Stella Sands’ Wordhunter – Using Linguistics to Solve Crimes

It’s been a long time since I diagrammed a sentence. Sometime in middle school, as I recall. My children never learned how to construct those straight and diagonal lines to identify nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. There’s a good reason for that. In 1985, the National Council of Teachers of English declared that diagramming sentences was “a deterrent to the improvement of students’ speaking and writing.”

One diagram from the book. Can you guess who said it? (Answer below.)

Maggie Moore, the tattooed, pierced, motorcycle-riding genius in Stella Sands’ mystery, Wordhunter, is an expert in linguistics. Studying the words, phrases, and slang people use, whether they are speaking or writing, gives her the information she needs to create a profile. In her spare time, she diagrams sentences, and not just simple five word ones, but long ones from Hemingway, Twain, Atwood, Proust, and even Bob Dylan. (Sands sprinkles these sentence diagrams throughout the pages and they are something to behold.)

Moore comes from hard scrapple beginnings and has put herself through college and now is in graduate school at Rosedale University. When she’s not in class, she earns extra money working at Big Eats, a local hang out where the motto is “Bigger is Better.” On her sleepless nights, she visits, Black Dog Books, an all night coffee shop/book store run by Toothless Jake. The shop sells books by the pound and since Maggie loves to read, she usually leaves with a sack full.

Although she tries to keep a low profile, her linguistic abilities bring her to the attention of Professor Ditmire, the college’s Academic Affairs Coordinator. Not only does he ask her to help him with a paper he’s writing, but he recommends her to the Cyprus Havens police department. A stalker is sending threatening texts to a young woman and the police have had no luck narrowing their suspect list. Maggie is suspicious of the Florida police since they did nothing to help after her childhood best friend, Lucy, went missing. But when the detective in charge of the investigation, Silas Jackson, emails Maggie the contents of some of the notes, her investigative abilities kick in. 

While these notes mean little to Jackson, Maggie is able to learn much about the sender. She predicts that the sender is educated (perfect spelling except for a few mistakes, which she believes are intentional), male (most stalkers are), and not a millennial or Gen Z (no emojis, favored by younger users). 

Jackson shows up at Big Eats to tell Maggie the victim was abducted, taken to a field and raped. She survived, but was able to tell the police little about her attacker. He lays out for Maggie everyday texts gathered from the five men who are suspects. Maggie circles key sentences in each email. When a new text comes in on the victim’s phone, Maggie zeroes in on the phrase “gunna keep abusin’ on you.” She tells Jackson: “Non-Cajun folks, like you and me, would say `abusing’ someone not `abusin’ on.” Her conclusion: the assailant is from Louisiana. That description fits one of the suspects and when he’s arrested, additional evidence links him to the victim. 

Stella Sands (Photo Credit: Beowulf Sheehan)

Maggie is suddenly a hero and Chief Murray wants to congratulate her personally. He presents her with a plaque – totally unexpected – and asks about her methods, particularly regionalisms, what led her to identify the rapist as being from Louisiana. She uses as an example the simple sandwich that goes by numerous names – a hoagie in Philadelphia, a po’boy in New Orleans, a grinder in Boston, a sub in New Hampshire, a torpedo in Los Angeles, and a hero in New York. Even if someone moves from Philly to the Big Easy, he might give away his background by asking for a hoagie. There are many examples of Maggie’s methods throughout the book and I found them fascinating. 

Maggie doesn’t have to wait long for her next case. The mayor’s daughter has been abducted and the clock is ticking. Chief Murray calls her in to consult and once again she works with Jackson, and their relationship moves from professional to personal. And while Maggie’s status as a police consultant takes off, at college she faces an accusation that could end her academic career. 

Stella Sands has created an appealing character in Maggie Moore. Wordsmiths will find much to chew over as they follow Maggie’s methods for identifying the criminals. The plot is fast moving and there are surprises galore along the way. The ending leaves much up in the air, so we can only hope that Sands will launch a series. Whatever happens, we will all be practicing our sentence diagramming. 

Wordhunter
Stella Sands

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Sentence diagram: “Do it to him before he does it to you.” Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront.“

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