Wonderland
- porchswingreading
- Sep 7, 2023
- 2 min read
From Amazon:
By day, Wonderland is a magical amusement park boasting a certain retro charm. Excited children, hands sticky with cotton candy, run frenetically from ride to ride while the tinkling music of the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest fills the air. But behind the scenes, the rides need repairs, and the clown museum is filled with a lot more than just wax figures. Someone is working hard to keep the park’s dark secrets hidden beneath its weathered attractions.
Vanessa Castro’s first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, is off to a bang. The unidentifiable homeless man rotting inside the tiny town’s main tourist attraction is strange enough, but now a teenage employee is missing. Clues lead Vanessa into a mysterious web of missing persons cases that goes back decades. She moved to Seaside to escape her own scandalous past, but has she brought her family to the center of an insidious killer’s twisted game?
Shew small towns and their politics....
Seaside Washington is home to Wonderland amusement park with the amazing wonder wheel. A small town where everyone rallys behind the park and does anything and everything to make sure it runs perfectly.
Wonderlands picturesque landscape is thrown into chaos one day when a dead body is found in the midway. At the same time a young man who works at the park goes missing.
Vanessa is the new deputy police chief and she catches this case on her first day. She has to answer to her boss who thinks wonderwold can do no wrong.
The CEO of the park Bianca just wants everything wrapped up quickly so the park can continue to make money and the reputation of the park isn't tarnished. Bianca irritated me through the entire book. She literally didn't care about anything or anyone but herself.
While investigating the dead man found in the park Vanessa stumbled upon multiple missing boys from previous years. The wonder workers went missing but due to crappy police work and loyalty to the park their disappearances are chalked up to bring runaways.
Nice twists and turns with a few red herrings thrown in the mix. The story comes together nicely. Is Wonderwold the nexus of the problems? But what will the town do if their beloved park comes under scrutiny?
4/5 stars 🤩
I think I am going to pass on this one for now. Too scary/creepy for my taste. I don’tIke the whole haunted house/scary park thing😂