Overall, I enjoyed this debut novel by Susie Dent. It ticked several of my boxes – love of words and their etymology, solving cryptic crosswords, murder mystery, and all set against the beautiful background of my hometown, Oxford.

The storyline is intriguing and tantalising, with interesting, mostly believable characters.

The story slowly unfolds through a series of anonymous cryptic letters, containing linguistic puzzles, written by someone called ‘Chorus’, which are sent to the editorial team at the Clarendon English Dictionary.

The main character, Martha has recently returned from working in Berlin for 10 years and is now senior editor at the CED. It soon transpires that the letters obliquely reference Martha’s sister, Charlie who disappeared without trace over a decade previously, and who had worked temporarily as a researcher at CED. Martha has never really come to terms with her sister’s disappearance, which also impacted on her relationship with her family.

Together with Martha, the editorial team, Zoe, Simon and Alex, try to solve the mystery through the literary and puzzling clues contained in the letters. Each chapter begins with the definition of an antiquated, and obscure word, providing the reader with an etymological journey as much as a mystery thriller. However, I felt that too often, pursuing the meanings of the words, slowed down the pace too much.

In searching for answers, the ‘sleuth’ team consult an ever-widening pool of friends and colleagues who were involved with Charlie. This gives the reader further dimensions to the ever-growing intrigue as the plot constantly takes different thrusts and turns.

Oxford as a backdrop was a joy to me as I pictured in my head all the locations and venues visited. I even learnt about some of the history of the places I had had no previous knowledge of.

This is a beautifully constructed story, which kept me guessing until the end. It reminded me in parts of AS Byatt’s ‘Possession’. Overall, a very enjoyable read and one I would recommend.


Yvonne Maxwell
August 2024

An enjoyable slightly different mystery. set in Oxford, Martha Thornhill is the senior editor of a dictionary. An anonymous letter arrives at the office containing a riddle to be solved. More letters arrive and they seem to refer to the disappearance of Martha’s sister ten years previously.

It is quite slow paced and, as you would expect, there are many unusual words - which gets a little excessive at times.

A pretty good mystery that wraps up quite satisfactorily.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

4.25 stars. Susie clearly has an illustrious pedigree with words, which is displayed here with each chapter having an old word and its definition at the start. There are also frequent mentions of words and their etymologies in the book - either when characters speak, or in their internal musings. As others have said, this does reduce a bit as the story progresses, thankfully stopping it becoming too annoying (for me, each time it happened, I was slightly pulled out of the story as it reminded me that the author here is Susie and of her work… whereas normally the author takes a back seat and you forget the author’s history/personality because you’re engrossed in the book - if that makes sense?). I also found Martha at times a little hard to connect with - sometimes she was quiet, bookish, respectable, and other times she was swearing and yelling (not to mention the relationship she had in the past). Possibly this just reflects the strain she is under in the book, and that we are all human and prone to outbursts or mistakes. I did find that I felt a slight melancholy for a good chunk of the book, as I absorbed Martha’s own melancholy - which is a sign of good writing I think. And on that note… as celebrity authors go, Susie writes skilfully. Not just good vocabulary which you’d expect, but good plotting and writing to pull the reader in. I hope she writes more novels.

I received a free ARC copy of this via NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

Martha works as an editor on the Clarendon English Dictionary, a job she loves, but her life is very much haunted by the unexplained disappearance of her sister Charlie 13 years ago. Her life is upended when anonymous letters begin to arrive containing clues as to what may have happened, reopening the case and requiring the lexicography skills of her team to help solve the mystery.

I really enjoyed this one. I found it a little slow to start and there was slightly too much wandering off topic to squeeze in more of the history of words and language (interesting as they were), but once it got going it really grabbed me. The characters are all very well written and believable, none of them perfect and that makes it all the more realistic. I particularly enjoyed how much attention was given to the impact on them emotionally when they were faced with difficult situations, something that is usually glossed over in mystery novels but made them much more sympathetic.

