From bestselling author and etymologist Susie Dent comes a follow-up to the critically acclaimed Guilty by Definition. Famed lexicographer Martha Thornhill is back, and when mysterious symbols start to appear near the dead bodies of university lecturers, her linguistic expertise could be the key to unraveling the mystery.

"If ever a book appeared to be designed specifically for me and my colleagues at the [New York Times] Book Review, it would be Dent's Guilty By Definition, set among the logophiles and pedants of the Clarendon English Dictionary....delightful." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Will enthrall crime aficionados, puzzle solvers, Anglophiles and logophiles...fiendishly clever and marvelously entertaining debut?the perfect tonic for any philobiblist's mubble-fubbles." -- The Washington Post

A dead writer's alphabet. A living killer's cryptic messages.

When mysterious symbols begin cropping up around Oxford, most dismiss them as bizarre graffiti. But lexicographer Martha Thornhill knows better. She recognizes the symbols from a runic alphabet created by a deceased fantasy writer whose papers she once worked on. When the graffiti is found near the body of a university lecturer, Martha knows this is no publicity stunt.

And when the suspicious death is assumed by police to be a suicide, she's not the only one to have doubts. Called upon to lend their linguistic expertise to the case, Martha 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. Together, they must find who is behind the cryptic messages, before they become the next victims.