The Wonder Test

New York Times bestselling author Michelle Richmond introduces a tough and spirited new protagonist, FBI Agent Lina Connerly, in this exhilarating race to save Silicon Valley teens from their own parents’ ambition and greed.

"Gripping, frightening, swift as a bullet." Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A high-spirited, riveting novel..." Anita Feliicelli for San Francisco Chronicle

"A gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, & suburban tropes." Booklist, starred review

Recommended for fans of Tana French, Sue Grafton, David Baldacci, Paula Hawkins, and Gillian Flynn. An Amazon Best Book of July

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"A sharply written, subtly satirical thriller." Publishers Weekly

"Chilling but heartwarming." Wall Street Journal

"Fluid, engaging." The New York Times

Meet Lina Connerly, the FBI agent at the heart of The Wonder Test:

She’s a profiler and counter-intelligence specialist, skilled at tradecraft, hand-to-hand combat, firearms, ocean swimming, fluent in French and Russian and can call in tech support from D.C. She’s a kind of new Wonder Woman. Don Noble for Alabama Public Radio

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.

A searing view of a culture that puts the wellbeing of children at risk for advancement and prestige, and a captivating story of the lengths a mother will go for her son.

"A two-in-one winner: a gripping thriller set in a Stepford-esque California suburb, and a story of surviving loss and building family bonds. With a realistic protagonist, well-described setting, and an uber-creepy villain, it will please readers who like their stories with action and heart in equal measure.—Liz French, Library Journal

"The Wonder Test features a terrific, clever, and timely concept, and Lina Connerly, a loving mother, is also exactly the kind of tough-as-nails heroine to chase down the truth. Gripping, frightening, swift as a bullet. The last hundred pages could give you whiplash." Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A high-spirited, riveting novel. It combines the relentless, competitive pressure of growing up in affluent Silicon Valley suburbs with a future already coming round the bend. By blending the speculative and the familiar, Richmond makes us believe." Anita Feliicelli for San Francisco Chronicle

"Fast-paced and smart, thoughtful and full of heart...combines the thrilling twists of a Sue Grafton novel and the literary complexity of the best Tana French." Amanda Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters

"Like Stepford Wives but with Silicon Valley scions and their delusional dreams for their offspring, The Wonder Test blends a mystery with some tart social commentary...With the 1% gone wild and the no-nonsense FBI agent wading into crazytown to find out why, the scene is set for a sure-footed, darkly funny, semi-satirical thriller that never misses a beat." —Vannessa Cronin, Amazon Book Review, Amazon Best Books of July

"The overlay of international spycraft on suburban California, whose shiny facade conceals the most heinous of sins and vanities, is surprisingly effective. The plot is sound, the action exciting, and the characters resoundingly human." Kirkus Reviews

"The Wonder Test deftly explores the underbelly of San Francisco, the pressures of Silicon Valley, and the love between a mother and her teenage son. I was captivated by the novel’s simultaneously tough and tender protagonist, FBI agent Lina Connerly, and the plot twists kept me riveted until the small hours of the morning. After this, I’ll read anything Michelle Richmond writes." —Vendela Vida, author of We Run the Tides

A fast-paced, moving exploration of motherhood & money, danger & deception, privilege & pretense...the perfect thinking person’s page-turner: smart, suspenseful, layered. I couldn’t put it down.” Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Mother May I

“The Wonder Test paints a rich, complex picture of the San Francisco Bay Area that both resonates with its natural beauty and captures the darker aspects of being the extremely privileged cyber capital of the world.”—Alice LaPlante, New York Times bestselling author of A Circle of Wives

Discussion questions for The Wonder Test

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Published: July 6, 2021
Genres:

literary mystery, literary thriller, psychological thriller

Tags:

FBI novel, literary mystery, suspense, thriller

Excerpt:

We ride the elevator in silence, emerging on the third floor. The company has revamped an old warehouse, making stylish use of exposed beams and concrete floors. There are no offices, no cubicles, just a series of cafeterias and conference rooms enclosed in glass walls. We step into a café, quiet save for the clicking of laptop keyboards. Nicole leads us to a dimly lit booth, and Kyle and I slide in side by side.

Nicole returns moments later with three black cups bearing the company logo. She's stirring cream in to her coffee, avoiding our eyes, when two young men in nearly identical tech uniforms—slim jeans, slimmer shirts, loud socks—pass our table. Nicole covers her face with one hand, but it's no use. "Missed you at the scrum," the younger guy says.

Nicole acknowledges him with a nod. I don't blame her for not wanting to be seen with us.

Kyle takes a red notebook out of his messenger bag and places it on the table. Uncapping his pen, he looks more like an eager college freshman than a police detective.

"I was wondering if you might tell us about that day on the beach,” I begin.

Nicole glances nervously at the notebook, so I slide it off the table into my bag. Her shoulders relax. "All of it?"

"Yes."

She fidgets with a red string tied around her wrist. "It was a cold, wet morning. I went out to Half Moon Bay to meet someone—"

"Who?"

She pauses, searching for the right words. "A new friend. We parked at the beach." Nicole's eyes scan the room. "We ate sandwiches in his car, and then he left. Before heading back into the office, I decided to go for a walk."

"The day was cold and wet, yet you went for a walk?"

