Set in an Oxford, described by someone who really loved the place, anyone without knowledge of the town and it’s colleges (namely me) felt excluded from the whole scenario. The characters did not feel contemporary but from another era, with too many stereotypes. It was convenient that they all had areas of specialisation or expertise that allowed them to combine and solve the riddles.
I tried hard to like the story but I’m afraid it didn’t work for me.

Although I am not a fan of “celebrity” authors I thought this one was probably worth the risk. It was a great book and although there were lots of big and unusual words, they were all explained without making the reader feel stupid. The story is great and is basically that of Charlie, Martha’s sister, who disappeared years before. There have always been postcards but when Martha returns from a stint in Berlin, the postcards become more frequent and appear to be pushing the recipients towards solving the mystery of Charlie’s disappearance.

Although I found the book a little slower to read than my normal genres, it didn’t take anything away from it.

Worth a read and some great scrabble words learnt

Martha is the senior editor of the Clarendon English Dictionary along with colleagues Simon, Zoe, and Alex. One day they receive a cryptic letter alluding to the unsolved disappearance of Martha’s sister Charlotte.

The clues in the letters they receive are really clever and are a testament to Suzie Dent’s knowledge and skill as a lexicographer and etymologist. They were really well-crafted and would require a lot of dedication and brain power to decipher (more than I possess). The description of Oxford made me realise that I have to visit it asap!

The core of the mystery really fits in to the theme of the book and each chapter begins with a word and it’s a definition which was a nice touch. However, it did drag on in parts due to verbose descriptions and unnecessary additions of obscure words.

Overall, a fun and interesting cozy mystery that will educate as well as intrigue. 3.5 stars rounded up.

When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it is rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.
For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade abroad, Martha has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. Have the ghosts she left behind her been waiting for her return?
When more letters arrive, and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. It seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone is trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth. But other forces are no less desperate to keep it well and truly buried.

I really enjoyed this, a good solid mystery with plenty of unusual words thrown in, as you would expect from a team of etymologists working on a dictionary. Great characters whose lives are all not all they seem to be at first. Well plotted and intriguing with cryptic letters to decode and riddles to untangle. I liked the Oxford setting and the way the team worked everything out. Satisfying ending, a great debut and highly recommend.

Wordy and clever mystery but perhaps a bit too wordy for a gripping storyline. Loved the Oxford setting and all the book references, just missing something as a novel.

I love languages and words, their history and meaning and development, so this book seemed right up my street. The plot started off well enough and I did enjoy the letters with their hidden messages. However, it was incredibly slow and seemed to spend a lot of time not going anywhere. Once the plot picked up speed a little, it seemed to end up in quite well-worn and clichéd territory which was a shame.

I felt that the majority of the characters were a bit lacking in substance, particularly Martha. Despite being the main character, her entire personality seemed to be 'sister of Charlie'. There was quite a stereotype to the majority of the rest of the characters though: the bubbly younger woman, the older woman with a scandalous secret, the only male in the team who feels put out by the women getting better job roles, the older male with a thing for younger women... Having said that, I did quite like Zoe and Alex, but the rest of them didn't really grab me.

There was a lot of overuse of long unfamiliar words which just felt so much as though the author had to either show off her knowledge and vocab skills, or that she had a reputation as someone with knowledge and vocab skills so she had to live up to it. Some of them just seemed to be rather crowbarred in.

When it was revealed that there was a missing manuscript with a connection to Shakespeare, I rolled my eyes so hard, I nearly sprained something. I have read several books where there's various people trying to find a previously unknown or lost Shakespeare manuscript, it's seriously overdone. Besides which, the book is set in Oxford. If you need a manuscript from an author with a connection to that city who is well-known for their creation of words, what's wrong with Lewis Carroll?? Now that would be interesting. Or, given the focus on women of words, Vera Britten could be a good choice, or perhaps Dorothy Sayers, especially with her detective series and the exploration of discrimination women faced.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read but it wasn't quite as good as I thought it would be. Many thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy to review.

Such a fun read! It took me a few chapters to get into the characters and the mystery but once I was in I couldn’t wait to unravel more of it.

One of the only things I struggled with was there being lots of explanations through characters explaining things to each other, which is one of my pet peeves in books because it makes the dialogue feel a bit forced.

But I understand there needed to be lots of explanations because I also learned a lot from this book. So many fun new words and I didn’t even know what a commonplace book was properly.

I also wish we’d had slightly more time with the romance, the small snatches we got were very cute!

There were also parts where the switching of perspective was slightly confusing, it was mostly fine and the final print version might be clearer with line breaks or something but in the PDF I read sometimes the perspective shift happened without me noticing and I had to reread a section to understand it properly. As I said I don’t think this will be as much of a problem in the final version though.

I'm a fan of Susie Dent, so when I heard she was publishing a murder mystery, I had to read her debut fiction novel.
Set in contemporary Oxford, Dent's work as an etymologist, is evident from the opening page, and the novel is full of unusual language (terms not in use in common parlance) and linguistic puzzles. This makes the storyline one where the reader must keep their focus on the story carefully, as otherwise it's too easy to miss the puzzles and explanations. And lost the fun of the novel.
As for the storyline, every aspect is tied to the linguistics puzzles and this is a clever novel.

I am a big Susie Dent fan and I love linguistics, cryptic crosswords and Oxford so I was so excited to get an early copy of this book. Straight away I was drawn into the solid group of female friends at the CED. I loved the way in which the clues were written and unfolded and the way all the characters and their lives collided. I also loved the premise of the mystery which I won’t say any more about for obvious reasons. The only reason I have not given five stars is because I felt the way they solved some of the clues was just too quick and a few things fell into place too easily.

