The Red Lotus by Chris Bohjalian

Published by Doubleday on March 17, 2020

The Red Lotus is the name of a plague that has been weaponized as a bioweapon. It is a bit chilling to read about a plague in the midst of a pandemic, but the pandemic discussion is prescient. Says one character: “Got to be ready for the next pandemic. Got to have new antibiotics. Got to know what we’re up against. I mean, it’s coming, and New York City is the perfect place for a catastrophe. We have lots of people living in very close quarters.” Chris Bohjalian got that right.

The Red Lotus plague is carried by rats, although the weaponized version can spread from person to person. We learn quite a bit more than I needed to know about the rat world. Whether Vietnamese rats, having been exposed to Agent Orange, have evolved to be tougher than New York rats, which have been exposed to New Yorkers, is a question that preoccupies some of the characters. Saying much more about the nature of the plague might reveal spoilers. Instead, let’s look at how the plot sets up.

Alexis Remnick is an ER doctor who has a history of teenage angst that involved cutting herself. Now she blocks the pain by cutting her patients and sewing them back together, a task that helps her tend to herself by tending to others. Alexis met Austin Harper when he came to the ER for treatment of a gunshot wound, having been shot for apparently random reasons while playing darts in a bar. One thing leads to another and before long, Alexis and Austin are going bicycling in Vietnam, where Austin feels the need to pay his respects to relatives who were wounded or killed during the war.

Austin disappears in Vietnam. When his body is found, the police conclude that he was the victim of a hit-and-run while biking by himself. Alexis identifies his body in the morgue, but she also inspects it from a physician’s perspective, taking note of a puncture wound in his hand that isn’t consistent with a bicycling accident.

Back in America, Alexis meets with Austin’s parents and learns that the story he told about the war experiences of his relatives was bogus. Alexis hires a private investigator named Ken Sarafian to help her uncover the truth about Austin's death. A Vietnamese cop, an FBI agent stationed in southeast Asia, and friends of Alexis all play varying roles in helping Alexis understand what Austin was up to in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, it had something to do with rats. Intermixed with those chapters are chapters that follow the bad guys who had something to do with Austin’s death, or with rats, or both.

For the most part, characterization is strong. I’m not sure I quite bought Alexis’ need as an adult to get out her X-Acto knife and ponder the merits of once again being “the captain of her own pain” by cutting herself. Maybe old habits die hard, but it struck me as a contrivance in an adult who has made something of herself. Alexis is a smart, resourceful, and likeable character who would have earned just as much sympathy without the cutting.

While I didn’t entirely buy into the plot — Austin’s motivation for his actions is less than satisfying — I was carried along by Bohjalian’s smooth prose. The story is engaging because it requires some concentration to keep track of all the moving pieces. All of the pieces come together in an ending that isn’t particularly surprising until the epilog comes along. If for no other reason than its timely reminder that the United States should always be prepared for a pandemic, The Red Lotus is a thriller that merits attention.

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