Stella Sands introduces an unusual new mystery heroine in Wordhunter. Maggie Moore is a genius on language and use of words, 'a certified weirdo nerd'.

She starts to work with Olemeda Detective Silas Jackson, first to track down a cyber stalker/rapist and later to find a kidnapped girl.

The exploration of forensic linguistics adds depth and interest to an already excellent mystery.

Wordhunter follows Maggie Moore, a college student and linguistic savant who is asked by police to assist with a murder investigation. After the local mayor’s daughter is kidnapped, Maggie’s task becomes more urgent, and she must try to find the girl before it’s too late.

I loved the setting of this novel, especially the gritty detail of Maggie’s dysfunctional upbringing, her waitressing job, and the colorful cast of characters in her rural Florida town. I also enjoyed the idea of a linguist helping to solve crimes. Sands dots the novel with sentences that Maggie remembers or loves and each of them is diagrammed, a nice nod to how her brain works and a fun literary Easter egg for those following along. However, on the whole this novel did not work for me. The plot and mystery seemed under-developed, and the connection between Maggie’s past and the current case also was farfetched. I felt like the investigation in the novel was unrealistic and kept wondering why the characters were making the choices they did.

I do think Sands has an eye for character and a great grasp of setting, and I would try another one of her novels. This one, however, was just so-so for me.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a copy of the book.

I love the linguistic elements of this mystery, but it’s a bit darker than I expected when I first picked it up… I found the story extremely engaging and it’s a great read for late summer/early fall when a darker murder mystery can really hit the spot…

Mixed feelings on this one!

I did love the idea of word psychology, and think it was exceptionally well portrayed. The main character read as extremely consistent on that front, and I enjoyed the relationship between her and the ex-detective.

However--this isn't a book to go into lightly, as it deals with issues of sexual assault, and pedophilia, and honestly, I don't think those were handled well for a book meant to entertain. The MC SEES a bookseller she knows have underage girls (read: teens???) in the backroom of his shop and she does NOTHING but yell threats that "if she sees him doing this again..." ???

I enjoyed the book to a degree, but because of the above, it felt... wrong to enjoy, with its brush-off of some pretty heavy issues it tries to tackle.

Sad not to be able to rate this higher; very grateful still to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

So as I always try to do do when I write a review on the negative side I start with a congratulations to the author fir publishing a book, that’s a huge accomplishment. But this book just was not for me.

Sigh, this book had an interesting premise with a linguist savant as the main character but the whole thing fell flat for me. Maggie was just not a great character. For someone so smart she made very poor decisions and just did not have a believable personality. The story itself was a bit of a mess.

As an almost lifelong Floridian I hated the stereotypical white trash-terrible humans-people from Florida are scum stereotypes that fill this book.
Believe me, most of us are hardworking and decent people living our lives.

And the constant sentence diagramming? I found it as tedious now as I did as a child in school (do they even teach that anymore?) This is setup to be the start of a series, if there’s another book I won’t be continuing.

So this book was not for me but maybe it will be for you.

**Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.**

I wanted so much to like this tale as it has an interesting premise but the narrative is all over the place. Maggie Moore is an interesting character as she is a genius with words and sentences which leads to local police to tag her in helping solve kidnapping cases. The central Florida setting is somewhat realistic with its prejudices and lack of sophistication, but with Maggie as centerpiece the story goes off in tangents. She has an absent mother, a missing best friend from childhood, a relationship (sort of) with a cop and also her college professor. Depressed, Maggie drinks a huge amount of alcohol and that strains creditbilty that she can toss down beers for breakfast and still keep her head in the game. The mystery solving is pretty well done but I question the belivability of Maggie lifestyle.

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.

