The Red Lotus: A Novel

I have read several Chris Bohjalian's books. I like his writing style. I like that he often writes about a main female character. I was intrigued by this story but I think I would have liked it better if we weren't actually living through a pandemic right now.

Alexis, an ER doctor, and her boyfriend, Austin are on a bike tour in Vietnam. Austin is a good cyclist but when he doesn't return from a solo trip, Alexis begins to worry. The only clue he leaves behind is an energy gel dropped on the road. When Alexis returns to the US with an unimaginable loss, she begins to work putting the pieces together to figure out what really happened in Vietnam. In the process, she begins to uncover a series of lies. How well did she really know Austin? How much danger did he leave her in?

" Got to be ready for the next pandemic. Got to have new antibiotics. Got to know what we're up against. It's coming and New York City is the perfect place for a catastrophe: we have lots of people living in very close quarters." Pretty close to our reality, right? I just seemed to lose interest in the book as it went on. Might have felt different in a different time.

Twisty and turny!