Wordhunter: A Novel

Maggie Moore is a wordhunter. She’s able to solve any linguistic puzzle and is the top student of the linguistics program. This garners Maggie some attention from the local police, who ask for her help with a stalker’s messages. After helping catch that culprit, Maggie is again asked to aid the police when the mayor’s daughter is kidnapped. Maggie wants to say no, as she still struggles with the disappearance of her childhood friend, but knows she can’t walk away from this case if it’s possible for her to help.

This book was a hard read. Most of the women in this story are raped, so be aware of that going in. The language is horrible, which feels ironic, that someone so skilled with words can’t come up with something better to say. There is often mention of characters as if you should know who they are, but have never been mentioned before. The plot itself is interesting, but for me the execution of it and the characters fell a bit flat.

You might enjoy this if you like the author’s other books, but those are true crime and not fiction. Overall, a bit of a disjointed attempt at storytelling.