happened to him in Vietnam? Will she be able to solve the mystery surrounding his disappearance? Did she love him?
The author has written a novel which seems very prescient about a plot to start a pandemic that resembles the one occurring today in the United States and the rest of the world. The disease is eerily similar as it attacks the lungs, causes fatigue, weakness, skin rashes, and fever, etc. How odd that Bohjalian should have written about a previously unknown bug, developed in a research lab that is capable of killing its victims and has no known cure. The book becomes ever more interesting because of the significance and relevance to our current events. This bug has been tested on rats, and it causes them to die a terribly painful death. The illness is devastating to them. Although rats can survive most everything, this bug defeats them. In the book, New York City is mentioned as the perfect place to spread the disease since it is densely populated, heavily uses mass transit, has an influx of tourists moving in and out, and has a huge rat population.
The book deals with the American interference in the Civil War that raged in Vietnam, between the North and the South. It points out that the use of devastating chemical weapons continued to have deleterious effects on future generations. While we call it the Vietnam War, they call it the American War, albeit a war far shorter than the one that France had fought there. Many still harbor anger and frustration about America’s involvement, while others wanted and appreciated American help/interference. It is largely anti-American regarding our involvement in the war since it caused terrible devastation there with Agent Orange, among other things. As the Vietnamese were bombed, many of the soldiers treated their service in-country as a vacation, complete with the use of a swimming pool. Ultimately, of course, many soldiers suffered from the same consequences of the American weapons as the Vietnamese did. Was the use of Agent Orange as morally wrong and as devastating as the effort to spread a pandemic with a biological weapon? One has to consider the morality of both efforts as one reads the book. The people behind the plan to sell the bug to our enemies were barbaric and cold-blooded murderers. Was America the same when it deforested Vietnam and murdered the innocent in their effort to halt the spread of Communism there?
In addition to being about a biological weapon with the potential to cause a pandemic, the book is about the American legacy of guilt in Vietnam. Because the book is about a pandemic, so close to what the world is experiencing now, it is a compelling read.
The red lotus is the national flower of Vietnam. It symbolizes healing, with its beauty being capable of spiritually healing a broken heart. Alexis is the red lotus of the novel. Will she heal the country? ( )

Hard to believe he wrote this book before this year. What a timely book. Very scary what is happening in the world ( )

If you're looking for a book to make you feel like the Covid-19 pandemic isn't SO bad, here's your gold mine, and what timing. Bohjalian is a master at building suspense and at letting his stories unfurl slowly and deliberately, but I find the overall quality of his output to be inconsistent. This is one of his better efforts. Alexis, an emergency room MD in New York, goes with her new boyfriend Austin, who works in development at the same hospital, on a bike trip to Vietnam. After he disappears on a solo ride, Alexis finds out he's lied to her about his justification for the trip, which was his father and uncle’s roles in the Vietnam War. When Austin's body is found, Alexis tries to find out why he lied to her, and ends up hiring a private detective to track down some of Austin's mysterious contacts in New York and in Vietnam. And then there's the hardy Vietnamese rats, thriving in the post-Agent Orange countryside. As Austin's motivations become clear and horrifically self-serving, Alexis seems to be next on the hit list. Not for the squeamish.

Quote: "When people liked something very much, it meant that they didn't love it. If you liked rum raisin ice cream, it meant you'd eat it at a dinner party if it was served for dessert, but it wasn't something you'd order if you had a choice." ( )

Chris Bohjalian is a solid writer who has amazing breadth, from writing literary fiction to gripping mysteries. Many of his books make great book club choices with complex characters facing difficult issues. The Red Lotus falls more into the mystery/thriller genre. The story is taut and filled with twists and surprises. I have to say one thing that really attracted me to the book is that the beginning setting is a bicycle tour in Vietnam. We just returned from a 1 week tour in Bali and the descriptive scenes reminded me so much of our vacation, so part of the enjoyment was reliving a fun vacation (without the murder of course...).

Fun read! ( )

Reading about the threat of a fictional pandemic during a real pandemic is a bit surreal. Rats are an ideal carrier of deadly bacteria because they are ubiquitous in human populations and can rapidly evolve resistance to deadly pathogens (e.g., plague). The premise behind Chris Bohjalian’s thriller, THE RED LOTUS, suggests that evil people could set off a worldwide pandemic by infecting rats with an antibiotic-resistant airborne strain of plague. This idea as a pandemic threat seems a little quaint compared to novel viruses that come already resistant to antibiotics and evolve at warp speed compared to rats. Yet if one suspends disbelief regarding the clumsiness of this premise, THE RED LOTUS can be a satisfying thriller. Bohjalian checks off all of the genre’s boxes: a death that seems routine to all but the protagonist, a smart civilian-private eye collaboration, interesting backstories, greedy bad guys void of redeeming qualities, multiple potential suspects, caring loved ones, and an exotic setting. In spite of characters that seem to lack nuance, Bohjalin manages his plot elements in a well-controlled fashion that builds to a satisfying conclusion. The periodic insertion of testimony from an unidentified (until the end) witness seems unfortunate, however, as it breaks the flow of the plot and reveals little that is not or could not be developed in the main narrative. ( )

Chris Bohjalian knows how to write a story, and The Red Lotus is the latest in a long line of diverse and memorable novels. The timing of the book's release is unfortunate since most people do not want to read about potential pandemics while living through one. However, if you are not afraid, then his latest novel is a definite must-read.

Not only is The Red Lotus a strong thriller that monopolized my attention, but it also explores the dedication of ER doctors and their unique approach to their work. Also within the story's purview is the United States' lack of preparations for a global pandemic and how so very close we are to something terrible. Did I mention the timing of its release?

In Mr. Bohjalian's world, however, the most dangerous animal is not a primate (Ebola) or a bat (COVID-19) but rather the rat. (Insert trigger warning if rats make you very, very uncomfortable.) In the novel, rats are the villains we never see but about which there is plenty of discussions. We learn how many antibiotic-resistant diseases they carry, how they live everywhere, and how they proliferate. Never one to veer from the uncomfortable truth, Mr. Bohjalian scares us into understanding we are one rat-bite away from a pandemic that would make COVID-19 look like a minor cold.

Southeast Asia, and specifically Vietnam, is a geographic location that was never among my personal travel bucket list. However, Mr. Bohjalian's descriptions of Vietnam make me reconsider that. It is obvious he fell in love with the country during his research visits, and that love permeates his narrative. I also appreciate that he adds the guilt associated with finding pleasure in a country with whom we were previously at war. Admittedly, that is one of my reasons for not wanting to visit, and I like that he uses his characters to discuss the war and those exact sentiments.

It is obvious Mr. Bohjalian spends a lot of time researching for his novels, and The Red Lotus is no exception. Plus, he writes a damn good thriller. It is unfortunate that the publication date happened to occur just as COVID-19 started hitting the United States, but hopefully, that will not turn you off from reading a novel that has a little bit of everything.