Forensic Linguistics
Solving crimes with linguistics sounds sort of crazy, doesn't it? But wait, that's what my alter-ego's first mystery revolves around! Tace Baker's Speaking of Murder came out from Barking Rain Press on September 18. It features a Quaker linguistics professor who...well, let's just quote her web site : " The murder of a talented student at a small New England college thrusts linguistics professor Lauren Rousseau into the search for the killer. Lauren is a determined Quaker with an ear for accents. Her investigation exposes small town intrigues, academic blackmail and a clandestine drug cartel that now has its sights set on her." A New Yorker article from a couple of months ago called “Words on Trial” described the current state of forensic linguistics. I knew about the field from prior research, but it was cool to be reminded of how linguists can solve crimes by analyzing consistent patterns in text messages, voice mail message, or...