Bookmark 5

The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault is an example of a certain kind of book I always fall for: the literary mystery. Usually the protagonist finds something… a letter, a diary, a picture…that sets up a puzzle of some sort that the protagonist then goes on to solve. This one takes place at the offices of a dictionary company, and the clues are in the company’s citation files. The problem with these books is that the mystery is always more interesting than the solution, and that’s true of this one, but it was also a quick and enjoyable read, with a lot of interesting factoids about words and lexicography.