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A review by beate251
Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder