Flash House Book

Joanna Shaw kisses her husband, Aidan, goodbye one morning in their rented home in India. She will see him only once more in her lifetime. He disappears while on the trail of a story intended to prove his loyalty to the American government by exposing Communist plots. Weeks pass, and there is no sign of him. When the embassy receives word that he was aboard a plane that went down-and does precious little to locate him-Joanna packs up her son, Simon, and Kamla, whom she has rescued from a flash house, the Indian term for brothel. Chaperoned by Lawrence, Aidan's best friend and former colleague in intelligence, the four trek across Asia and into China in search of Aidan. Kamla and Joanna find strength and courage in each other and their tragic circumstances. Along the way, they form a new kind of family none of them has ever known. Joanna and Lawrence grow closer, finding solace and strength in each other, while Simon and the flash house girl bind their fates irrevocably. In Aidan's absence, they cross not only geo-political boundaries but personal ones as well, and their intimacy becomes a transgression of international interest in a land where nothing is what it seems.Read More