I found it incredibly difficult to get into this book, which was really disappointing. It was just bland and felt almost painfully boring. It's such a shame as I love Susie but, for me, this was a complete fail

As you would expect from an etymologist, there is lots of love of language and linguistic puzzles thrown into the mix in this enjoyable mystery novel. All of which puts it a cut above the average fair of the genre and the definite trend for celebrity authored novels.

Be prepared to have your dictionary handy when some words are new to you (this is when a kindle comes in handy although many of them defeated its limited dictionary) but that’s just part of the pleasure of reading it.

Dent manages to bring some pathos as well as erudition - thoroughly enjoyable.

With thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an arc of this novel.

Martha Thornhill has returned to Oxford after ten years working in Germany. She takes up a position as editor at the CED but when a mysterious cryptic letter arrives at the office, the team soon realise that it refers to Martha's sister, Charlie who disappeared some thirteen years before, the year Martha finished her A levels.
The letter seems to form a series of clues, leading them to different aspects of Charlie's life. It is followed by another letter and another, and gradually they are able to piece together what she was doing in the final months of her life. The story takes us round parts of Oxford and around a lot of Shakespeare too. It is heavy on language which I found interesting but it slowed the pace of the story.
I liked the character of Martha who has felt guilt over her sister's disappearance for all these years and she is ably assisted by Zoe who is a sparky young girl and Alex, an older divorcee who has a secret of her own. Charlie, however, comes across are rather self centred and wrapped up in herself, although perhaps the ending does explain why and the reader can forgive her at least some of selfishness.
This is not a face paced thriller but neither is it cozy crime. It bumbles along quite slowly as the group of colleagues try and work out the literary clues in the letters. In one or two places I wondered if the word knowledge of the author was overwhelming the story somewhat but it makes and excellent and different background to the mystery.
With thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

I would describe this book as a clever, rather than a gripping read. All of the ingredients for 'cosy' or British rural crime were there, delightful Oxford setting, dodgy dons, dusty bookshops and dictionary obsessives but the characters felt as if they had been marched on to set to say their piece and then off again. Readable, but not absorbing.

I love dictionaries, mysteries, both cosy crime and literary fiction... and Susie Dent. But I did not love this book. I was intrigued to read this debut novel after the promising description but it failed to engage, even after re-reading the first few chapters to check I wasn't missing anything. Part of the problem was that it couldn't seem to decide what it was aiming for: either a cosy mystery or an intellectual puzzle. It fell down on both counts, as the characters felt dull, the writing cliché-ridden and lacklustre. Simply inserting random unusual dictionary words throughout the book served as a reminder of the author's (and the main characters') 'day job', but very little else. They grated rather than enhanced the narrative, particularly at the start of the chapters.

However, the most disappointing element was the slow and clunky plot. The puzzle element did not allow the reader to become involved or interested, as they were solved summarily and easily by the characters but with little flair. Without a well paced, engaging plot, what is the point?

Perhaps my expectations were too high for a first novel, the description and hype rather inflated. I really wanted to like this book, but it's not quite there for me. Hopefully the writer will be able to iron out some of the shortcomings in future attempts. I wish her luck in her latest venture.

Susies Dents debut novel takes the reader on a linguistic journey of mystery & Intrigue.
Set in Oxford, a group of lexicographers receive letters containing clues about a missing person, which they try to solve.

I'm sure this novel will sell well, due to it being written by a celebrity but Susie has used her vast professional knowledge & expertise in language, to write with ease & make it different to the normal celebrity publication.

It contains multiple POV's, great character development with gentle plot twists & has a great pace.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book & found it difficult to put down, although saying that I delayed reading the last few pages, as I just didn't want it to end!

If you like mysteries and words this is for you!

Thankyou to Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fans of Richard Osman and Robert Thorogood are sure to love this cosy mystery. The story follows Martha, a lexicographer who has moved back to Oxford after living in Berlin. Martha and her colleagues begin to receive mysterious letters which seem to relate to the mysterious disappearance of Martha’s sister years earlier. The story contains female friendships, strong female characters and some unusual vocabulary you would expect from Susie Dent! I absolutely loved this book and would recommend to any cosy crime fans!

ISO wanted to enjoy this book as I have the greatest respect for Susie Dent. Unfortunately I found it tough going, uninspiring and quite difficult to keep my attention. I usually read at night, but this one kept putting me to sleep. Very sad.

I’m sorry to say that I’m quite disappointed with this book and I think it will be difficult to explain why.
But I’ll try!
The generic trope of missing girl should have been dramatic and thrilling with the plot lines of cryptic letters and the unusual environment of the lexicography world.
But I feel the actual storyline stayed very basic.

The main character felt like a soulless ethereal entity, a vintage toff type who you absolutely couldn’t relate to.
The lexicography aspect was actually far too overwhelming. Needless insertions of random and unpronounceable words, the chapters starting with definitions of words unknown to me but seemingly made little sense to the chapter itself. All of the characters reflections and introspections seemed to be influenced by an odd word they would think of at the time.
It really was just too much.

The cryptic letters were nonsensical and unenjoyable to read.
Maybe you need a masters in language and history and literature to have any understanding or maybe I’m just stupid but this book just felt like it was trying too hard to be clever and almost cutesy at the same time.

It just lacked real substance as a storyline and twists all came far too late.
This is not a recommendation from me I’m afraid.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

What a fantastic mystery. This book was brilliant. A lot better than the usual media persons book. I learnt so much but it was not preachy.
I would love this to be the start of a series of books..
The mysterious disappearance of Charlie, rumours and the twists will keep you reading late in to the night.

I’m sorry this just wasn’t my cup of tea. Far too many words that only a lexicographer would use and know the meaning of. Premise sounded good but was far too slow and not enough suspense. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to review it.