Best known for more than 30 years of service as the Dictionary Corner bod from Countdown, with Guilty By Definition Susie Dent has brought her formidable knowledge of the English language into the world of fiction for the first time. Sticking to the write-what-you-know maxim, Dent has set her whodunnit (or maybe that should be ‘whodunnwhat’) amongst the literary scholars of Oxford.

Specifically, Dent tells her tale of etymological intrigue through the perspectives of three women, almost three generations apart, all working for the Clarendon English Dictionary – known as the CED, which gives the group a quainter than quaint CSI-like moniker.

The result is very good, very much steeped in reality and only really taking flights of fantasy with the literary material that the group uncover. So, when tragedy strikes, it feels much more real than you would expect from a light read. Dent cleverly compares the team’s skill set to detective work, as they define the meaning of words by digging through the past to uncover the lexical truths. With a lovely rendering of Oxford and a plot that draws the reader in more and more as it unfolds, Dent has struck a perfect balance between the language lessons of Bill Bryson and amateur sleuthing of Richard Osman.