Guilty by Definition
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Sep 30, 2025
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- $14.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"A tantalizing mystery...for word-sleuths and crime-fans alike." —Janice Hallett, bestselling author of The Appeal
She knew there'd be ghosts in Oxford, she just didn’t think they'd make their way to the dictionary.
Oxford, England. After a decade abroad, Martha Thornhill has returned home to the city whose ancient institutions have long defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, where Martha is a newly hired senior editor, it's rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the coded letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year.
The date can mean only one thing: the summer Martha's brilliant older sister Charlie went missing.
When more letters arrive, Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, and soon, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. Because it seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone may be trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth that will unravel the mystery of her disappearance. But other forces are no less desperate to keep their secrets well and truly buried, and Martha and her team must crack the codes before it's too late.
From resident lexicographer Susie Dent comes a linguistic mystery that will both delight and shock readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Etymologist Dent (Interesting Stories About Curious Words) makes an impressive fiction debut with a clever whodunit that pivots on her linguistic expertise. Ten years after Martha Thornhill's sister, Charlie, disappeared, Martha returns to Oxford from Berlin to work as a senior editor for the Clarendon English Dictionary—the same publication where Charlie worked before she vanished. Shortly after Martha starts at CED, the office receives an anonymous note that alludes to an incident the same year Charlie disappeared and concludes with a quote from The Merchant of Venice: "Truth will come to life. Murder cannot be hid long." That missive is followed by another, which references Chaucer, and then individual staff members start receiving postcards with ominous messages such as "I do despise a liar." Worried that the messages could be connected to Charlie's fate, Martha investigates, and quickly learns that her sister was sitting on a major discovery with dangerous implications. Dent wrings genuine emotion from Martha's grief, and crafts a tantalizing puzzle for Anglophiles and Golden Age mystery lovers alike. This is a treat.
