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"A Most Puzzling Murder," by Bianca Marais. (MIRA Books/TNS)

MIRA Books/MIRA Books/TNS

"The Language of the Birds," by K.A. Merson. (Random House Publishing Group/TNS)

Random House Publishing Group/Random House Publishing Group/TNS

"The Puzzle Box," by Danielle Trussoni. (Random House Publishing Group/TNS)

Random House Publishing Group/Random House Publishing Group/TNS

Carole E. Barrowman, The Minnesota Star Tribune

For years, the most beloved part of my personal library was my two-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary (“the OED,” to word nerds everywhere). Poring over its tissue-thin pages, tracing a word’s etymology, scouring a follow-up entry then another and another, realizing hours later I’d fallen down a logophile’s rabbit hole. Bliss.

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