Wordhunter: A Novel
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Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
An utterly original and compulsively readable detective story about a woman who uses her uncanny ability to analyze words and speech patterns to help solve crimes.
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
This one should have been a slam dunk for me and ultimately I will read the next one if it happens but hopefully the author will get a more knowledgeable editor.
The protagonist’s thing is linguistics and having her diagram sentences frequently is cool and expected but having those sentences only in the diagrams breaks the focus of the reader (me).
Make sure the author is up to the mettle of her budding genius creation. If someone says “…he could care less”, there is no way someone has pendantic as Maggie wouldn’t flag that as incorrect even if only in her thoughts.
But worse for me is the avoidance of action. We only hear about most of that as exposition from mostly Maggie after the fact.