In *Wordhunter*, Stella Sands introduces Maggie Moore, an unconventional yet brilliant forensic linguistics student. Maggie might seem disorganized, but her unique ability to decipher the most complex linguistic puzzles lands her a crucial role in a local investigation. The rural town's authorities call on Maggie to crack the disturbing messages left by a stalker, but when the case escalates to the abduction of the mayor’s daughter, Maggie’s personal history makes her reluctant to get involved. Haunted by a tragedy from her past, she’s unsure if she’s too emotionally invested to solve this crime. Nevertheless, she teams up with Detective Jackson to analyze the linguistic clues, uncovering unsettling truths about the case.

The novel offers a fresh take on crime-solving, with the focus on forensic linguistics setting it apart from more conventional mysteries. Sands creates a gripping atmosphere as Maggie uses her expertise to untangle the psychological nuances behind the suspects’ words. I found *Wordhunter* fascinating and engaging throughout, with its original approach. Maggie is a compelling protagonist.. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and would eagerly read another by Stella Sands.

Maggie is a linguistic savant who has grown up with most chips stacked against her. She lives at the poverty line in a trailer park in rural central Florida, nursed and lost her single mother to cancer while in high school, and is putting herself through grad school by waiting tables overnight at a truck stop diner. Add to the mix a missing childhood best friend and a possible substance abuse problem, and Maggie is treading into classic anti-hero territory. Her brilliance leads one of her professors to recommend her to consult local law enforcement with a stalking and abduction case and Maggie signs on to assist with the investigation. Maggie is likable, and one roots for her to not only succeed in solving the crime, but to also get out of her own way and make more sensible choices for her personal life.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #HarperPaperbacks for the opportunity to read and review "Wordhunter" by Stella Sands. I learned about this book from another Long Island writer and instructor I deeply admire, so I had a good feeling, in advance, about its content. What a fun, unique, and also disturbingly uncomfortable novel, with a standout protagonist: Maggie Moore.

Maggie is absolutely obsessed with words: linguistics, diagramming sentences, and seeing everything as a puzzle to be solved. Her retention of facts and associations is staggering and she uses all of these "super skills" to solve crimes as she is recruited by a local police force to analyze texts and threatening letters which may aid in saving the lives of women in life-threatening situations.

Her thought processes are compelling and she is a fountain of book and movie quotes. Same with her knowledge of serial killers..
"Anyone whose middle name is part of his identity is either a serial killer or planning to become one. For sure, that included most of the men in Florida." This observation proved funny and strangely true in her world.

A subplot to the above is the fact that her best friend Lucy disappeared from her life at the age of 14 and Maggie has never figured out how or why nor recovered from this tremendous loss. We don't know much about Maggie's childhood and early adult life beyond a harrowing day-to-day existence with an extremely critical and unkind mother and her use of Lucy's friendship as her safe and happy place in life. She and Lucy shared a fascination with words and puzzles and Maggie continued her education -- expanding her knowledge of linguistics and capitalizing on her already unique talents with language. Two men become pivotal throughout the course of the novel -- her linguistics professor, Ditmire, and Officer Jackson (no spoilers) but each of these relationships take on new levels of importance and impact her life greatly as the novel progresses. Maggie is a independent, wild, tattooed, pierced, heavy-drinking, motorcycle-driving young woman who defies many stereotypes but also manages to stay vulnerable to the reader throughout.

In Maggie's words, "If only life were as formularized and unsurprising as diagramming the parts of speech of a sentence."

People who love crime reads, unique characters, and language will love this one. Great job, Stella!!!

OMG! WORDHUNTER by Stella Sands is DEFINITELY ONE OF MY TOP 3 OF THE YEAR! I could NOT put this one down!

Maggie Moore is a forensic linguistics grad student at Rosedale College when Professor Ditmire pegs her to help the police department in deciphering a note left by a perpetrator. Detective Silas Jackson, a big, gruff man who thinks it’s all hooey (her skills), is shocked when her evaluation holds true. She is contacted by him again when the Chief’s friend (the Mayor of a neighbouring town)’s daughter is kidnapped right off the street. Maggie refuses to work on this case as it hits too close to a personal tragedy in her own life. Silas, however, believes that maybe Maggie has some skills after all. When she explains to him the reasons for her refusal, he promises to help her in anyway he can. I was only a few chapters in before hoping that Maggie and Silas would become a team I would see in the future.

