Review by Booklist Review
Richmond's latest thriller's light-touch appearance masks a gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, and suburban tropes: imagine a coffee date with Lisa Lutz's Spellmans and Tom Perrotta's suburbanites in a sun-drenched Twin Peaks. After her husband's death, FBI Special Agent Lina Connerly abandons the intrigues of her counterterrorism caseload and New York's painful memories, taking her teenage son, Rory, to her suburban San Francisco hometown. In Greenfield, Rory attends one of the nation's most prestigious high schools, renowned for its stellar performance on (and undeniable obsession with) the Wonder Test, an exam designed to predict future success. Ever the investigator, Lina is drawn to a local mystery that Greenfield wants to forget: the unsolved disappearances of several high-school students who later returned traumatized, unable to provide information about their lost days. When Rory's new girlfriend vanishes, Lina dives in, suspecting that disappearances are bound to the Wonder Test. What she doesn't expect is a showdown with a stone-cold killer, a cabal of craven shot-callers among Greenfield's squeaky-clean elite, and a winding path back to espionage. Richmond crafts a satisfying ending, while her gifted storytelling and Lina's compelling self-discovery will spur readers to root for more Lina Connerly adventures.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lina Connerly, the narrator of this sharply written, subtly satirical thriller from bestseller Richmond (The Marriage Pact), errs in her work as an FBI foreign counterintelligence agent after her husband dies, prompting a self-imposed leave. New York City is too full of memories, so Lina and her 15-year-old son, Rory, decamp to her recently deceased father's home in the wealthy Silicon Valley suburb of Greenfield, Calif. Rory enrolls in Greenfield's posh public high school, whose curriculum revolves around an avant-garde exam called the Wonder Test. Meanwhile, a local cop solicits Lina's help in ascertaining why teenager Gray Stafford disappeared for two weeks last year, only to turn up naked, bald, and mute on a remote beach. When Rory's girlfriend goes missing under similar circumstances, Lina and Rory team up to find her before she suffers Gray's fate. Vividly sketched characters, escalating stakes, and evocative prose distinguish 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. Agent: Valerie Borchardt, Georges Borchardt. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Reeling from the deaths of her husband and father, New York-based FBI agent Lina Connerly takes a hiatus and moves back to Greenfield, the Northern California town where she grew up, bringing her 15-year-old son Rory. Lina must settle her father's estate and sort through her feelings of grief over the loss of her husband and guilt over her last assignment, which went fatally wrong. Greenfield has changed since Lina lived there. Real estate values have skyrocketed, and the town is obsessed with maintaining its high school's top rating in a national exam called the Wonder Test, for which students endure a barrage of test prep. A local cop asks Lina for help on the cold case of a student who disappeared and then returned shell-shocked and incoherent. Then Rory's new girlfriend goes missing, and Lina uses her FBI skills and connections to investigate. VERDICT Richmond's (The Marriage Pact) latest is 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
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
International spydom meets cutthroat suburban elitism. After the sudden death of her husband, FBI agent Lina Connerly temporarily moves with her teenage son across the country to Northern California. Her father has also died recently, and she figures she can deal with his house while Rory attends the local public school, giving them both a change of scenery after having lost Fred. The school has all the markers of affluent suburban America: overly involved parents, a ridiculous endowment, and the Wonder Test, an extreme standardized test taken by all the schools in Silicon Valley. Studying such esoteric categories as "Ethicalities" and "Future Functionalities," students don't attend any real classes but instead spend all of their time taking seminars that will prepare them for the test. Lina isn't overly concerned about the school's eccentricities, but when she hears that three students have gone missing in past years only to reappear a week later, underfed and with their heads shaved, her spider sense begins to tingle. Having spent her FBI career in foreign counterintelligence, she can't resist a mystery. Between pinging phones, following suspects, and staging interrogations, Lina eventually approaches the truth--and danger. When Rory's girlfriend disappears on the eve of the Wonder Test, Lina and Rory must find her. Appealingly, all of this happens as Lina navigates her own grief, comes to terms with the way she has allowed her job to consume her, and faces the fact that Rory shares her interest in intrigue. The overlay of international spycraft on suburban California, whose shiny facade conceals the most heinous of sins and vanities, is surprisingly effective. Richmond also has fun by including a question from the Wonder Test at the beginning of each chapter, emphasizing the ridiculously competitive world of affluent high schools. The plot is sound, the action exciting, and the characters resoundingly human. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
