The Red Lotus" By Chris Bohjalian

It was ironic that I started this book right before the statewide order that shut down our public library along with so many other local businesses. The irony came from the fact that this thriller is based on a highly infectious pathogen that includes lots of rats woven within an intermittent parallel plot. There is an unidentified narrator who keeps those rats front and center until the conclusion of the book, when that character is finally exposed.

The story takes our main character, Alexis, an emergency room doctor in New York City, on a bike tour in Vietnam. Alexis makes this trip with...