03.02.25
A competent first novel. Dent seems pleasant and erudite in real life, and this comes across here - it's obviously more than a little autobiographical (apart from the murder bits, I assume). Oxford was the main star but the plot was unusual, if a little confused by the end, and the characters fairly well drawn. It might be Dent's speciality but most of the distracting and irrelevant etymology could have been edited out.
