Guilty by Definition - by Susie Dent (Paperback)

About the Book

"When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it puzzles the team of lexicographers working there. It soon becomes clear that this is not the usual eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies, and a particular year. For Martha Thornhill, the new Senior Editor, the date can mean only one the summer her brilliant, beautiful older sister Charlie went missing. After a decade spent living abroad, Martha has returned to her father, her home, and the city whose institutions have defined her family. But the ghosts she had thought to be at rest seem to have been waiting for her to return. When more letters arrive and the team pulls apart the clues within them, the questions become more insistent and troubling. Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, but as the mystery of her disappearance starts to unravel, someone is trying to lead the lexicographers to the truth, while another is desperate to keep it buried"--

Book Synopsis

"Will enthrall crime aficionados, puzzle solvers, Anglophiles and logophiles...fiendishly clever and marvelously entertaining debut--the perfect tonic for any philobiblist's mubble-fubbles." --The Washington Post

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.