what people are saying:

“A satisfying whodunit . . . . As in the previous installment, Sands has a blast plunging readers into Maggie’s unique mind, employing sentence diagrams and linguistic puzzles in service of a shrewd mystery plot. This series has legs.”

— Publishers Weekly

“Sands, having written five true crime books, has brought a brilliant savant to the genre. In view of Maggie’s youth, mystery readers can hope for a string of Wordhunter hits in coming years.”

— Library Journal

“Sands brings her hard-drinking, bike-riding forensic semiotics specialist Maggie Moore and her former police detective partner Silas Jackson back together for another strange case . . . Readers should strap in for a wild, booze-infused bike ride as the search takes Maggie and Silas on a crazy yet hilarious South Florida adventure.”

— Booklist

"As original and colorful as an expert tattoo, CODEBREAKERS is Florida-crazy (and you know that's pretty crazy), mad salty, and every-page laugh-out-loud hilarious, the most addictive crime/buddy/whodunnit novel you'll ever read, about one seriously badass woman and the power of words."

—Jenna Blum, bestselling author of The Lost Family

"What a captivating book! Clever, smart, ingenious, and absolutely irresistible. If you love words, if you love twisty mysteries, and if you love a quirky genius of a main character, Codebreakers will be your new favorite book. Puzzles within puzzles propel this innovative and unique story⎯relentlessly tense and completely heartbreaking at the same time. Standing ovation for the talented Stella Sands⎯I absolutely loved this."

— Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of All This Could Be Yours

“Codebreakers delivers another adventure with a zany duo on a quest for answers.”

—Novels Alive, 4.5 Star Review