Meanwhile, Professor Ditmire asks Maggie to be his research assistant and tasks her with many of the day to day teaching assistant jobs but also with writing some materials that he takes credit for in publication. What is Maggie to do? She’ll just be happy to graduate and hopes for a job in law enforcement in the future. She just wants to keep her head down at her job in the diner, get on her motorcycle and ride away her problems and maybe take a pill or two.

When she winds up in the emergency room, Silas is there for her. He bundles her up, takes her home, and listens to her backstory. As the search for the Mayor’s missing daughter continues, Maggie is faced with another tragedy whose aftermath could have far reaching consequences. All of this leads to many shocking conclusions that left my jaw on the floor and had me rooting till the end.

I am amazed to see all of the other books by Stella Sands as she writes exactly the kind of books I love. I felt like the research that went into this book was over and above. And diagramming sentences? What book lover hasn’t done THAT a time or two or ten in their heads? Her writing is clear and concise which leads to a very enjoyable read. I could not turn the page as fast enough and got nothing done all day while racing to the explosive conclusion. I stayed up way too late to reach the end. I will certainly be checking out more from this author. DO NOT MISS THIS BOOK IF YOU LOVE PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE. 5+*

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and gladly given voluntarily.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! I am a bit behind on arcs so my review is coming a bit late (sorry!)

This book follows a linguistic investigator and a cop as they investigate.

Unfortunately, I just couldn't get into this book. I just had a hard time connecting with Maggie as a main character. She just made bad choices and it drove me a little crazy. I hope others love this one but it wasn't for me!

The very short review: Wordhunter is binge-level readable with a compelling buddy-cop pairing of Maggie Moore, a 20-something hot mess and linguistic savant, and Silas Jackson, a longtime detective with skeletons in his closet.

The only slightly longer review: With diagrammed sentences from classic literature judiciously sprinkled throughout, this is a work of crime fiction tailor-made to appeal to word nerds everywhere. Add to that a set of main characters who are both imperfect and complex in all the right ways, and you've got a mystery that might be hard to put down.

Would it have been better to eliminate one or two subplots during a late edit? Undoubtedly. Nevertheless, Sands delivers an intense, character-driven debut novel that left me hoping for a follow-up or three.

The first few pages of this arresting novel paint a picture of the heroine as a quiet young academic who uses the act of sentence diagramming as a centering exercise, and basks when her untrumpeted genius is finally recognized by another. In fact, the adult Maggie Moore at the beginning of this book is so austere and focused on words that I was honestly a little worried that I’d be stuck reading about a joyless, bloodless pedant, until it becomes vibrantly clear that she’s anything but.

Despite being an academic prodigy and a gifted linguist, Maggie has never left the state she grew up in, much less moved away from the Central Florida home where she’s lived all twenty-something years of her life. Grad school at the local university is about all she can afford on her waitressing job, when she isn’t blowing money on tattoos, cigarettes and alcohol. Her unbounded intellectual hunger is dampened by the guilt, merited or otherwise, that she still feels over what happened in her not-too-distant past.

While she was still in high school, her best friend Lucy Wells disappeared. She’s been fascinated, almost to the point of obsession, with crime-solving ever since. When a particularly charismatic professor asks if she wants to help the police with a case, she jumps at the chance. A young woman has been receiving threatening texts, and the cops want to see if Maggie can help narrow down the suspects based on the language of the threats. Given how rare it is for her to have the opportunity to discuss her interests with most of the people she knows, Maggie is thrilled to be able to explain her process to the sometimes disbelieving police:

QUOTE
“A semicolon,” Maggie said. “In forensic linguistics, that’s what we look for. Clues in punctuation, word choice, spelling, syntactic structure, and so on[.] Little clues can have a big meaning. I’m saying very few people in the world know how to use that punctuation mark, let alone actually employ it.[”]

“Because two people use the same stupid punctuation mark, you’re ready to point a finger?”

