THE RED LOTUS by Chris Bohjalian

I don’t think of Chris Bohjalian as a thriller writer, but he has concocted a doozy here; it has more in common with The Flight Attendant than it does with most of his other work.  Alexis, an ER physician, and Austin, her boyfriend of less than a year, are near the end of their bike tour vacation in Vietnam when Austin disappears.  Unsure of exactly how serious their relationship is, Alexis tries not to overreact.  She soon discovers that Austin has not been entirely truthful about why he wanted to come back to Vietnam after having just traveled there within the past year.  The two met when Alexis treated Austin for a gunshot wound.  He works in the same hospital in fund raising but may be involved in something more nefarious.  His explanation of how he was shot and how he got the scratches on his hands sound fishy, and we can fault Alexis for being naïve, but otherwise Austin hasn’t really given her cause to be suspicious.  The villain here, Douglas Webber, is evil in a completely unsubtle way, and Bohjalian doesn’t pull any punches when describing the horrors of napalm and Agent Orange that the Americans showered on the Vietnamese and their landscape.  And frankly, things become more gruesome as the plot thickens.  Besides the great writing and never-ending suspense, one thing I liked about this book is how the author never really pigeonholes Austin as a good guy or a villain.  Alexis, who has had some self-mutilation problems in the past, can’t help but doubt her own judgment when she gradually uncovers Austin’s secrets that do not reflect positively on his character.  I would be remiss to ignore the very uncomfortable and prophetic ending, which conjures up an image that I can’t unsee.