Library journal

“Sands’s series second, following Wordhunter, features Silas Jackson, an ex-cop, and Maggie Moore, a neurodivergent student of linguistics, who run a detective agency in their South Florida town. After attending a drag queen event, their first client found his body scarred with a mysterious hieroglyph. Maggie unleashes her intuitive brain to link cattle brands to the likely perp. Simultaneously with work-for-pay, Maggie and Jackson search for Maggie’s childhood friend Lucy, lost years ago to a cult. They also track down Maggie’s biological father, whom her mother labeled a useless drifter. Drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and junk food fuel the team, and Maggie’s hair and makeup choices provide flares of humor. The high life is exciting, but the true engine of the novel is the forensic use of language. Speech patterns, slang, and jargon all come into play as Maggie collects evidence for what started out as outlandish theories.

VERDICT: 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.”

Novels alive

“Only the S and M Detective Agency would take on a case involving a man who was tattooed on his butt while unconscious.

Author Stella Sands delivers a sequel to the Wordhunter Mystery series with Codebreakers . This time around, linguistic expert Maggie Moore and Detective Silas Jackson are on the hunt to find meaning behind symbols left by a criminal preying on vulnerable men.

Because Maggie is a rather quirky character with her penchant for diagramming sentences, it’s probably a good idea to read the books in sequence.

The author’s writing style works incredibly well with these two characters. They both have secrets from the past that need to be resolved, but their unusual partnership leads to success.

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

Publishers weekly

“Sands’s second outing for linguistic savant Maggie Moore and detective Silas Jackson (after Wordhunter) is a satisfying whodunit that, strikingly, contains no murder. Maggie and Jackson met when Jackson was working for the police department in Olemeda, Fla., and collaborated on a case that revealed his boss as a pedophile. They’ve since partnered as private investigators and get a gig uniquely suited to Maggie’s expertise when a man who only identifies himself as Mitch walks through their door. After a drag ball, Mitch hooked up with a man named Flint, only to wake up naked in a motel room with a strange, unwanted tattoo on his butt. Maggie is uniquely qualified to identify the symbol, but she and Jackson are alarmed to discover that it was made by a branding iron rather than a tattoo machine. Further digging reveals that Flint appears to be a serial brander. Their investigation coincides with Maggie’s search for her friend, Lucy, who she believes was captured by a religious cult. 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. (Aug.)”

Booklist

“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 (after Wordhunter, 2024). Silas has just recovered from serious injuries that put him in a coma after his former boss shot him—and said boss is now in prison as a convicted pedophile. Meanwhile, Maggie is still looking for her friend, Lucy, who has disappeared. She and Silas start the S&M (their first initials) detective agency, and their first case involves a man who was drugged at a drag queen ball and woke up with a strange tattoo on his buttocks. He wants to know who put it there, and Maggie must use her semiotics skills to decipher the symbol. At the same time, she continues to search for Lucy and attempts to find the father that she never knew. 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.” — Barbara Bibel

"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