I was in the mood for cosy crime, as well as needing to make sure that I am shifting books from the tbr pile. So I picked up ‘Guilty by Definition’ by Susie Dent, which is certainly a cosy crime novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A setting in beautiful Oxford (which is always a good backdrop for a crime story), amongst an academic institution, always seems to make this scenario even more perfect (in this case, the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary). Martha has returned to England after some time abroad, and her return seems to reignite an interest in the disappearance of her charasmatic older sister Charlie several years before. As coded messages start being sent, first to the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary, and then to others who were aware of the unsolved case of Charlie’s disappearance, Martha and her friends seem to be drawn into trying to solve the mystery of what had really happened that summer several years before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As it is written by Susie Dent, words are a very important feature of this story, and that was something I found incredibly interesting. I just wish I could remember everything that the book taught me. But also, this is a great cosy crime novel. I found myself keen to see where the story was going and what the solution would be. But it is not a novel for anyone looking for a thrilling read. This is a crime\/mystery story of secrets, lies and hidden clues, not a thriller of chills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, if you need a cosy read for the next autumn months (sorry, yes I said it, but that is usually everyone’s favourite cosy crime season) and you have not picked this one up yet, then I recommend you keep it on your radar. Although, I am late to the party, so you may have already read it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was in the mood for cosy crime, as well as needing to make sure that I am shifting books from the tbr pile. So I picked up ‘Guilty by Definition’ by Susie Dent, which is certainly a cosy crime novel. A setting in beautiful Oxford (which is always a good backdrop for a crime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1389,181,36,1425,1424],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-a-year-in-books-2026","tag-crime-fiction","tag-fiction","tag-guilty-by-definition","tag-susie-dent"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8jrc7-E6","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2499,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/2499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bookwormandtheatremouse.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}