The Other Lotus Girl is out in paperback, ISBN 106847632X, at £11.95. Hardback is 1068476338 at £17.99 and the ebook is £3.99. Twenty-three chapters, running on two timelines that alternate almost chapter by chapter.
Simon Lloyd quoted the opening back at me in his Goodreads review on 27 December 2025, and it is the shortest way to say what happens: 'It was supposed to be an ordinary Thursday evening in Guildford. But when a terrified young woman throws herself into Stuart Henderson's car begging for help, his comfortable life shatters in an instant.'
Who is in it.
Stuart Henderson
A marketing consultant. He was going to the shop. He ends up driving.
Martin
Stuart's husband. Married three months, together two years.
Barbara Patterson
Martin's mother. Handbag gripped in both hands, tissues up the sleeve, opinions. Caitlin Van Dette, Goodreads, 15 December 2025: 'I honestly hated the mother in law more than life itself. Props to the author for writing so well that the mother in law was truly insufferable.'
John Phillips
Next door. 'I do pen-testing. Offensive security. People pay me to break into their systems before the bad guys do.' He wears a white Stetson into a hostage handover and tips it at the man holding them.
Vân Lê
Trafficked from Vietnam to pay off a family debt. She is looking for her sister.
Mai
The sister.
Đức
Vân's adoptive father. A gambling debt of about a billion đồng, a beating, and one phone call selling both girls. He is the reason any of this happens. There is a younger brother as well, Vinh, who is seven.
Khoa, Thanh, Linh and Minh
Six of them leave Vietnam together, counting Vân and Mai. The second timeline is theirs as much as hers, and it does not go well for most of them.
Azad runs the crossing. Kurdish, forties, working through the crowd with his phone held out in front of him, going through weather apps and tide charts. Auntie Loan meets the van at the English end. 'Welcome to England. I'm Auntie Loan.' A moment later, not kind any more, just: 'In.' Oleg runs the Moscow salon, earlier in the journey. Tony Cortilo hands out business cards. 'If you ever need anything. Truly. Anything at all. Just call.'
Sandra Marsh
An investigative journalist in a flat in Ancoats, walls covered in maps with pins and string connecting trafficking routes. Once they are all stood in her lounge she says, 'Fuck, you lot look like shit.'
The car is Barbara's ancient blue Nissan Micra, which they end up in after Stuart's Audi is written off, and reviewers keep mentioning it. Rubie C, NetGalley, 8 January 2026: 'every frantic mile in that battered Nissan Micra ramps up the stakes without ever feeling contrived.'
The two-timeline structure divides people, and it is worth knowing before you start. Victoria, Goodreads, 21 December 2025: 'The book alternates between the past, when Vân was traveling, and the present, when she attempted to escape.' Fiona Y, NetGalley, 1 November 2025, was less convinced: 'This is a novel with two plot lines that were so far apart I had to suspend belief that the two were connected.' Caroline Lewis gave it two stars on 27 December 2025 for the same reason: 'I found the two parts of the story too incongruous to fully appreciate this novel.'
Samantha K, an educator reviewing on NetGalley on 1 December 2025, put the other objection plainly and then answered it: 'Does it seem a little far-fetched that someone would randomly help a stranger in the middle of the day who is being followed and not call the police? Yes. Is it fun and suspenseful and entertaining? Also yes!'
Paperback 106847632X, hardback 1068476338, ebook £3.99. The sequel is The Cuckoo House.