The clues themselves made absolutely no sense to me but I was happy to take the solutions on board and the whole plot wrapped up nicely. A really enjoyable summer read and I look forward to more fiction from Susie Dent in the future!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

Well you can tell by reading this that Susie Dent really loves words as whilst I was reading this I kept having to look some of them up and that kind of detracted from the story, I can’t say I really gelled with the characters either and the ending was a bit flat. Sorry Susie I wasn’t a fan.

This was a maze of literary clues and wordy mysteries. I love words and learning about their origins. Each chapter heading is an obscure word and let's just say my vocabulary has grown!

The story is a bit slow paced for me but with all that obscure verbiage to wade through that may be a good thing for some readers. The story is written from 3 POV and it does help to get a more comprehensive view of the entire mystery. The second half of the book was definitely more quickly paced than the first.

I did enjoy the cast of characters, all linked to the world of words and books. Sometimes it did feel a bit elitist as some of the characters are very definitely upper middle class and used to the finer things in life!

Oxford itself is a very atmospheric character and the description of it certainly brought it to life for me.

Martha could be a bit annoying at times and I did struggle to like her at times, she is very non confrontational at times and that really jarred with finding out what happened to her sister. I did enjoy the little hints at romance with our Detective but I actually enjoyed the found family vibes with Tom, Tanya, Simon's ex-wife and kids, more

There were enough twists to keep me entertained and the extra reveal of who Chorus was, was a bit of a what the heck?! moment.

This was an engaging read and it was certainly different. There is a mystery to solve concerning the disappearance of Martha Thornhill’s sister, Charlie. There are quite complex clues sent to Martha and her work colleagues but who is sending them and how do they link to Charlie’s disappearance. A few of the characters have some guilt issues to come to terms with and they hope solving the mystery will bring them closure. Added to this is the fascinating glimpse into the work of the lexicographer and the words that were explained the beginning of each chapter. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

'Guilty by Definition' doesn’t just refer to the guilty party in this murder mystery: it encapsulates the guilt felt by so many of the characters. Charlie’s sister, her godmother, a bookdealer, colleagues, bosses, all of whom had some inkling and reason to want to smother what might have led to the the victim’s death.
A well-thought-out storyline, with interesting characters, some fascinating history about Oxford and – no surprise given the author is Susie Dent – a mightily generous sharing of unusual words and their etymology. A bit slow in parts, with rather too many ‘wasted words’ (it was, there was etc.) which diminished the impact, which I am sure will have been edited (I enjoyed an uncorrected ARC) to make some of the delivery more taut.
The pursuit of writings by Shakespeare’s sister add an unusual dimension to a classy novel.

Ten years ago Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Thornhill disappeared. With no trace ever found her family had no closure. Her mother has since died, her father has become somewhat curmudgeonly and her sister Martha, who moved to Germany after the disappearance, has now returned to a senior editor job at Clarendon English Dictionary in Oxford. As you would expect from this author this is not a simple read although I found it an enjoyable one. I pride myself on my command of English but I’m not too proud to say that there was more than one occasion on which I had to revert to Google!

Briefly, an anonymous letter arrives at the Clarendon office and Martha and her colleagues, Zoe, Alex and Simon, agreed to try and work out the meaning of the cryptic and very complex message. Reaching the conclusion that it refers to a specific date Martha is shocked that it’s the date of Charlie’s disappearance. This was followed by more letters and postcard to the individuals, and to other people that knew Charlie. It appears that Charlie had been keeping a massive secret and someone is only now trying to get to the bottom of it.

There are a lot of Shakespeare references in the various missives and some of this did go over my head so I had to read carefully to understand how they worked out the clues - very clever. The only thing I did find a bit annoying was the number of words that had explanations after them. Personally I would rather look them up if I needed to - I felt it slowed the narrative a bit. The mystery was very good and although I had an inkling about the culprit I was only partly right. The twists and turns were excellent. A very entertaining literary mystery and kudos to you if you could work out the conundrums. I hope Martha and her team will return.

This is the debut novel by Susie Dent, the main star of Countdown.

We follow Martha and her colleagues, Alex, Zoe and Simon at the Clarendon English Dictionary. They are in the beautiful city of Oxford, the heart of the love of language.

