Death Writ Large

A brand-new linguistic mystery from Countdown's resident lexicographer, Susie Dent, set in the city of Oxford AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW A mysterious letter. A silenced scholar. A city paved with injustice. When mysterious symbols appear as graffiti around Oxford, lexicographer Martha Thornhill recognises them from an alphabet created by a deceased writer whose papers she once worked on. But this is no publicity stunt, and tensions intensify when further graffiti is found near the body of a university lecturer. Martha is not the only one to have doubts when the suspicious death is assumed by police to be a suicide. Called upon to lend their linguistic expertise to the case, she and her colleagues begin to unearth a tragedy that extends beyond the ancient walls of the university. As new messages portend more death, it's clear that a spirit of vengeance is stalking the city's streets, and may be reaching out towards them too. PRAISE FOR GUILTY BY DEFINITION: 'Astonishingly clever' THE GUARDIAN 'Will delight anyone who appreciates fine crime writing' THE TIMES 'One of the finest mysteries I have ever read' ROB RINDER 'Huge fun and beautifully written' GYLES BRANDRETH 'A tantalising mystery' JANICE HALLETT 'Genuinely page-turning' LALINE PAULL Guilty by Definition (book 1) was a Sunday Times bestseller August 2024

Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated thirty years as a co-presenter and resident word expert on Channel 4's Countdown, and also appears on the show's comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news, and is the author of several non-fiction books on words and language. Her debut novel, Guilty by Definition, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for Book of the Year - Crime/Thriller at the British Book Awards 2025.