THE WONDER TEST

 

SYNOPSIS

Escaping New York City and the espionage case that made her question everything, recently widowed FBI Agent Lina Connerly returns home to sell the house she has inherited in tony Greenfield, California. With her teenage son Rory, Lina hopes to reassemble her life, reevaluate her career, and find a clear way forward. Adrift and battling insomnia, she discovers that her father's sleepy hometown has been transformed into a Silicon Valley suburb on steroids, obsessed with an annual exam called The Wonder Test.

When students at her son's high school go missing, reappearing under mysterious circumstances on abandoned beaches, Lina must summon her strength and her investigative instincts, pushing her own ethical boundaries to the limits in order to solve the crimes. Meanwhile, an old espionage case called Red Vine keeps calling her back into the fold. While Lina struggles to balance her new role as a single mother and the complex counterintelligence puzzles she is so adept at solving, Greenfield's shadowy dangers creep closer to her own home.

Title: The wonder test

Author: Michelle Richmond

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press

Publication date: July 6, 2021

REVIEW

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐

I’m sorry to say I was not wondered by The wonder test.

Lina is a FBI agent on sick leave after her husband’s passing and some mistakes she made at work. She moves with her son Rory to California to her late father’s house hoping to ease their pain. But students from Rory’s new school have been going missing for years, reappearing days later with completely different personalities so, when she’s asked to help in the investigation Lina doesn’t think twice about it and sets herself to unveil what’s hiding under their new town’s perfect façade.

Although the story worked perfectly as an investigation procedural I felt the “wonder test” tie was a bit forced. At the beginning of each chapter there was a “wonder test” question and I gotta say I hated them! I’m not even sure I understood most of them and can’t see any 15 yo answering them.

My favorite thing about the novel were Lina and Rory. They had a great relationship and the “always telling each other the truth” policy made for such a mature mother/son relationship. I liked how she treated him as a person able to think and decide for himself and not as a little kid. Although this also made that some situations required to suspend disbelief a little bit.

My other critique is that it was way too long! 100 pages less and the story wouldn’t have suffered at all.

Although not my favorite read I would not mind seeing Lina back in action with another case.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.