Book Club re-launch...! Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent
Details
Book Club is back! And we’re kicking off 2026 with a cracking whodunnit…
Martha Thornhill receives an anonymous letter at work, which hints at a sinister event in her family’s recent past. Her older sister Charlie went missing ten years ago, and Martha ‘s family have had no success in unravelling the mystery of her disappearance… until now.
Guilty by Definition is the perfect novel for a word-nerd! Every clue to the mystery is in the form of a linguistic or literary reference. The leading characters all work at the “Clarendon English Dictionary” in Oxford; all of them are professionally obsessive about the meaning of words.
Our author, Susie Dent, is herself a lexicographer at the Oxford English Dictionary. She has appeared on Channel 4’s programme “Countdown” since 1992, and she has hosted a TV series called “Susie Dent’s Guide to Swearing.” She also wrote a radio drama entitled “Only one word for love,” which was first broadcast on Valentine’s Day 2025.
This novel was kindly suggested to us by Kathy.