This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be sharing book recommendations – a series of “not just cookbooks”.
This week’s Summer Reads pick is the final in this summer’s series! Ironically, it was gifted to me at the very start of the summer and I started reading it at the end of June. So why is it not appearing until now? Well, I started reading on the plane, then a couple of days after landing in France, we headed off on a week-long walking trip, and I could only bring a small amount of luggage, so a large reading book did not make the cut. In the meantime, I started reading other things, and then e-book holds came in fast and furious that needed reading! It sat on my bedside table in France until I had the time to start reading it over – it’s a page-turner that needs to be devoured in a few sittings, not a book one can pick up at leisure over the course of a few weeks!
My friend chose it because she is a fan of clever writing – and this was my introduction to Suzie Dent, an English lexicographer and media personality –
a writer and broadcaster who specializes in language. She recently celebrated thirty years as a co-presenter and the resident word expert on Channel 4’s Countdown, and also appears on the show’s comedy sister, 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news and is the author of several non-fiction books about words and language. Guilty by Definition is her first novel.
From the publisher about Guilty by Definition:
Agatha Christie meets Countdown in the debut mystery novel from the genius of Dictionary Corner, Susie Dent.
Word games can be murder
When an anonymous letter is delivered to the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary, it is immediately clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year. For new senior editor Martha Thornhill, the date means 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 been waiting for her return?
When more letters arrive, and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, the mystery becomes even more insistent and troubling. It seems that Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret. Now someone is trying to lead the lexicographers toward the truth. But other forces are no less desperate to keep it well and truly buried.
Ok, this was absolutely fascinating – a page-turner but also one that made you think. The best definition I could give it was “a nerdy thriller – if you love words and the English language – and, I mean, the whole concept of working at the dictionary being an actual job – you’ll love this book!”
What I enjoyed about the book was just how clever it was. Yes it was a mystery, and that part was done very well – a lot of separate plot lines were involved (so it was complicated and hence, was a 2-3 sittings read so you can keep everything/ everyone straight in your head) but there was also the whole lexical side of things which added to the clever factor.
Each note/ letter received by the team at the Clarendon English Dictionary was written in the form of a word puzzle (that I absolutely had no idea about for the most part!) and each chapter starts with a word and its definition, kind of like those calendars which have “a word of the day” and I found it absolutely fascinating. As someone who has studied the English language in my English as a Foreign Language teacher training, I’m very interested in language, its history and the way it works so this book was a delight to read in that sense.
Setting steeped in history (Oxford)? Check.
Word puzzles and riddles? Check.
Decades-old murder mystery? Check.
Books? Check. So many books!
A job working at a dictionary publisher (swoon!)? Check.
Shakespeare (in a surprising sub-plot)? Check.
I mean, what’s not to love here?
With thanks to my friend Sydney, who knew this was a perfect summer read for me!
Buy Guilty by Definition on Amazon (this affiliate link should bring you to the Amazon store in, or closest to, your country).
For free worldwide shipping, find Guilty by Definition on Blackwell’s.
Support your local Indie bookstore and purchase Guilty by Definition on Bookshop.org.
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