Solid by Shelley Workinger

Secret military testing is nothing new to this era. Secret military chromosomal testing on pregnant women is new. When a military doctor is murdered, a web of lies & experiments unfolds that leads his commanders to understand that the decedent gave experimental drugs to pregnant women on military bases. His goal was to create special abilities in the offspring. Unfortunately, as his research was of his own design & management, the military is unaware of the drugs' components. That's where the kids come in to play.

Although it took them eighteen years to round them all up, Clio, Bliss, Miranda, Garrett, Jack & dozens of other military brats find themselves at an altogether different kind of summer camp. For the next several weeks they will be living a very comfortable life of ease with plenty of free Starbucks, recreational activities, oh and some simple testing of their "talents."

None of the gang is too impressed or terrified of this situation because, other than them being essentially on military lock down & having to attend "sessions" to study their abilities during the day, they are given extensive leeway to do as they please. It's all pretty mesmerizing, until the gang uncovers some seriously sinister information about how long this project has really been investigated & who is behind it. It's up to this mock "Scooby gang" to solve the mystery before things get even stranger.

I must admit that Solid was a very unique story. The thought of secret government testing has always been a "conspiracy theory" of mine. I mean honestly, do we know everything they do? Is this so far fetched? Anyway, I digress.

Solid was, at it's basis, a feel good mystery. There wasn't anything too nefarious & while there were some dastardly deeds committed, there was minimal peril to the main characters. I enjoyed watching the characters come together & work off each others' strengths & weakness to make the best of the situation they found themselves in. What I didn't care for was the instant romance between two of the characters & the compressed time frame. The whole book takes place within about a week and a half. While there are many illusions to previous events only relevant to mystery solving, there just didn't seem to be enough time for everything that happened to happen. Maybe a month would have been a better time frame for this novel.

I must admit though, I really enjoyed the writing style, the characters & the details. It is obvious that Shelley Workinger put a lot of thought into how this would all play out & be perceived. A very straightforward read, Solid is one that I would recommend for readers looking for a light mystery with humor & a minor steamy romance. A job well done!

Be sure to keep an eye out for the next novel in the Solid series, Settling that is set to come out later this year!