They receive an intriguing letter, which is not their normal enquiry that gets delivered to the office. This is full of mystery, which hints at secret and lies linked to a particular year.

That year is a well-known date for Martha, as this is when her sister, Charlie, vanished off the face of the earth. It has been 10 years since the disappearance of her sister, who she has had a strained relationship with throughout the years.

More letters arrive, as well as postcards, that are delivered to every person that was involved within the Dictionary that year, even Charlie’s ex-boyfriend. These will lead to astonishing secrets, discoveries and more questions than answers. But will it give Martha the answers she needs to put her sister’s disappearance to rest, or is it best to leave things buried?

I have to say, I was very divided with this book. I loved the mystery of it, of the clue they kept getting and the search they went on to find the answers. The setting of the book was amazing, I love Oxford and it detailed the streets, graveyards well. I could see all the lanes and streets Martha was walking down.
The history also of some of the places, descriptions of the graveyards was just amazing. It did keep me gripped and eager to know what happened.
However, I did feel the use of so many elaborate words and then to keep explaining what the meaning was, really did annoy me and put me off a little. I feel it was unnecessary and took away a portion of the suspense of the book.
Apart from that, it was well written, an intriguing mystery, that kept you guessing all the way through.
I would recommend this to any mystery fans, especially the edge of your seat kind. I look forward to reading more from the author.

A solid and fun read that with a cracking mystery at its heart will keep you entertained, and with all the fabulous words and trivia involved could very well make you the superstar of your next quiz team!

Guilty by Definition
By Susie Dent

As a lover of words and language, linguistics and etymology I am always drawn to quizzes and game shows featuring language skills, so I am more than familiar with Susie Dent from her role in Countdown and 8 out of 10 Cats. She puts relentlessly teased about the entertainment value in her publications, so I was thrilled about her debut novel being published.

Set in historical Oxford, this is a literary mystery surrounding the 10 year old disappearance of young woman, with a series of anonymous letters providing cryptic clues to the staff at CED, Clarendon English Dictionary. The team need to pool their various specialist skills to decode each letter and then set about hunting down new evidence.

This story had immediate impact on me, stoking the flames of regret that I never got to attend Oxford, but firing many synapses with it's smartly layered conundrums. It has an Agatha Christie style, with characters who aren't always reliable and a plot driven by timely reveals. However the mystery soon begins to resemble a board game, the rules having been learned it was just about moving the pieces around. The pacing is uneven, it is reserved, it drags a lot in the middle, but picks up again around the 3/4 mark.

I think this book will have broad appeal, I might have been expecting too much from it, given it's intriguing premise and hopeful start. It is entertaining, educational and the puzzles are challenging.

Publication date: 15th August 2024
Thanks to #NetGalley and #BonnierBooks for the ARC

Thrilling!

This is not a genre I usually read, but I'm a big "word nerd" and fan of Susie Dent as well as a good whodunnit and puzzles.

This book did not disappoint, kept me captivated with its richness of characters and wonderful description of Oxford.

Highly recommend to anyone who likes a mystery!

Susie Dent knows about words, so it was not a surprise that her first foray into fiction had lead characters who were lexicographers working for a dictionary. Brilliant. This was such a refreshing angle for a mystery story with puzzles and a long missing loved one. Of course there were lots of rarely used words in there, but the setting made them all totally fitting for the plot and the characters who use them. As a book lover of many years standing, I especially loved learning the word vellichor. Look it up!

Where do I start with this one, I had high hopes for this book, being a Susie Dent fan and was intrigued how she would weave her magic with words into a novel.

I loved it, Susie has created a wonderful world of characters that fits her own world so perfectly, I didn't want to leave and say goodbye to the characters and I actually feel like I learned so much about language from this novel too.

The story centres around the Clarendon English Dictionary receiving cryptic letters to a ten year old puzzle, the disappearance of one of the lexicographers sister Charlie and the clues that Martha (Charlie's sister), Alex, Zoe and Simon must decipher to find out the mystery of what happened to Charlie all those years ago.

