TUESDAY EXCERPTS: “THE RED LOTUS”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events: First Chapter/Intros, originally hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea and now hosted by I’d Rather Be at the Beach; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by The Purple Booker.

Today’s featured book is an ARC with a release date of 3/17/20:  The Red Lotus, by Chris Bohjalian.

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Intro:  (Prologue) The opposite of a hospice?  Not a maternity ward or a NICU.  It’s a trick question.

The correct answer?  An emergency room.  In a hospice, you do everything you can to allow people to die.  In the ER?  You do all that you can to keep them alive.

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Teaser:  “No,” she wailed, an almost biblical ululation, “it’s not okay!  Nothing’s okay and nothing ever will be again!  My child is gone!  Our child is gone!”

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Synopsis:  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. As Alexis grapples with this bewildering loss, and deals with the FBI, Austin’s prickly family, and her colleagues at the hospital, Alexis uncovers a series of strange lies that force her to wonder: Where did Austin go? Why did he really bring her to Vietnam? And how much danger has he left her in? Set amidst the adrenaline-fueled world of the emergency room, The Red Lotus is a global thriller about those who dedicate their lives to saving people, and those who peddle death to the highest bidder.

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Would you keep reading?  I love this author’s books, so I definitely want to read it right away.

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