Young, smart, and brash, Maggie Moore should have the world at her fingertips. Instead, she carries her emotional baggage like it’s her job. She drinks too much, smokes too much, works overnight hours at a cheap diner, and tries to ignore the everything holding her back.

One place she does allow herself to excel is the college classroom, specifically the forensic linguistics course. Ever since she was in middle school, language just made sense. Words and phrases slot together in perfect and personal ways. They just make sense for her.

Russky1802, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When the mayor’s daughter disappears, the local police ask for her help in analyzing the notes left by the abductor. Her professor, and law enforcement, think she can offer insights they are missing. She acts as an unofficial profiler considering the perpetrator’s vocabulary and choice of phrasing.

Professor Alcott had told the students, “Perps like to misdirect purposely misspell, use grammar that’s not considered correct according to schoolbooks, choose words that suggest a different ethnicity or education level than their own. But,” she added,  “sometimes they’re not as clever as they think.”

Professor Alcott gave the example of a kidnapping that took place in a western state. The kidnapper’s ransom note demanded that the money be left on the devil strip at the corner of 18th and Carlson. Renowned, astute forensic linguist Roger Shuy knew that the patch of grass betwen the street and the sidewalk is called various things in different American dialect areas, including “sidewalk buffer,” “tree lawn,” and “Green belt.” But it’s called “devil strip” only in one regionally restricted area — Akron, Ohio. Fortunately for the investigators in the case, and unfortunately for the kidnapper, the suspect pool included only one gentlemen from Akron. ~ Loc. 282

The investigation also allows her to revisit the unsolved disappearance of her best friend when they were children. Maggie employs both official channels and a fresh approach to her memories of that traumatic time.

As a character, Maggie feels almost too messy — like a central Floridian Lisbeth Salander. She has been through a lot, no doubt, but it does feel like overkill at some points. During one series of clue chases, she stays awake something like four days straight, yet she still manages to attend class, finish assignments, chase bad guys, and work at the diner. It isn’t necessary to exaggerate her disorderly life.

It’s an interesting read, using a new aspect to enter the genre of police procedurals. It’s not always narratively satisfying but agreeable enough.

My thanks to HarperCollins for the review copy. Read via NetGalley.

Publisher: ‎Harper Paperbacks (August 6, 2024)
Language: ‎English
Paperback: ‎256 pages
ISBN-10: ‎0063345307