Nicole frowns. "I needed to clear my head. The sandwiches in the car were a bad idea. It didn't go quite the way I was expecting."

"Do you often eat sandwiches in the car?" Kyle asks.

Nicole glances at Kyle, annoyed. "It wasn't my first, but I haven't had one since." She turns her focus to me. "I suppose women our age shouldn't be eating sandwiches in cars."

"Sometimes one needs a sandwich. Not for me to judge."

"True." She almost smiles. "After a few minutes I sat down on a piece of driftwood to take a call from my assistant. There was no one else on the beach."

Kyle taps his pen on the table. "What did she want, your assistant?"

"He said I needed to get back to the office right away." Nicole picks at her cuticles, reluctant to say more. I sip my coffee, waiting. Two beats, three. She has green eyes, a few freckles emerging from underneath the makeup. I glimpse the Catholic schoolgirl she once was beneath the trappings of her tech exec exterior.

"My assistant was describing the latest fire I needed to put out when I looked up and saw a shape far down the beach. The figure was moving in an unusual way, slow but jerking, like an injured animal. It was disturbing and mesmerizing at the same time.

"My first thought was that a space alien had landed in the Pacific and drifted ashore. You know, creature from the black lagoon."

"Your second thought?" I prod.

"'How am I going to explain this in the office? How do I justify being on the beach in Half Moon Bay at ten o'clock on a Tuesday morning?' I wanted to hurry back to my car, but I couldn't move. I was hypnotized by this thing moving toward me. Shuffle, two, three, four. I'd never seen anyone or anything move that way, not so much a walk as a strange, gyrating groove. The figure was pitch white, glowing. The voice in my head told me to run."

"Why didn't you?" Kyle asks.

"It looked so"—she shakes her head—"so helpless. I stood up and walked toward it. My eyesight isn't great. Until I was about twenty feet away, it still looked like an amorphous blob."

I wait for her to look up at me. Her eyes are sunken, her face pale. At first, I thought her look had come from working insane tech hours, staring at the screen, drowning in coffee, forgetting to eat. Now I understand it's something else. All these months, she has been haunted by her discovery on the beach.

She finally meets my eyes. I lean forward and ask, "When did you realize it was a boy?"

COLLAPSE

Reviews:Publishers Weekly on Publishers Weekly wrote:

A "sharply written, subtly satiric thriller...Vividly sketched characters, escalating stakes, and evocative prose distinguish Michelle Richmond's latest, which explores themes of grief and greed. Minor mysteries and assorted absurdities complement the thorny central puzzle, adding texture and tension. Susan Isaacs fans will be well pleased."

Paul Dinh-McCrillis on Shelf Awareness wrote:

"Each chapter in Michelle Richmond's immersive novel starts with a Wonder Test question alluding to what's about to happen...The technique adds a spark to Richmond's incendiary warning of how dangerous unchecked greed can become.
This immersive, slow-burn thriller uncovers a community's obsession with real estate value when it threatens the lives of a widowed FBI agent and her teenage son.

Yvonne Klein on Reviewing the Evidence wrote:

It is not easy to slot this book into a sub-category of thriller, primarily because the author effectively raises echoes of various sub-genres - simple horror, the paranormal, solid police procedural, organized crime, and general Shirley Jackson...Just as the reader may be thinking, "Aha! - now I know where this is going," Richmond shifts gears and offers another possibility...
THE WONDER TEST engages in various ways. The social satire of life and child-raising in Silicon Valley is either entertaining or appalling, depending on the reader. The description of the art of detective surveillance is convincing and seems well grounded. If the villain of the piece seems a bit over the top, he is the more engaging because of it. And the presence of two characters struggling to cope with loss provides emotional weight. Most readers will find, as I did, quite enough here to satisfy.

Barbara Peters on The Poisoned Pen Booknews wrote:

For various reasons this unusual thriller delighted me in similar ways to Korelitz’s The Plot...I did not see the true wonder of the plot twist coming...Richmond’s tale poses the question: “Is it better to do the right thing for the wrong reason or the wrong thing for the right reason? Using diacritical logic, chart your answer.”

Sarah Lyall on The New York Times Book Review wrote:

The SATs are horrible enough; be glad that your kids aren’t required to take the exam in Michelle Richmond’s THE WONDER TEST, a fiendish exercise required of tenth graders in an upscale Silicon Valley neighborhood...Richmond has an engaging, fluid writing style that makes even the preposterous seem plausible

Tom Nolan on The Wall Street Journal wrote:

"Ms. Richmond maintains a creepy sense of dread throughout, even as she explores Rory’s coming-of-age and Lina’s coming-to-terms... chilling but heartwarming tale..."

Don Noble on Alabama Public Radio wrote:

"...the novel morphs from satirical literary fiction to smooth, intelligent, and fairly violent thriller."

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Also by Michelle Richmond: THE MARRIAGE PACT,

the Sunday Times bestseller published in 30 languages.

"This fast-paced nail-biter...raises thoughtful questions about individual agency and marital commitment. A fresh voice for readers of Gillian Flynn or Ruth Ware." Library Journal, starred review

“The Marriage Pact ranks with GONE GIRL as a terrifying look at what it really means to say ‘I do.’”—Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of The Switch

"A smart, searing, frightening look at modern love." Today.com