The Red Lotus is full of twists and turns and wonderful characters. Chris Bohjalian is a masterful storyteller and this thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat. Alex meets Austin in the ER when she is suturing up his bullet wound in his arm. They start dating and he invites her on a bicycle tour of Vietnam. Once there, he disappears. Who is he really? Alex is left wondering what she really knows and what lies in store. I loved this book! Can't wait to recommend it to patrons.

A young ER doctor goes to Vietnam with her boyfriend on a biking trip. What should be beautiful and restful quickly begins to unravel when Alexis’ boyfriend disappears. Alexis learns about his lies and soon there is a trail of death surrounding this visit. As she returns to NYC, more pieces click into place as she begins to put together mysterious happenings right in her own hospital. She is aided by a detective in trying to figure out what the trip was really about. The story is partially a love story, thriller and mystery.

Chris Bohjalian is one of the most gifted, most diverse writers along with being well researched. This story was thrilling, fast paced and the description of Vietnam was breath taking! Chris Bohjalian's stories are individual jewels waiting to be discovered and read. Add this to your reading list in Spring 2020!

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview THE RED LOTUS by Chris Bohjalian. I read the Flight Attendant and I liked it very much. The Red Lotus is more of a espionage, thriller type book.
The author introduces you to a young ER Doctor, Alexis, and her boyfriend, Austin who are on vacation in Vietnam. Austin is a serious bike rider, and he wants to make a pilgramiage to Vietnam where some members of his family had fought during the Vietnam War. Alexis has been with Austin for about 6 months, and she is falling for him. The book opens as she is waiting for him to return from a ride he took alone in the countryside. Austin is late arriving, and Alexis starts to worry - where is he, why is he not returning her texts?
The couple has taken this trip with other bike riders and she informs them that she is beginning to worry about Austin. His disappearance is reported and Alexis and some of the others at the hotel decide to go and look for him. They don't find him, but they do find some of his belongings on the road. Some gel packs that are like energy bars, but that is it, but no Austin.
Soon all her questions are answered - and Alexis finds herself caught up in a mystery full of lies and deceipt. Alexis knows something is very wrong, and she is determined to get to the bottom of it. But will she live long enough to get to the truth?
Good book - 3.5 stars

Chris Bohjalian is one of my all time favorite authors. His books are amazing and always leave me learning something new (whether is's about midwives, or dowsing, or Vietnam, rats, and bike tours). Loved the mystery in this one and felt that Alexis was certainly a likable character). I could not put this down. Great read. Thank you for the advanced reader copy. The library will be purchasing!

In The Red Lotus, we meet Alexis, an ER doc, and her boyfriend Austin, who works in administration at the same hospital. Six months into their relationship, the two go for a bike trip through Vietnam, partly because Austin's father was injured during the Vietnam War and his uncle was killed there. Austin takes off by himself for a day's ride to revisit the sites where his father and his uncle had served, but as night falls, he hasn't returned and Alexis is worried. Austin's body turns up a few days later, the victim of a hit-and-run, and Alexis is devastated. When she returns to NY, she decides to dig further into Austin's death because of some discrepancies she identified when she examined his body and a big lie he told her before he died. She hires a charming PI to aid her investigation.

The Red Lotus is not for the faint of heart. You will definitely hear strains of Michael Jackson singing Ben as you learn more than you ever wanted to know about NY and Vietnam rats!! Bohjalian clearly dug deep into his research for this novel, and I learned a lot about the biological warfare that took place during the Vietnam War and its frightening potential for our future. It really is a terrifying subject.

I've read and enjoyed several other books by Bohjalian, and I love that each one is so unique. He is an exceptionally talented author, skilled at character development, dialogue, and plotting. He has another winner with The Red Lotus, scheduled for publication in March 2020.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for providing me a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is exactly what a great mystery should be. It is exciting, well-researched, engaging and IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT DOWN.

A young ER doctor goes to Vietnam with her boyfriend on a biking trip. What should be beautiful and restful quickly begins to unravel when Alexis’ boyfriend disappears. Alexis learns about his lies and soon there is a trail of death surrounding this visit.

As she returns to NYC, more pieces click into place as she begins to put together mysterious happenings right in her own hospital. She is aided by a detective in trying to figure out what the trip was really about. The reader gets to figure out who the bad guys are as this book goes on.

No more clues...mystery lovers, you have to read this!

Thank you Netgalley for this absolutely perfect mystery!

A thrilling novel that is fast paced, edge of your seat, read all night awesomeness!! Highly enjoyed this and was sad to flip the last page. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Chris Bohjalian is a favorite at our library. This book is a thriller that will provide fodder for book group discussions. The main characters were well developed, and the plot moved quickly. The book reminded me of Robin Cook's early novels, and I am sure many people will live it.

My past experience with a Chris Bohjalian novel was disappointing because I thought it lacked focus and seemed somewhat disjointed. But “The Red Lotus” is a much better work, I’m happy to say, because the author has evolved into a fabulous writer who seems to have hit his stride as he matures.

