Once I got over the fact that I didn't know every word (and it was ruining the flow of the story to keep looking every one up!), I did enjoy this book, which was a different genre for me. As the author is Susie Dent, I always knew there would be a lot of words I was not likely to know (even though I would say I am fairly educated!) but I still wanted to read this. A really good, well constructed mystery based in the lovely city of Oxford. A great team of characters and I loved how they worked together to solve all the clues presented to them. I was a little concerned that it wasn't going to answer all the questions I had, but it all came together really nicely in the end. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review, which I have given.

This book unfortunately didn't work for me. I'm well aware of who Susie is, so I was expecting quite a few big words in this book. But there are just far too many, to the point where it's alienating.

The book is also pretty "tell, not show" and that felt a little too clunky to read.

Overall, sadly not for me.

This is a crime book that also educates you. I’m a big fan of the author’s writing, turning eagerly to the back of my Saga magazine each month. Perhaps for someone who doesn’t enjoy learning about how and where words are formed, this book may not be an easy read. Personally, I loved it!

Ok I realise this is the first novel written by Susie Dent who is by all accounts a lexicographer, but I was expecting just that, a novel, not what reads in some parts as a dictionary! I know the story evolves around the staff at a dictionary office, but for me there were too many attempts to educate the reader and I almost gave up reading it. However, I am glad I persevered because as the story progressed it turned into an intriguing mystery.
A good read just an over abundance of lexicographical references for me.

This is a very verbose book, given the author & the subject it was always going to be. However it did spoil the flow for me. An excellent book for the right audience.

So Susie Dent has joined the long list of people famous mostly for TV appearances who have branched out into writing crime novels. Of those I have read, I have to say that this is not among the most successful but this book had to overcome not only my prejudice against amateur attempts at a genre which is difficult for even accomplished authors to do well but also my prejudice against crime novels set in Oxford (where I have lived for many years), also difficult to pull off successfully (who has done it well, you ask? Colin Dexter, of course; P D James; Iain Pears; Mick Herron; and most recently Simon Mason).

I really did try to set aside my prejudices but for me the book started badly by succumbing to the cliche Oxford - "buttery stone" and the inevitable dreamy spires. However we are plunged into the world of lexicography which Susie of course knows well and we do indeed get some incidental insights into the painstaking and scholarly work that goes into making dictionaries. We also get lots of unusual words. Rather too many for me but others may relish them.

Sadly we also get a parade of two dimensional characters - the standard arrogant senior man and the plucky young women in his thrall but who eventually spell out his downfall. The plot is pedestrian with a slight but generally unsatisfying twist at the end. A big disappointment for me was in the literary clues provided for the lay sleuths to follow. A complex mix of literary references and cryptic crossword clues, leading to some very stilted dialogue between the lexicographers to ensure that readers could keep up with how they worked them out. (I marvelled at how quickly they could write quite long sections of text on whiteboards.)

Now I understand that I read a proof copy and there will, I hope, be some final editing but given the author I was somewhat surprised to encounter a description of a desk being "prised into" a space (OED: prise = to force up or out). And can an inbox "salt up" with enquiries? (probably a misprint for silt.)

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I really wanted to love this book but I must admit I found it slow going to begin with and quite hard work at times. Obviously Susie demonstrates her lexicographical skills a great deal (loved the addition of her favourite word, apricity, which I heard about on a podcast she did!) and the clues from chorus were impossible for me to solve. Once the story got going and I had warmed to the characters I did find myself more involved and was glad to have the mystery solved by the end. I was also genuinely intrigued by the idea of Shakespeare’s sister’s book and what it would mean to the world. I felt I learned something and I was entertained, but not quite 5 stars yet, maybe the next one will be!

I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel, it kept my attention right the way through and the ending………. well that would give the plot away.

I strongly recommend reading this book by Susie Dent, thanks for the opportunity.

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.

Susie Dent is a wordsmith of the highest calibre. This story is one that will capture your attention, hold it and take you on many twists and turns. It is clever, has brilliant characters and is for lovers of the written word everywhere. I loved all the chapter headings with word definitions, it’s full of titbits of the lexicographer’s world, fascinating, educational and yet is a fabulous puzzle at its heart!

One of my books of the year by a long way!

Exactly what you'd expect from Susie Dent's first novel! Full of interesting words that you wouldn't commonly find in books, along with definitions of much older and more out-of-use words too. From a linguistics perspective, it was an absolute treat.

The story itself follows a group of lexicographers, working for the Clarendon English Dictionary, as they solve clues from mysterious letters they start receiving about a disappearance that happened 10 years ago. The way the clues within the letters are written and subsequently solved is very clever, but it sometimes felt like it was done so quickly that it could be quite confusing for the average reader without all the knowledge an expertise of a lexicographer. The story is interesting but it feels quite slow paced at times, often taking you off on a tangent to detail the etymology of certain words before getting back on track with the mystery at hand. There are also a few loose ends that are tied up quite quickly and without much explanation towards the end, and it feels like they could have been fleshed out more, considering they're mentioned several times throughout the book so feel quite significant to the plot, only for it to be glossed over.

Overall an enjoyable read.

What a wonderful first novel for Susie Dent.
Guilty By Definition is elegantly written whilst being beautifully descriptive and captivating.