“I could cite a case in which a murderer was snagged in part because a forensic linguist linked his consistent incorrect use of the apostrophe in contraction–cant’, wont’, wouldn’t’–in both a ransom note and in the guy’s everyday writing. It pointed the cops towards one of their suspects. That’s what I’m all about. Just pointing a finger in the right direction.”
END QUOTE

Her very first case is an unqualified success, cementing her status as consultant to the sleepy local police precinct. In addition to expanding her horizons in law enforcement, it also burnishes her academic prospects. But when the daughter of the mayor one town over is abducted, Maggie panics and tries to get out of analyzing the note the kidnapper left behind. The victim is almost the same age as Lucy was when she vanished. Maggie has spent so long futilely seeking out justice for her friend that she isn’t sure she can handle taking on another potential heartbreak.

Workaholic Police Detective Silas Jackson has other ideas, and isn’t above either coaxing or threatening her into helping. Maggie eventually warms up to the investigation but then gets perhaps too involved, to Jackson’s dismay. She keeps tagging along with him into dangerous situations, even when he strictly admonishes her to stay safely back and act as lookout:

QUOTE
“Okay, new plan. I’m going to check it out. You’re heading to the truck. Eyes and ears peeled. If you see someone coming, drive around back. I’ll hear you, and we’ll bomb out that way.”

“Roger that, partner.”

“This time, listen to me. I’m dead serious.”

Maggie watched Jackson as he went towards the heavily wooded area. For a quick minute, she contemplated listening to him and getting back in the truck.

“Abandoned?” Maggie asked softly.

“Oh for Chrissake. You’re the worst.”

“We’ll clear the place quicker this way,” Maggie said.
END QUOTE

Maggie and Jackson’s unlikely but firm friendship is only one of the highlights of this quirky yet affecting mystery novel. Maggie deflects from her trauma with books and humor, mingling easily with her dirtbag friends even as she grapples with being exploited by those whom she least expects to hurt her. Touching as well on the perils of being a young woman in academia, Wordhunter is a deftly written heartbreaker of a novel that I’m hoping is only the first of a series featuring our irrepressible heroine.

I was really looking forward to read this. After reading however I had mixed feelings about the book. I don't love Maggie the MFC, but I don't hate her either. The story was a bit slow in the beginning and there were many references that I did not understand. I found the forensic linguistics and sentence diagramming very interesting though.

I received an electronic ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Life is tough for Maggie. She’s in her mid-20s, in gradschool working, and trying to do it all with no real friends or family. Her best friend went missing when they were 14 or 15. And her single mother died a few years later.

To make it worse, Maggie lives rural Florida, and it’s a real “man’s world,” full of “guy’s guys” whose typically proto-masculine behaviors are tolerated by society, if not encouraged. The customers at her diner job shout out come-ons as their idea of a joke, and she deals with them by one-upping their comments, saying things like, “Only someone with a tiny penis would ask that.” (Not direct quotes.)

Because 1. she is expected to tolerate their behavior, up to and including slaps and groping and 2. she actually has slept with some of them. Right after her mother died. When they were grown men and she was a teenager. Ew and ew and ew. Please note: none of this information is a spoiler, it’s just background information, setting the scene.

Luckily, Maggie has a real talent with words. She’s studying linguistics and seems to have a very bright future if her circumstances don’t get her down. The main plot begins when Maggie is recommended to consult for the local police in the field of forensic linguistics. Meaning she analyses notes, emails and texts, to see if she can find similarities between suspects, similarities within two documents that suggest that they were written by the same person, and/or linguistic tics that could point out details about a person’s upbringing, location, level of education, etc.

Content warning, the crimes being discussed include sexual violence, kidnapping, and minors. All of the crimes happen off the page, but the notes and emails left by the perpetrators of the different cases are sometimes graphic and disgusting. This is a hard-boiled story. Some Silence of the Lambs vibes from this one for me.

