Library Journal
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DEBUT With her first novel, linguist Dent proves she is a talented wordsmith in her own right, diverting readers with historical and lexicological tidbits throughout the story. Martha Thornhill returns to Oxford after a decade in Berlin, ready for a fresh start. Upon becoming the senior editor of the Clarendon English Dictionary, Martha receives a mysterious letter. Using a voice similar to Shakespeare's, the writer includes clues that all connect to a specific time—the year Martha's older sister Charlie disappeared. Soon, the Clarendon team is receiving individual messages, and Martha's past is brought into the light. Who is the enigmatic letter writer, and how do they know about Charlie? Will Martha finally find out what happened to her sister? VERDICT Martha and her team are whip-smart and fun, providing a light juxtaposition to the suspense elements, while the lush and vibrant descriptions of Oxford create a lovely sense of place; readers will be both informed and entertained. Recommended for fans of Pip Williams's The Dictionary of Lost Words and Jodi Picoult's By Any Other Name.—Carmen Clark

Kirkus
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A series of pseudonymous letters and postcards provokes a lexicographer to revisit the disappearance of her sister from their Oxford home 13 years ago. The first missive, signed “Chorus,” is so cryptic, fantastical, and larded with Shakespearean quotations that Martha Thornhill, senior editor of theClarendon English Dictionary, is certain it must contain a coded message, and with the help of Alex Monroe and Safiya Idowu, two members of her team, she deciphers it. Though its import still remains obscure, Martha suspects it’s communicating something about her elder sister, Charlotte, a Somerville College student who vanished while juggling work on her dissertation and her own stint on theCED. Martha, who returned not long ago from a bittersweet job experience in Berlin, gets surprising encouragement from DS Oliver Caldwell at St. Aldates Police Station, but neither of them knows quite what to do next. Luckily, they don’t have to decide, for Chorus unleashes a perfect torrent of postcards with obliquely threatening quotations and letters with a series of increasingly challenging ciphers to Martha and the rest of her team, along with consulting Shakespearean Jonathan Overton and Gemma Waldegrave, his agent and Martha’s godmother. Their professional and personal relationships are well and truly tangled, but they’re all upstaged by debut novelist Dent’s impassioned love of words. As Chorus, once unmasked, puts it, “We’ve all lost ourselves in words. They are our oasis and our downfall.” Don’t worry if you can’t solve even the simplest cipher. There are pleasures here for anyone who revels in the joy of text. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Soon after Martha Thornhill returns home to Oxford to become senior editor of the Clarendon English Dictionary, she and her coworkers receive a series of postcards and letters with cryptic lexicographical references, all pointing to a specific crime with devastating personal meaning for Martha. Several years earlier, Martha’s sister, Charlie, simply vanished, walking away from her family, friends, and doctoral dissertation. Never knowing whether Charlie was alive or dead, Martha parses the mysterious letters, whose leads lie buried in obscure references to Shakespeare, ancient Oxford history, and centuries-old languages. As Martha and her persevering colleagues put their etymology skills to work, the emerging portrait of Charlie’s private life is as unsettling as the realization that someone out there wants to resurrect Charlie’s past and rattle Martha’s future. Redolent with Oxford’s musty academic atmosphere and deeply respectful of the stewards who keep the English language and all its arcane idiosyncrasies alive, this debut missing-person mystery from renowned lexicographer and British media personality Dent is infused with an intellectual insouciance, delivering tempting challenges for fellow word nerds and creating a trail of tantalizing clues that will intrigue the most devoted fans of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers.

Publishers Weekly
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Etymologist Dent (Interesting Stories About Curious Words) makes an impressive fiction debut with a clever whodunit that pivots on her linguistic expertise. Ten years after Martha Thornhill’s sister, Charlie, disappeared, Martha returns to Oxford from Berlin to work as a senior editor for the Clarendon English Dictionary—the same publication where Charlie worked before she vanished. Shortly after Martha starts at CED, the office receives an anonymous note that alludes to an incident the same year Charlie disappeared and concludes with a quote from The Merchant of Venice: “Truth will come to life. Murder cannot be hid long.” That missive is followed by another, which references Chaucer, and then individual staff members start receiving postcards with ominous messages such as “I do despise a liar.” Worried that the messages could be connected to Charlie’s fate, Martha investigates, and quickly learns that her sister was sitting on a major discovery with dangerous implications. Dent wrings genuine emotion from Martha’s grief, and crafts a tantalizing puzzle for Anglophiles and Golden Age mystery lovers alike. This is a treat. (May)