Crossword Genius

School working at hit crime novel (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

arithmetic

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'school working' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to thinking as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'at hit crime novel' is the wordplay.
'novel' indicates an anagram.
'at'+'hit'+'crime'='athitcrime'
'athitcrime' is an anagram of 'ARITHMETIC'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for arithmetic that I've seen before include "School subject" , "Numerical calculations" , "Branch of mathematics" , "kind of mean" , "Calculation" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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