Maggie tries not to let the crimes get to her, but she has untreated PTSD regarding both her friend’s disappearance and her mother’s death. She deals by smoking, drinking, working too hard with the police, at school and at the diner. Of course that means something will have to give sometime.

I quite enjoyed the discussion of forensic linguistics, both historical (famously, the Unabomber was caught in part because his brother recognized his preference for re-arranging the aphorism to “eat your cake and have it too”) and within the plot. Although she is presented as exceptionally talented, and her memory is incredible, her forensic deductions seemed completely realistic and the more interesting for it.

I would be remiss without mentioning the depiction of men and the lack of depiction of other women. As in many noir stories, there are very few “good guys” here. The men in Maggie’s neighborhood are sleazy degenerates, same for the customers at the diner. The cops as a whole are presented as kind of lazy and uncaring. Her male faculty advisor is nice enough but kind of weird about making sure no one overshadows him, even in casual conversation. The only examples we have of men with some good qualities are Detective Jackson and the Chief of Police. I also wish we got more substance from her (few) female friend/acquaintanceships. Her coworker at the diner, for instance, seems to care about Maggie. But that’s part of the point; Maggie feels like she has no one, has to do everything for herself, and kind of self-sabotages any potentially healthy relationships.

Overall, the case is interesting but disgusting, Maggie is a realistic genius, and other oxymorons. The twist wasn't a huge shocker, but I didn’t exactly see it coming.

Recommended for people who like hardboiled stories, realistic antiheroes, and especially forensic linguistics.

Wow. The writing in this is superb. I knew I’d love this book from the first chapter. It’s dark, it’s sad, it’s psychological, it’s brilliant.

The analysis of sentences, body language, appearance, etc by Maggie throughout the book is provocative. The way she perceives and analyzes the world is beautiful.

The way she wrote the description of Maggie for us - the reader - was a new approach that I loved. It starts with a recounting of her tattoos, then her piercings then

“she stepped closer to the mirror - hello there Maggie Moore”

followed by a description of Maggie. Then throughout the rest of the book the characters are described through Maggie’s unique processing that almost reads like an official law enforcement description:

“Black
Early forties
Wrangler boot-cut pressed jeans
Rattlesnake belt
Black cowboy shirt, white trim pockets, pearl buttons
Black alligator boots
Bulge on his hip: 38 no doubt”

Please check trigger warnings before reading.

Maggie has had some tough luck and she’s a bit of a mess. I love how she puts her word brilliance to work to help solve crimes. I love how she diagrams sentences (English major here). Some of the subject matter was dark and disturbing. I like her relationship with the cop, Jackson, they make a good team.

2.25 stars

The concept of someone using linguistics to solve crime, a la the unabomber case, is so interesting, so I was excited to read this. Maggie is a 21-year-old graduate student who gets asked to assist with a police case involving linguistics, studying threatening text messages to try and identify the perpetrator by their spelling, contents, and word use. Cool, right?!
Unfortunately, Maggie is the worst, and not in a way that's fun to read about. She's got extreme substance abuse problems and regularly self-sabotages, and she's very hypocritical, working to solve cases involving crimes against children while being friendly with multiple men she knows pursue minors. She's suspicious of everyone except for people who actually mean her harm, and can't get out of her own way. 

Additionally, for a book thats entire premise is how important word choice is, some of the mechanical writing was just odd, and the plot was not much better. Connections in cases were made very easily and conveniently, serious content was brushed over casually, and I'm still not over the sentence where Maggie described learning how important words were in English class at age 12 and "holding them closely like a lover". At 12. 
The actual linguistic analysis in this was interesting and I will probably look up more information about the field after, but this book was not for me. At least it was short. Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wordhunter by Stella Sands was such an exciting and thrilling story.
The quirky characters were entertaining and the writing was fantastic.
A fun and intriguing story from beginning to end.