Wordhunter by Stella Sands

Wordhunter by Stella Sands  

ARC from Harper and Netgalley for an honest review 

Book Blurb:

Tattooed, pierced, and a bit of a mess, Maggie Moore is a surprising genius when it comes to words, a savant able to solve any linguistic puzzle. The top student in her forensic linguistics class, she’s tapped by local police to use her skills to decipher harrowing notes left by a stalker-turned-rapist—and succeeds brilliantly.
But when the daughter of a local mayor is abducted, Maggie isn’t sure she’s the right person to help the police solve the crime. Given what happened to her best childhood friend, Maggie just might be too close to this one. Yet she knows the authorities in this rural south-Central Florida town cannot crack the case without her special skill. Along with her new best friend, a detective Jackson, Maggie begins to analyze the texts, emails, and verbal tics of various suspects . . . and comes to a disturbing conclusion that will rock this small community.

My Review: 4 stars

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Wordhunter by Stella Sands was another book I selected based on the cover and title alone. I was the kid in school who loved diagramming sentences so when I learned that the main character, Maggie, uses diagramming as a means to solving crimes, I was SOLD!

Maggie is motherless, messy, mostly drunk, pierced, tattooed, doesn’t sleep, a crazy hard worker and a savant in linguistics. What’s not to love? Honestly, I wanted to “mom” her so hard and give her the biggest hug! There are a few plot lines threaded through the book that follow two different mysteries. I liked how the author dropped a few red herrings and gave the reader time to figure out what was the truth and what was false.

Her relationship with Detective Jackson was well portrayed. He wants her to stay her lane, while she wants to be a lead investigator. She comes with loads of baggage, he has enough already. Even with their few similarities and many differences, they make a good team. I liked the information about the manifesto left by the Unabomber, as I had forgotten that it was a linguistics team that helped catch him.

I highly enjoyed this book and if you like words and wordplay, you’ll likely enjoy it as well.

Quotes I liked:

Curiosity, it seems to me, could be the most important attribute for a detective.”

“Bounce back and it’s only a pothole. Dwell there and it’s a sinkhole.” 

“I really do not know that anything has ever been more exciting than diagramming sentences.”