The staff at the Clarendon English Dictionary start receiving anonymous letters relating to the senior editor Martha's missing sister, who disappeared over ten years ago.

It is up to the team of lexicographers to pull apart the letters and solve the mystery of the Martha's sisters disappearance.

I really enjoyed this book and the stories behind each character at the dictionary.
A most read for nice summer evenings.

This is a very clever book, crossword clues, Shakespeare’s sonnets and deciphering word clues in literature. For all that it is a smooth read that bounces along at quite a pace, looking to solve a ten year disappearance. Charlie is the centre of it all, daughter, sister and friend and colleague. Her disappearance is left at peace for a decade and then her sister and the other staff working around the dictionary get clues. It took me a while to get I to the book, the word definitions are very thick and it didn’t come immediately to me to get comfortable with this, once I was in, though I was in! The protagonists aren’t immediately likeable- an odd prickly bunch with bruises, wounds and moods that makes it interesting to see how the author dusts them down to make me care about them.

A very interesting book by Susie Dent. Each chapter began with an old word and its definition.I could definitely appreciate how the book was written by a lexicographer.
Martha and Alex were very strong characters and I didn't work out who actually carried out the two killings until near the very end. An excellent debut book. Thanks to Netgalley for an A.R.C.

Oh my goodness I loved this book!!!

I’m a massive fan of Susie Dent so was excited to read this. Loved the twists and turns of the storyline, the lovable but damaged key players and the focus on language throughout.

A must read!!!

A brilliant story.
Martha works as a lexicographer for the Cambridge English Dictionary and they receive postcards with cryptic messages on them and they try and find out the clues written in Shakespearian script and all are trying to find out what happened to Martha`s sister Charlie when she disappeared ten years ago.
I`m not good with long words and thought it would be difficult to read but it just flowed very easily and was a pleasure to find out all the meanings to lots of the words. though I did know who the bad one was early on.
A great book to read would definitely recommend.
Thanks to the publisher the Author and Netgalley for the ARC and I give my honest review

From the first sentence I knew i was going to enjoy this book. If Susie Dent can't write a book then hope is lost! This review will not be as eloquent as the book but here goes. I thoroughly enjoyed this from the outset, the words flowed and I struggled to put it down. The characters were real and I loved the setting of CED in Oxford. A mystery to solve with clues; none of which i got! What I did get was the pleasure of learning about words and where they came from and the joy in them combined with a missing person and possible missing treasure mystery. There is a myriad of emotions bubbling away within the characters and between them and I was kept entertained by their interactions. A small cast of characters that I can see easily being portrayed on the screen. I loved Alex's' secret that she divulged to the others and her calmness. Zoe's enthusiasm for digging information, Simon's knowledge to crack the clues and Martha trying to find what happened to her sister after all these years and facing up to her foibles. A wondrous delight, I am already looking forward to the next book. Thank you Netgalley.

Being a former historical linguist myself, I've spend a lot of time around lexicographers, and I would first of all like to confirm that yes, this really is what they are all like, and yes, it is incredibly fun to hang out with them (but also disconcerting since they all seem to possess superhuman memory).

Therefore, I was predisposed to enjoy this book, and on the whole it didn't let me down. Susie Dent's prose is pleasant and confident, and I think she does a good job not alienating people with too much academic detail while also not patronising her readers. Her descriptions of modern and increasingly more diverse Oxford were refreshing - I'm sure images of old-fashioned, stuffy academia come to mind when you hear a book is set in <i>Oxford</i> (I definitely went in with certain expectations and some apprehension...), and it's cool to encounter a more well-rounded description of a city you're used to seeing only in a certain light.

I went in expecting a mostly fun, cosy mystery, and while there is plenty of that, the narrative also has a surprising emotional weight to it that added a lot of depth to the characters. It very honestly explores the frustrated ambitions a lot of people with an academic background have to learn to be content with (hi, hello, it's me) as well as the complex web of family relationships after having to adjust to big changes (be it a tragic disappearance, a divorce, or simply moving far away). These two aspects of the story - a fun but unrealistic mystery romp and complex, three dimensional characters - sometimes butted heads, and the tone suffers somewhat when these people have to react to the outcomes of the mystery they've been trying to solve. The last few pages manage to strike a good, emotionally honest balance though, and overall the story ends in a satisfying way.

This is the debut novel by Susie Dent best known for her role in Dictionary Corner on Countdown. I did enjoy the book though found it slow going at times. On the plus side I liked the obscure words that started each chapter. Some of which I intend to insert into conversation at every available opportunity. I'm afraid the cryptic clues got the better of me. A promising debut and I look forward to reading more from Susie.

Firstly, thanks so much to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This was so much fun! Unsurprisingly sparkling with obvious intelligence and wit, with a group of interesting characters and a compelling central story. As an avid murder mystery fan I have to admit I saw through the plot fairly early on, but, as per usual, this didn't affect my enjoyment. I'm a sucker for the 'traditional murder mystery' over crime fiction, and this delivered in spades along with evocative writing and a charming presentation of Oxford.

A debut murder mystery that takes place in a publishing house. It's written by a fantastic writter who has put some amazing clues and twists in it.

It is a very gripping read right from the first line.
Thank you to Net Galley for an advanced copy