The Wonder Test by Michelle Richmond

Atlantic Monthly Press, 448 pages, $25.99

In so many ways “The Wonder Test” was my idea of a perfect book. It had a propulsive main story, it had quirky asides, it had a strong lead character, it had little and big stories. I’ll let you in on the bottom line early: I’ve awarded this book an MBTB star!

Lina Connerly is on leave from the FBI as a spy/profiler. (Maybe not the FBI per se, but a shadowy organization with international interests Richmond calls the FBI.) Her husband died not long before the book starts. She pulled up roots from New York City and moved herself and her 15-year-old son, Rory, to Greenfield, California, south of San Francisco, in the valley of the tech industry. Lina grew up in a town close by but a few median pay levels down. She resisted the urge to move back to where her father eventually dropped anchor, in an area of Greenfield full of the rich and the very rich. (Lina’s father bought early, did his own renovation, and hung on to his property.) He and Lina’s husband died within a three-month period, leaving Lina and Rory unable to process their loss.

Lina had a civil servant’s salary and without her husband’s income, she realized NYC would not have been an easy choice anyway. The economy was not easier in California, however, since the thirst for land felt by people made rich by the tech industry pushed up home values. As Lina weeds out her father’s stuff, she must consider the feasibility of selling his home.

Rory is enrolled in the local public school and immediately becomes slotted into the school’s only curriculum for sophomores, a teaching to the test in extremis. The Wonder Test is held nationwide for high school sophomores. It is especially a BFD for the aggressive and assertive school community. They have had the best tests scores, the best students, the best families, the best results over the past few years, especially thanks to the new school board superintendent, Kobayashi. (Just Kobayashi.) There is a “Stepford Wives” vibe.

Rory has no trouble with the intense studying. Sophomores must practice answering profound, intellectually provocative questions that delve deeply into science, history, philosophy, dialectics, and ethics. The start of each chapter of Richmond’s book has what appears to be a sample question. For instance:

Assuming the universe is always expanding, at what point does it become less likely that you will find your lost keys by continuing to look for them? Diagram and discuss.

Or:

Ranchers in Wyoming, tired of losing sheep to wild coyotes, implemented an aggressive plan to cull the coyote population. Ten years later, after dozens of successful hunts and hundreds of kills, the coyote population is more than an order of magnitude larger than before the slaughter. In a 750-word essay, discuss the folly of conventional wisdom and the power of expecting the unexpected.

Almost every question had me trolling through Google to see what the heck the question was even asking.

Then there is the central mystery. Soon Lina is aware that last year a boy from the school disappeared for a few days. He was found naked, confused, and emaciated on a nearby beach. The year before, twins similarly disappeared. They, too, re-appeared after a few days. Although she is on hiatus — not just because her husband and father died, but also because “something” happened at work that shook her up — Lina cannot help but try to discover what happened to the boy, Gray Stafford. Even though he returned alive, he has become subdued and disinclined to socialize, and does not want to talk about what happened to him. 

Almost immediately upon arriving in the area, Lina notices a distinguished man with a French accent and manner. He turns out to be a diplomat. Lina’s antenna quivers and she asks Rory to see if there is a French student at school. Rory goes above and beyond and before long, Caroline, the diplomat’s daughter, is Rory’s girlfriend. 

Lina receives more input that all is not as it seems in her new community. There are strange people, strange events, undercurrents. What is going on? Why does it make people uncomfortable when she seeks information about Gray?

At the same time her investigative nose begins to twitch, Lina realizes she must face how she feels about the work she left abruptly behind. Inevitably, she needs the tradecraft and assets of her old life, and her two worlds begin to collide.

What annoyed me in reading Caroline B. Cooney’s book, “The Grandmother Plot” — too much going on, too many people, too many little plots, not enough synthesis — has the opposite effect on me here. In “The Wonder Test,” there are many characters, many little stories, many sidebars without obvious relevance, but they head in the same direction, with the goal of uncovering the mystery of Greenfield, California, and it was grand.

There is much to see and do in “The Wonder Test.” MBTB star!