From what I can tell, this is a first novel, although the author has written a number of nonfiction true crime books. First let me warn you that there is sexual assault and child abduction, so you are forewarned.
I liked the quirky main character, Maggie, who comes from the wrong side of the tracks, but is finding her way in the academic world. Her behaviour suggests that she is on the spectrum somewhere. She is obsessed with words, sentences, and forensic linguistics. To calm herself, she diagrams sentence structures. She is an encyclopedia of random facts and statistics. Despite her intelligence, she has all the bad habits—smoking, drinking, and drug use—but still manages to keep up with school and a job.
One of Maggie's professors has suggested her to the local police to help with a case based on threatening text messages which she analyzes. She and Detective Jackson manage to solve the case and Maggie adds police work and softball to her already busy schedule.
I'm always disappointed when an author takes the easy route of using sexual assault to challenge their character. I know it happens and that many women don't report it. But surely we can find other ways to test our fictional female characters. There are different obstacles for male characters--can't we do the same for women?
This is a quick read and the author leaves enough loose threads to justify a sequel. I wouldn't be surprised if she is encouraged to continue. However, I'm unsure if I'm interested enough to read on.
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