Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent - my first five-star review of 2026

What could be better than a mystery set in Oxford that features four amateur sleuths who love words?  In this crime fiction debut, Martha Thornhill had been working in Germany for ten years until she is encouraged to apply for a job back home as the senior editor of the Clarendon English Dictionary. She likes her job but there’s a little tension with her three coworkers: Martha knows elegant Alex Monroe could have led the department as effectively as she while Simon Turner is still disappointed he wasn’t chosen.