Susie Dent obviously knows words, but the way she weaves the history and meaning of them into this magnificent mystery is just wonderful, it's a world I happily immersed myself in and didn't want to leave.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Martha has returned to Oxford to work for the Clarendon Dictionary. Anonymous letters start arriving at the Dictionary. They seem to be about Charlotte, Martha’s sister who disappeared ten years ago. Each letter contains a puzzle that the Dictionary staff need to solve if they want to find out what happened to Charlotte. This is a great read for someone who enjoys word puzzles and crosswords and each chapter starts with the definition of an obscure word. It’s also an intriguing mystery as Martha finds out more about her sister. The letters sow doubt about her colleagues and Martha doesn’t know who she can trust. I enjoyed Guilty by Definition - a good plot with the added bonus of learning new words. Thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for this review copy.

I enjoyed this book to start with but at times I found it a bit slow and, as expected from someone who is a master of words' bit too wordy with some flowing descriptions that were enjoyable at times, but sometimes a bit too much.
The story was good and I didn't expect some plot points.

Like most people, I know Susie Dent as the lexicographer on Countdown. It’s no surprise that her debut novel features lexicographers based in Oxford. Dent’s skill with language, especially etymology, forms the backbone of this wonderful murder mystery. Add on interesting characters and the Oxford backdrop and you have an excellent crime fiction novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When I found out that Susie Dent was writing a murder mystery I was intrigued, after all she is known for her impressive capacity for words, and I wondered just how she would transfer her knowledge to the crime fiction world. If you are a fan of books that lean more towards cosy crime, then this may be one you want to add to your TBR pile.
Martha Thornhill has returned to Oxford and is now in charge of a team of lexicographers working for the Clarendon English Dictionary. She is still haunted by the disappearance of her sister Charlie so when an anonymous letter hints to something that happened in the same year that her sister disappeared all the memories come flooding back. It soon turns out that the letter is not a one off as more arrive along with postcards to everyone who knew Charlie the team soon take it upon themselves to investigate, even if it does mean that Martha may have to find out her sister was not who she thought she was but to her it was worth it if she could find out what really happened all those years ago.
I wasn’t sure about Martha to start off with as like her colleagues I thought she was a bit standoffish, but the more I got to learn about her past the more I warmed to her. Zoe just had that youthful passion for life that rubbed off on everyone and it was clear that she loved the investigations into the past. Alex was a bit of a mystery to begin with, but she was the mum of the group, in age and calming attitude. Simon clearly had a chip on his shoulder only made worse over time.
If you are looking for something fast paced, or a police procedural then this is not that type of book however the slower style really suited the story, and it didn’t slow my reading down in any way. Martha, Zoe, Alex and Simon all seemed to be invested in solving the mystery at first but as time went by and different things were revealed the team did not seem as cohesive or invested in the outcome. I am not going to lie when I say there is absolutely no way I could have followed the clues that were in the letters, but I think that was the point. You had to be in that kind of world to understand the puzzles and what they were hinting at. But I loved how the past and present were mingled throughout as it also appealed to my love of history.
There is no doubting Susie Dent’s writing ability as she created characters and settings that came alive on the page whilst giving the reader an insight to words and their meanings without detracting from the story (although I will admit to looking up one or two words that didn’t have a definition attached). I look forward to see what she does next.

Martha has returned from self-exile in Germany to work at The Clarendon English Dictionary... a place where her older sister had worked ten years previously before mysteriously disappearing. Then, anonymous letters and postcards that hint at solving a murder start to arrive at Martha's office...

I find myself torn while writing this review.

On the one hand, this is a clever thriller that twists and weaves as you follow the cast of characters in this multiple-POV tale.

On the other... there are too many things going on with the letters, each of which tries to suffocate us with their numerous clues, red herrings, and hints.

I also struggled with the tale being a bit fantastical concerning the main characters' livelihoods, as none of them ever seem to do any work!

Additionally, I found the author's voice far more convincing when it came from Alex, and I struggled to feel empathy towards Martha.

Overall, if you love thrillers, etymology, words, Shakespeare, and Oxford.. then you will enjoy this book. However, it is not a light read, and you will need your wits about you!

*I received an advance reader copy via NetGalley, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.*