By LIZ STRILLACCI

Someone sent us this book to review before I started at The Middletown Press, but I'd plowed through all the books at home, so I picked this one up on a whim.

I'm glad I did. This was Ms. Arsenault's first book, published in October 2009, and the further into it I got, the less I wanted to put it down. It's a mystery, but done, believe it or not, in a bit of a new way.

The story comes together in bits and pieces. That's been done before, but it's the setting that makes the story different. It takes place at a company that produces dictionaries.

Characters are involved in defining words, new and old, and the mystery unravels as they search through citation files for references and updates. Each of the characters reveals a bit more about themselves as the internal story unfolds.

Even if you're not a word person, per se, it's a pleasant read. And it gives you an idea how the dictionary comes into being as well, which in itself is interesting.

I'm going to investigate whether or not Emily Arsenault has written any other books, too. I'll let you know what I find.