Bohjalian is the best selling author of some twenty books that have been translated into 35 languages and have fostered three movies. Perhaps I should reread the one I found wanting but there’s no need because I’m reviewing this story now. I like it and I appreciate his talent.

A young man disappears in Vietnam while on a bike ride and later turns up as a fatal victim of a vehicle accident. His girlfriend, not with him on his ill-fated ride, becomes suspicious of the incident for many reasons, all of which seem obvious to her but less so to acquaintances and the authorities.

The girlfriend grapples with the loss and the discrepancies she sees and discovers some lies he told to her and others before he died. Perhaps the most onerous and disturbing is his stated need to visit Vietnam. She finds connections with rat-induced sicknesses, national interests in obtaining the sources of said diseases, and evil forces dedicated to spreading sickness among large segments of the population.
That’s about all I need to say about the book, except that the author has done his research and draws the reader into the totally believable plan.

I like Bohjalian’s writing style. It’s free flowing and captures the spirit of an onerous plot, one he explains with clarity and riveting interest. The dialogue is realistic and the scenic backdrop is filled in with stunning beauty. I believe most readers will appreciate the quality of the story and the writing and realize that Chris Bohjalian is a writer of escalating appreciation.

The Red Lotus
My thanks to #NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review. Another winner from Chris Bohjalian! Alexis and Austin seem to have it all: a burgeoning relationship, good careers . . . and secrets? When Austin disappears on a biking trip in Vietnam where he was paying tribute to his veteran father and fallen uncle, Alexis goes into tiger-mode to find out the truth. Alexis is soon to discover the biological warfare of the Vietnam War didn’t end with the war, and Austin may have been a key player in modern-day combat.

Bohjalian is truly gifted when it comes to providing a unique novel unlike any he’s written before. The research and study that went into Red Lotus is admirable. Red Lotus is a triumph of exploration of science and culture and human capacity.

There is no feeling better than to pick up a book by an author that I have read in the past and find that he is not mired in one style of book. That in writing a novel that is nothing at all like the previous one I read, found it as good, and not at all similar to his past writings. The Red Lotus is Chris Bohjalian at his best, a great story, well written with excellent development of principal characters.
Alexis is a young doctor who is one of the emergency room physicians in the hospital she works in. She is dedicated to and good at what she does. While her love life is somewhat limited by the hours she works she does date. The strangest date she manages is when Austin is brought in with a bullet wound in his arm. His story is that he got caught up in a fight between other men in a bar and by bad luck got in the way of the gunshot. Austin, also, coincidentally works at the same hospital that Alexis does although in another department. The two begin dating and seem to be getting more and more involved. Austin's hobby and greatest interest is bike riding, but not just around the neighborhood, but on long distance runs with organized groups.
About eight months after the two meet Austin invites Alexis to go with him on an organized tour sponsored by a professional Biker's organization to Vietnam. He tells her that besides the ride he wants to visit two sites for family reasons. At one his uncle was killed and at the other his father wounded during the Vietnam war. Arriving there Austin decides that he wants to go by himself to visit the two sites and does so. When he doesn't return and can't be found by the group searching both the Vietnamese police and the American FBI representative in the area are called in to help.
Alexis has to return to the US and to work but decides she wants to see if she can find out what happened to Austin and hires a private detective. In a short time a body is brought back to the US with Alexis identifying it as that of Austin. What is the reason for his death if not the one of natural causes shown at first sight? The well told story unfolds with Alexis and the private detective looking at a possible connection at the hospital where she and Austin worked. Discovery of facts and clues are found by judicious logic and the reader is left with the obvious desire to get Mr Bohjalian's next book as soon as published.

I love to start a new book and know within the first couple of chapters that I am going to love it. Hence the 5-star review for this amazing book by Mr. Bohjalian.

This is a compelling story of greed, deception, international intrigue, and the perseverance of a prodigious, strong but flawed, young woman who refuses to give up on the truth. Her journey will bring her devastatingly close to a chilling scenario of biological warfare.

This book is set to be released next year so make sure you put it on your to read list so you can discover what a red lotus and a rat have in common.

Highly recommended!

The Red Lotus: A Novel by [Bohjalian, Chris]

I really enjoyed this; it's nice to have a unique plot for a change. (I don't understand the cover, however.)



Review copy provided by publisher.

Alexis and Austin form an unbreakable bond the night they meet in a hospital emergency room. She sews him back up after he’s been shot in the arm. A few months later, they travel to Vietnam so Austin can visit the place his father died, but things go terribly wrong when Austin disappears. The only sign of him is the energy gel he used while cycling, found on the road. Austin’s family and the FBI get involved in his disappearance while Alexis uncovers a series of disturbing stories and lies that leave her wondering what Austin’s real motive for coming to Vietnam really was. Bohjalian is one of the most gifted, most diverse writers I’ve ever come across. There is nothing formulaic about any of his books, each one is an individual jewel just waiting to be discovered by some lucky reader