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4.5 stars

Wow! Speak of the Devil is a complex thriller surrounding the stories of 7 women who are all connected by one man who has impacted their lives negatively in different ways.

We get to see a lot of the different ways that he had impacted them specifically for each character and it was a wild ride. It was so intense seeing how diabolical this man was in each of their lives.

This one wasn’t super fast paced but how it slowly unfurled made it even creepier and definitely added to the story!!

As the blurb says; the book opens with seven women in a hotel room, gathering around a head on the table. Who is this guy, what is the connection with these women and where is the rest of his body?
Each following chapter gives the reader a peek into the life of one woman at a time, events from the 1980's and late 1990's. That's a lot of back and forth and it took me almost to the end of this book to connect story and woman. But it doesn't matter; the main theme unfolds showing what the guy did to each of them and how not being heard by the authorities lead to drastic measures.
Speak of the Devil is quite slow paced, but not too slow to loose attention. The surroundings are well described and ring true. Throughout the book there's no indication of who dunnit. Eventually one of the last chapters just tells the reader what happened, which I found a bit disappointing. No big 'wow' ending, just The End.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Just a head, you say? If that doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will.
Slow burn, but it picks up pace and we have a pretty good story.
Seven women, one severed head. Who is the killer?
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the copy of Speak Of The Devil by Rose Wilding. I really had trouble with this one. I loved the idea of there being a bunch of potential suspects but I feel like I never really got to know any of the characters because there were so many of them! The book felt like a bunch of short stories instead of a cohesive book.
Jamie was a terrible person and got what he deserved. I just wish the journey to find out who was responsible for dealing out justice had been easier. I think this book appeals to the kind of reader who can keep track of all of the characters and is willing to read a lot about a real bad man. It just wasn’t the book for me.

Seven women. Seven women had a reason to kill the man whose head was found in a hotel room, the decapitated body missing. Each of their stories is a reason for revenge for his continuous evil actions. I would say I was entertained for 2/3 of this book but the ending was lackluster for me.

* OUTLIER ALERT *

DNF at 32%-no rating!
Perhaps something was lost in translation? I believe this book was translated from German.

It’s New Year’s Eve-1999

Earlier in the evening, seven women received a message from an unknown number asking them to gather in the “usual place” at 7 PM for an emergency meeting.

They took their usual seats around a makeshift alter in the center of the room, where under a pillowcase was the severed head of a man they all knew.

Each of the women - the wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend, and the woman who raised him - has a very good reason to have killed Jamie Spellman, but each one denies doing it.

Who is guilty?

Although this wasn’t a book I was planning on requesting, I received an electronic copy with an invitation from the Publisher to read it, and the PREMISE definitely intrigued me!

And, the opening TWO chapters which set up this concept, DID draw me in…

BUT at 32% I still didn’t have a CLEAR understanding of WHO everyone is, and it was frustrating!

The narrative keeps alternating between the seven women, and in addition to their name being listed at the start of a chapter-it would have been VERY HELPFUL to list their connection to Jamie as well. Examples: Kaysha, the journalist, Ana, the colleague, etc.

NOT ONLY did I not understand WHO is WHO, or WHERE this story was taking place, but I also didn’t have an understanding of HOW each woman knew the victim or WHY each had a reason to kill him.

More time was spent on their sex lives, than their connection to Jamie Spellman.

No book is for every reader.

I vowed to DNF books that weren’t a fit for me, as a New Year’s resolution, and this will be one of them. I want to get lost in a story-and I shouldn’t have to take notes, or start a flow chart to try to make sense of things!! You shouldn’t have to PUSH THROUGH a book-you should be excited to pick it up!

There are plenty of positive reviews so it must become clear eventually-but I don’t have the patience to persevere! Be sure to read a few opinions before deciding if it might be a better fit for you.

