{{Short description|2024 novel}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2026}} {{Infobox book | name = Guilty by Definition | image = Guilty by Definition UK first edition cover.png | caption = ''Guilty by Definition'', UK first edition cover | author = Susie Dent | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | genre = {{hlist|Crime fiction|Mystery fiction}} | published = 2024 | publisher = Bonnier Books | media_type = Print (hardback) | pages = 400 (hardback edition) | isbn = 978-1-80418-394-6 }}
'''''Guilty by Definition''''' is Susie Dent's debut novel. It was published by Zaffre, an imprint of Bonnier Books, in August 2024.
==Plot== {{More plot|date=January 2026}} Martha Thornhill has recently returned to Oxford from Berlin, to take up a post as senior editor of the ''Clarendon English Dictionary''.{{efn|A fictionalised ''Oxford English Dictionary''{{sfnp|Forbes|2025}}{{sfnp|Lyall|2025}}}} In April 2023, she and her editorial team of lexicographers (Simon, Alex Monroe, and Safi Idowu) receive a puzzling letter from an anonymous correspondent, who signs themself Chorus. With help from a part-time colleague, Shakespeare scholar Jonathan Overton, they work out that the letter refers to the unexplained disappearance in 2010 of Martha's older sister, Charlotte "Charlie" Thornhill. Chorus sends further letters that provoke the team to investigate Charlie's disappearance.
==Development history== The novel draws on Dent's own experience as a lexicographer, and her childhood love of both vocabulary books and crime fiction. Dent said that she and the protagonist "share very similar traits" and that she "[loves] the parallels between word detection and crime solving: they share the same requirements of looking for clues, gathering evidence, fathoming human motivations".{{sfnp|Toner|2024}} Dent had previously written a number of non-fiction books, but she found the "weaving together of the story's intricate threads" and "keeping a close eye on the plot" to be tricky during the novel's development.{{sfnp|Toner|2024}}
A sequel featuring the same characters, ''Death Writ Large'' ({{ISBN|978-1-80418-724-1|link=no}}), will be published in August 2026. The book series has been dubbed ''The Clarendon Lexicographers''.{{sfnp|Farnham|2025}}{{sfnp|Audible|2026}}
===Publication history=== * 2024, United Kingdom, Bonnier Books {{ISBN|978-1-80418-394-6|link=no}}, published 15 August 2024, hardback * 2024, United Kingdom, Bonnier Books {{ISBN|978-1-80418-396-0|link=no}}, published 15 August 2024, e-book * 2024, United Kingdom, Bonnier Books, published 12 August 2024, audio book (read by Louise Brealey) * 2025, United Kingdom, Bonnier Books {{ISBN|978-1-80418-397-7|link=no}}, published 24 April 2025, paperback * 2025, United States, Sourcebooks Landmark {{ISBN|978-1-4642-3607-5|link=no}}, published 30 September 2025, hardback
==Reception== Malcolm Forbes, writing in the ''Washington Post'', liked the "elegantly tortuous narrative" that eschewed the hackneyed dreaming spires portrayal of Oxford, concentrating instead on the striking cast of characters.{{sfnp|Forbes|2025}} Both Forbes and Darragh McManus, writing in the ''Irish Independent'', considered that the novel's use of unusual words, with digressions into their etymology, was a strength, though Forbes conceded that this occasionally detracted from the narrative.{{sfnp|Forbes|2025}}{{sfnp|McManus|2025}} Ultimately, Forbes thought that the book was a "fiendishly clever and marvelously entertaining debut".{{sfnp|Forbes|2025}} McManus was fainter in her praise - without the linguistic embellishments, the novel was a "fairly standard" murder mystery.{{sfnp|McManus|2025}} Sarah Lyall, writing in the ''New York Times'', thought that the plot got "a bit tangled", but again enjoyed the novel's "delightful asides about usage, etymology and dictionaries".{{sfnp|Lyall|2025}}
==Footnotes== {{notelist}}
==References== <references />
==Sources== {{refbegin}} * {{cite news |last1=Forbes |first1=Malcolm |title='Guilty by Definition' is the perfect mystery for word lovers |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/09/29/susie-dent-guilty-by-definition-review/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=29 September 2025 |url-access=subscription |id={{ProQuest|3255548553}}}} {{twlac|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/3255548553}} * {{cite news |last1=McManus |first1=Darragh |title=Susie Dent creates an enjoyable countdown to detective riddles in her first novel Guilt by Definition |url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/book-reviews/susie-dent-creates-an-enjoyable-countdown-to-detective-riddles-in-her-first-novel-guilt-by-definition/a1142304957.html |work=Irish Independent |date=11 April 2025 |language=en |url-access=subscription}} * {{cite news |last1=Lyall |first1=Sarah |title=Thrillers Guaranteed to Give You Goosebumps |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/books/review/new-thriller-novels.html |work=The New York Times |date=8 October 2025 |url-access=subscription |id={{ProQuest|3258619767}}}} {{twlac|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/3258619767}} * {{cite news |last1=Toner |first1=Aine |title=Countdown's Susie Dent: 'I wanted to explore the secret lives of words and those who document them' |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/life/features/countdowns-susie-dent-i-wanted-to-explore-the-secret-lives-of-words-and-those-who-document-them/a924320032.html |work=Belfast Telegraph |date=9 August 2024 |id={{ProQuest|3090820046}} |url-access=subscription}} {{twlac|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/3090820046}} * {{cite magazine |last1=Farnham |first1=India |title=Word play: An interview with 'Britain's most famous lexicographer' Susie Dent |url=https://thebathmagazine.co.uk/word-play-an-interview-with-britains-most-famous-lexicographer-susie-dent/ |magazine=The Bath Magazine |date=29 April 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250808233410/https://thebathmagazine.co.uk/word-play-an-interview-with-britains-most-famous-lexicographer-susie-dent/ |url-status=live |archive-date=August 8, 2025 }} * {{cite web |title=The Clarendon Lexicographers |url=https://www.audible.co.uk/series/The-Clarendon-Lexicographers-Audiobooks/B0F6V84S4F |website=Audible |access-date=4 February 2026 |ref={{SfnRef|Audible|2026}}}} {{refend}}
==External links== * {{Official website|https://www.bonnierbooks.co.uk/books/zaffre/guilty-by-definition/}}
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Category:2024 debut novels Category:2024 British novels Category:2024 English-language novels Category:British crime novels Category:British mystery novels Category:Novels about missing people Category:Novels about language Category:Works about lexicography