Wordhunter

June 1, 2024

A true-crime author makes her crime fiction debut with this novel about books and language (complete with sentence diagrams and quotes) and a missing girl. The case is solved by the way suspects use language and involves emails, tweets--and ransom notes. Prepub Alert.

Copyright 2024 Library Journal

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 17, 2024
True crime author Sands (Wealthy Men Only) makes an auspicious fiction debut with this crackling mystery centered on a Lisbeth Salanderesque savant. Raised in a rusting trailer in Central Florida, 20-something Maggie Moore sees her extraordinary way with words—she can identify nearly anyone based on their syntax and sentence structure—as her only ticket out of poverty. When her linguistics professor recognizes Maggie’s talent and taps her to assist local police on a rape case, she helps nail the perp by decoding the notes he left at his crime scenes. Impressed, the cops enlist Maggie to track down Heidi Hemphill, the mayor’s kidnapped daughter. As Maggie analyzes the linguistic habits of the lead suspects and makes quick friends with Det. Silas Jackson, she starts to notice eerie similarities between Heidi’s case and that of Maggie’s best friend, Lucy Tidwell, who disappeared years earlier. The more Maggie and Jackson dig, the more they worry that the culprit might be too powerful to touch—and that they’ve unwittingly affixed targets to their own backs. Sands nails the genius investigator formula on her first try, spinning Maggie into a memorable heroine and handing her an enthralling first case. This transfixes from the first page. Agent: Anne-Lise Spitzer, Philip G. Spitzer Literary.

July 15, 2024
A hard-drinking, hard-living young genius uses her superior understanding of the English language to solve crimes. Growing up in the poverty-stricken armpit of rural Cypress Havens, Florida, Maggie Moore had her life change at 14 when her best friend, Lucy, went missing. Seven years later, having also lost her mother and graduated high school and college early, Maggie is honing her intense interest in English language and syntax as a graduate student, hoping to pursue a job in forensic linguistics. When her handsome professor selects her both to help the local police with a stalking case by analyzing several texts from the perp and to serve as his assistant, she's flattered and excited. The first opportunity pays off when Maggie uses her knowledge of Cajun dialect to help catch the stalker turned rapist; soon after, the police reach out again when a young girl, the daughter of a friend of the police chief, is abducted. But Maggie's life, held together with tequila and bravado, begins to spiral out of control when her professor reveals himself to be an egotistical and predatory misogynist. At the same time, she is beset by regrets and painful memories of Lucy's disappearance. Detective Silas Jackson, a tough and laconic local cop, elects to help her look for Lucy and is there to pick her up when the going gets really tough. Tattooed and pierced, diagramming sentences from famous novels and movies as a coping mechanism, Maggie is a refreshingly original heroine with literary sensibilities, a potty mouth, and no patience for the patriarchy. Despite the thriller construct, there is not a lot of action in the story, but unusual investigation tactics--and a brash new protagonist--lend the book energy and interest, and Sands leaves the door open for a sequel. Grammar nerds rejoice!

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 19, 2024
Meet Maggie Moore, graduate student in forensic linguistics. She drinks lots of beer, smokes, rides a motorcycle named Annabelle, and works at the local diner. She marks important life events with tattoos and piercings. And she diagrams sentences to relax and analyzes texts, notes, and vocabulary for potential clues. When the local police need help finding a cyberstalker, her analysis of his texts helps to find him. When the daughter of the mayor of a nearby town goes missing, they need more help. Maggie agrees--reluctantly, because the case brings back memories of her best friend's disappearance seven years earlier, which is now a cold case. Maggie works with Jackson, a detective with his own dark secrets, to find both missing women. She also has to deal with harassment from one of her professors and her own feelings of inadequacy. This unlikely team will keep readers turning the pages as they run through south Florida to an ending that points to the possibility of new cases.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.