Expected Publication Date: June 13, 2023

Thank You to Minotaur for the gifted copy.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced reader copy. Oh what it is to be a woman scorned and get your revenge. If your that woman read this book and enjoy. Each character has a perspective and a story of how karma caught up with the individual missing his head! Hold on and try to figure out who did it and why.

I actually really liked the premise and the story. Where this got tricky for me was the fact that there were 7 main characters and a detective to keep track of. This is where I struggle. I cannot keep track of that many humans!

Seven women are tenuously linked to one another through their victimization by one man, and have informally grouped together to decide how he should pay for his crimes. When Jamie Spellman’s decapitated head mysteriously ends up at the center of their emergency meeting on New Year’s Eve, the women are left questioning who took matters into their own hands and supplanted the group’s wishes by administering their own deadly brand of justice. The mystery unfolds from the points of view of not only the victims, but also the investigating detective. The alternating women’s voices combined with a shifting timeline, serve to showcase Jamie’s history of predatory behavior. While no one is particularly saddened to hear of Jamie’s death, everyone is curious to find out who ultimately ended his life

If you like mysteries with multiple POV, look no further.

Seven women linked by one man, or in this case, his head.

Jamie is a manipulative, gaslighting, horrible excuse for a person. When his head appears in a hotel room on New Year’s Eve, six of the women he has hurt are trying to figure out which one of them has finally killed him and one is trying to figure out who it is so she can protect her.

This story was a little slow to hook me and I felt the ending was a little rushed, but despite that I find myself still thinking about it.

A good debut book by the author and I look forward to reading more by Rose Wilding.

I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was a great debut. It starts off slow but hooked me about halfway through. The story is interesting and evokes a lot of emotion. Murdered guy Jamie Spellman is about as horrible as a character can be and he's done a lot of damage to the women he's encountered throughout his life. By the end, you'll hate him too.

The story is told by seven women that had all been wronged at some point by Jamie. I thought it would be confusing with so many points of view, and at first I did mix up a couple of the women. By the midpoint they were all developed quite well. It was difficult at first to determine who killed him but by the end it was pretty obvious. The ending is quick and I wish there had been more. I'd like to see what happened to the women afterward. Overall, it's an enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to reading more from Rose Wildling.

Thank you to Rose Wildling, St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Seven women + one decapitated man's head = quite a story

The decapitated man is Jamie - a narcissistic, gaslighting, manipulative, abusive man who did something awful to each of the seven women. We hear from each of them about their experiences with Jamie, and they all had very good reasons to want him dead. I love a good vengeance story, and unraveling who actually did it was great.

I didn't quite understand how they all came together and thought the ending was a little abrupt, but the killer did end up being a bit of a surprise, so that was fun. I also appreciated the author's note about her inspiration for the book based on her personal experience - I think most women can relate to these characters in one way or another, so Jamie ending up the way he did was pretty satisfying.

Was this mindblowing? no
Was it well-written and worth reading? yes

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and comments are my own.

This book was different for sure. The plot of this book is that seven women have met up because of a man named Jamie Spellman. Now, Jamie isn’t a kind man and all seven of these women have a reason for wanting him dead. So, when they meet up at a hotel and find Jamie’s head…only his head, they are suspicious of one another and are trying to figure out who did it.

While reading this, you go through multiple POV which are all the women and you read about why each woman had a reason for wanting Jamie gone. I will say flipping through so many POV’s got quiet boring and lost my attention a little bit. I think the plot was good and I did enjoy it for the most part but just having a bunch of POV’s and trying to remember who is who and what is what is just exhausting sometimes.

I did like the characters though, because they are relatable and I think we all have known a “Jamie” and we all have known someone or have been that someone who has went through the trauma these women have. I wasn’t really surprised about finding out who the killer was to be honest and I didn’t really like how suddenly the ending came.

All in all this book was interesting and like I said; I enjoyed it for the most part.

3 stars.

