Reviews with content warning for Murder - Guilty by Definition

Incredible book, written with a plethora of impressive and unique words to both educate and intrigue at the beginning of every chapter. Impossible to put down.

Content Warnings

srivalli's review against another edition

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informative mysterious slow-paced

3.5

3.5 Stars

One Liner: Good but... could have been better!

When an anonymous letter arrives at the office of Clarendon English Dictionary, the new senior editor, Martha Thornhill, wonders if it is one of those pranks. However, she and her team (fellow editors) decipher the clues in the letter to realize it hints at a case that occurred in 2010.

Martha’s older sister, Charlie disappeared without a trace never to be found. Unable to handle the aftermath, Martha settled in Berlin and lived there for a decade, creating a new life. However, family issues brought her back to London, and her return seems to have triggered something.

As more letters arrive, Martha and her colleagues have to unravel the mystery using their talents with words. It is like solving a word puzzle, only far more dangerous.

The story comes in the third-person POV of Martha, Alex, and Zoe.

My Thoughts:

As a fan of mysteries, I was excited to read this one. Cases that have puzzles and clues are more interesting than the ones with gun fights. Brain power and all that. ;)

This is a slow-paced mystery with many heavy-weight words and complex clues. Given the author’s expertise and the chosen professions of the main characters, it’s no surprise that the content reads like a dictionary. Much to show off in this one and it gets excessive sometimes.

The mystery as such is decent and easy enough to put together in the second half. In fact, you can identify the culprit in the first half if you go by the vibes (even if you don’t know the whats and whys).

Though the book is set in 2023, it has an old-world feel to it. If not for the talk about messages and stuff, I would have forgotten this is a contemporary read.

The setting is Oxford (which the author seems to love). As the book progressed, it felt more surreal than tangible. The descriptions should make it atmospheric but for me, it felt a tad overdone.

In fact, a lot of the book is overdone, making it way too slow than it needed to be. The same goes for characters. I am really glad we get Zoe and Alex’s POVs which balance out Martha’s. As the main character, Martha was infuriating most of the time. She has this ethereal and untouchable vibe which made it hard to connect with her. Also for someone who is in their early 30s, she sounded like a 50-something woman.

That’s a pity since the character arc deals with important themes – being the shadow sibling, the blurring lines between worshipping and hating the golden child aka the popular sibling, living the ghosts of unresolved past and guilt, wanting to avoid the truth, choosing perceived safety over reality, etc. These should have enriched her character but somehow it doesn’t happen.

I like that there are subtle hints of romance between the two characters and it never shadows the central plot – the mystery. This is a good decision and has been executed well.

Each chapter starts with a difficult word and its meaning. I think some align with the chapters but some don’t. Even the complex clues are solved easily but I’m not complaining. The characters have years of experience in the field. They are supposed to be good at what they do to be in their positions. Moreover, the story dragged on enough as it is. Additional delays would have been disastrous!

The epilogue ties up the loose ends and provides a bittersweet and hopeful ending. I wish the ARC had the author’s notes. Would love to read it.

To summarize, Guilty by Definition is a debut novel by a celebrity and it shows. The book has worthy elements, which are at the risk of drowning in heavy vocabulary and a hard-to-connect MC.

Thank you, NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK (Zaffre), for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Content Warnings

beate251's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Thank you to NetGalley and Bonnier Books UK for this ARC.

If you know Susie Dent you know she's that person in Dictionary Corner on Countdown, and she also posts obscure Words of the Day on Twitter that always have something to do with the news of the day. For example, the day after the UK election she posted: "Word of the day is ‘absquatulize’ (19th century): to dismiss, send off, and put to flight."

She is clever and she loves words - exactly like the characters in her debut novel.

"Lexicographers sought out the thrill of the chase as much as detectives did."

Martha ist a lexicographer working for the Clarendon English Dictionary in Oxford, recently returned from Berlin. One day a cryptic letter lands on her desk, that alludes the sender knows what happened to her sister Charlie who disappeared ten years ago without a trace. Together with her team, Zoe, Simon and Alex, helped by police officer Oliver Caldwell, she sets upon uncovering the linguistic clues.

I love Susie Dent but I felt I was getting lectured on the history of words and expressions, and the cryptic letters from 'Chorus' and their swift solutions by the CED team went straight over my head and left me discombobulated. It felt like Ms Dent wanted to dump all her lexicographer knowledge on us, whether it had to do with the story or not, thereby getting us sidetracked. I found it very distracting to be constantly told the etymology of a word that had nothing to do with anything, just because the author found it interesting (although I enjoyed the word 'conjobble'). Funnily enough, I knew the 'steal my thunder' origin story already.

So yes, it's a cleverly written linguistic mystery with a few twists at the end, and when not in word explaining mode, the story is actually quite interesting, but I'm afraid I'm not the target audience for this. That would be lexicographers and English literature professors who would flip out over the discovery of a certain 'commonplace book' the novel goes on about.

Can I also say, I can't stand dark covers. I try to avoid them as much as I can. This one was bright blue when I requested the book. Now it's a horrible black and I had to put that cover on my StoryGraph account. Thanks for that.

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