Wordhunter

Sands (Baby-Faced Butchers) explores the nuance of language in this engrossing mystery about graduate forensic-linguistics student Maggie Moore. While serving as a research assistant to a well-known professor on a college campus in Florida, Maggie is recruited to work alongside the local police to help solve crimes against women and girls using text from the perpetrators. Her work with the police sparks memories and emotions that are explained to listeners, exposing the seedy underbelly of the university and the community. An unlikely human connection is formed between Maggie and the lead detective, Jackson, and the story sees positive growth in both characters through the formation of a strong bond. Throughout the novel, Maggie self-soothes by diagramming sentences, and each chapter concludes with her sentence diagrams. Jeremy Carlisle Parker narrates, deftly capturing Maggie’s quirky personality and drive to unravel the mystery. Although the technical nature of the sentence diagramming can be difficult to understand in audio, a supplemental document is available for download with the audiobook to explain the diagrams.