Very good "who done it" chiller with a cast of characters, each of whom have more than enough motive to fill a major sinkhole. Seven friends gather on New Year's Eve only to find themselves facing the severed head of a man who has, in his own way, tortured each of them in many ways, over many years.
After the shock of the gruesome murder, attempting to solve it becomes an intriguing and deeply complex task. What to do when everyone has a motive and everyone has an alibi and everyone agrees he deserved exactly what he got?
Gory beginning for sure, but solid plot with some really quirky but extremely interesting characters.
Hmm, speak of the devil?
I probably will be.
Many times👍

Speak of the Devil begins with a shocking and disorienting scene: the discovery of a man's grotesque severed head on display in a hotel room. Even with this macabre opening, the beginning chapters of this novel go slowly and it takes time to be completely drawn into the story. The lives of seven very different women, who on the surface level should have nothing in common with each other, are all tied tightly together by the existence and actions of one man.

Jamie Spellman was never wanted by his mother or his aunt. Does that explain his malevolence and twisted personality? The ages-old debate of nature v. nurture will be in your mind as you read this novel and follow the investigation of his murder by detective Nova Stokoe as she digs into the lives of the seven key women in his history. Jamie is a despicable character and as a reader you will feel no sympathy for him, but Nova, on the other hand, is a very likeable character, competent but also very human in her empathy and humour.

As the stories of the seven women unfolded, I was completely hooked. The slowness of the earlier chapters progresses with steady revelations on the backgrounds of the characters and their connections to each other and to Jamie. The conclusion and exposure of the murderer, while not unexpected at that stage, feels abrupt. I wanted there to be more. This was a fantastic debut novel and I look forward to reading more from Rose Wilding. Thanks to Minotaur and NetGalley for providing a copy.

Such a good read - I really enjoyed this book. I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

Special thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

Jamie, who's a real jerk y the way is headless in a room with seven women, yes SEVEN. All of them had reason to kill him.

So this book has A LOT of points of view, A lot of back stories, and each woman has a LOT of baggage!

With that said I really did enjoy this book and even though you may need a notepad to keep it all straight, I didn't and the story all came together, quite masterfully I'd say, by the author. Definite recommendation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this novel as an eGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Speak of the Devil is a murder mystery style novel set in the late 1900s with a bit of a twist: a dead man has previously wronged seven women, and they all have a definite motive to want him gone. It's easy to hate the dead man, Jamie, with the recounting of each women's involvement in his life, but it's tricky to tell who it is that will be the murderess by the end. That being said, I really enjoyed the ending and how it played out.

One thing about this novel was that I read it so incredibly slowly. I don't know why- it has a lot of elements I typically love- but I found myself losing interest after about 20 minutes at a time. I think that reading this one slowly did impact the mystery and thrill of the plot overall, but I still enjoyed it.

Each character you meet has a unique set of circumstances and baggage. I felt like each character's storyline was easy to follow, but not every character played an equal part overall in the book. Some of them were more of a focus than others.

I give this one 3ish stars, I would consider reading more by this author in the future.

Speak of the Devil is the story of seven women connected to one man ,Jamie. Jamie was a handsome man , a cruel person, and a manipulative monster but now Jamie is dead .
This story opens with a severed head in the center of a hotel room and through seven points of view the reader is treated to the answers of how it got there . The author masterfully utilizes accents and slang to build the characters’ voices and help the reader fully empathize with each person who just might be the killer .
A wonderfully twisting tale this title is a perfect read for fans of thrillers and mysteries such as the 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn hard castle .

Seven women convene in a hotel room. A severed head lies on a makeshift altar. Each woman is connected to the dead man in some way. Each woman has cause to kill him. So who did?

I wasn't sure I was going to like this novel at first. There were seven characters and their POVs to keep track of, and that was a bit overwhelming at first. But somehow it just worked, albeit, a bit slowly at the beginning. I found my hatred for the dead man - Jamie - growing, and I was invested in every woman's story.

I did not guess the ending of this one, and I was actually pretty satisfied with how it all came together. Overall, this was a good thriller about revenge on a gaslighting, awful man.