I loved this story! The plot kept me guessing and I didn't figure out the ending. LOVE! I finishished in one weekend. Would reccomend!

“Speak of the Devil” is by Rose Wilding. I liked the opening chapter of this book - hooked me in hard. I found what the main male character did to the women in this book to be — well, deplorable and horrible aren’t strong enough words, but they’ll have to do. I did find trying too keep track of who was who and all that a bit difficult (like another reviewer, I had to make notes). This wasn’t an easy book to get through (it’s a rather heavy read).

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding is the story of one man. One man destroys all in his wake. Seven women fight back. The horror stops here.

The beginning: Maureen.
The wife: Sadia.
The inception: Sarah.
The reproduction: Josie.
The colleague: Ana.
The facilitator: Kaysha.
The retribution: Olive.

Nova will uncover the truth. What will she do with it?

An in-depth story. What leads a man to abhorrent behavior? Nature versus nurture. Whatever the cause justice will prevail.

After reading the description this sounded like my kind of read. I was pulled in with the opening part of the book and was so curious to find out who put the head in the room. The rest of the story didn’t grab me though. I do think many will enjoy it though. I thought the concept was terrific and always love when stories are told from different points of view. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press - Minotaur Books for this ARC.

What if a man is murdered by being beheaded? What if he completely deserved it? Jamie Spellman gives multiple women valid reasons for wanted him dead… he cheats, lies, rapes, and more. So when his head is found and the police start investigating who it could have been multiple women have the motive to want to kill Jamie.
This book is told in multiple POV, each one just adding to this wonderful story. You never want to root for a killer but this book did just that. I found myself understanding more about why Jamie was killed and wanting to congratulate the killer then condemn them.

Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for allowing me to read this advanced copy.

I was really intrigued by the premise here, but the exceptionally slow-burn style of the plot exposition lost me early on... There are 7 women with 7 back stories, plus the detective investigating. It makes for a lot of back-and-forth in narrative voice and storyline, and I just didn't find it all that compelling. It started with a bang, but then continued on with a series of whimpers... This one wasn't for me.

Rose Wilding's dark, character driven, mystery drama starts with a shocking bang, it is New Year’s Eve, in 1999. and in a hotel room in Newcastle the surprising and horrifying sight of a man's severed head lies on a table. In the room are seven women looking at the head in disbelief, each of them all knew the man. The dead man was a respected member of society, a scientist, Jamie Spellman, the devil himself of the title. The widely disparate caste of women all hated him with a passion, with each having a motive to want him dead, but who killed him? As the murder inquiry begins, lead by DI Nova Stokoe, a woman with links to some of the women, the narrative goes back in time, giving the reader an eye opening picture of the victim, a truly ghastly man you will soon begin to think more than deserved his fate.

We learn of the history of each woman and their relationship to Spellman, all the stories building an emotional rage within me, leaving me wondering as to who precisely killed him and why, and doing it in such a vividly memorable manner. I could not help but feel for the women, and when we finally learn the truth, it is does not really come as a surprise. This is a compulsive read, I was so curious about the women, wanting to get to know them, understand them, and how they ended up in that hotel room. The ending appears to come out of the blue, but I was fine with that. This is a powerful, unsettling and disturbing book that examines the terrors many women have to endure. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

This book was a slow-burn but towards the end the pace picked up and kept me intrigued until the end.

The characters were likeable which is something I hope for in the books I read.

Although, one thing I always look for in a book is a shock factor. This book had a twist at the end but it was predictable, in my opinion.

I definitely give this one 3.5 stars.

My thanks to Net Galley and Minotaur for allowing me this arc to review. Unfortunately this missed the mark for me.

The opening premise hooked me right away. 7 women find a severed head of a man each one had "relationships " with , who treated each one horribly, and who each had a reason to want him dead. All of this was great. Whodunit and where's the rest of the body? But then this is where it lost me. You got 7 back stories jumping back from different time lines explaining each relationship. It takes awhile to connect but went all over the place and hard to engage in.

This was a wild read and I loved it!! I loved the way the story unfolds explaining each character and why they were there in the motel. I found it a bit dark but in all the right ways!!

3.5 This story at first caught my attention, then I drifted a bit…too many characters, I at first thought. But as the backstories began coming together, I found myself invested…less concerned with whodunnit …simply being glad the “victim” was dead!

Seven women have been called to meet in a hotel room which is usually a storage closet. In the center of the room on a stack of bibles is the severed head of a man they all know.

When I first started this book, I was afraid that I would be overwhelmed by the number of characters to try and keep up with, but I was wrong. Wilding does a good job keeping her characters separate and interesting as the tale unfolds, one by one.
Interesting plot and the title is an apt one!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher, Minotaur Books, for my unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
How can you not love a book that starts out with such a shocking beginning?
It is New Year's Eve, 1999, and seven women enter a room to find a severed head on a Bible opened to the passage in Leviticus that says, "an eye for an eye."
All of these women have been wronged in one way or another by the owner of the severed head, Jaime.
One of these women killed him in a brutal way. All of them have motive.
To learn which one of them killed him and why, we begin unpacking the ways Jaime destroyed each and every one of these ladies and discovered their possible motive for killing him.
I will say no more about the motives as the unfolding makes the mystery such a great ride.
I will say the ending is a shocker!

This was a fun murder mystery. One unique feature about it is that the more you read, the less you feel bad for the actual murder victim. What a terrible person. As you see how many different ways he gave so many different people motives to kill him, you really wound up hoping that whoever ultimately did it in the end would get away with it. That's not to say that all the suspects were likable, though. There were a few that were extremely unlikable and unsympathetic as well. The ending was pretty good. I did not expect the case to unravel quite the way it did.

This book starts on new years eve with 7 women in a cheap motel room with the severed head of Jamie, a man who wronged each of them adn may others until one person decided his time was up. I enjoy alternating POVs and although it took a bit to get used to all the different ones here, i think that helped with the overall arc of the novel. There were twists and turns to keep you guessing which woman was the murderer.

I enjoyed this book but if you dont like alternating POVs (especially 7 of them) then this book may not be for you.

Eeeek! What a dark, crazy, wild ride this one is! Seven women from all different walks of life all have something in common with Jamie Jamie is a bad man and has gotten away with terrible things for too long. His head now sits in a hotel room while all seven women surround it and contemplate things.

This book has good character development and an engaging story. It is somewhat unpredictable. Here and there I knew what may be next but overall it was all a surprise. Each of these women have been a victim of Jamie’s. One woman takes matters into her own hands and decides his time is up. He can no longer continue his sinful behavior.

I liked this book because it was a little off the beaten path of other murder thrillers. I love to see new ideas emerge as new authors grace us with their creative minds. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC of this book.

The premise of the book was interesting enough, but it fell flat on delivery. The pace was too slow for the genre. It picked up a bit in the second half, but it was too little, too late. There are numerous characters, and that made it challenging to connect with them and not be confused. The mystery was okay, but it was just a struggle to stay engaged.

Thank you to #StMartinsPress #Minotaur and #NetGalley for providing this Advance Reading Copy. Expected publication date is June 23, 2023.

Seven women stand in a cheap hotel room gazing at a severed head — no body, just a head. A head that belongs to the recently departed, Jamie Spellman. All of these women have been horribly mistreated by Jamie in the past. All have reasons for wanting him dead. As their stories unfold their intertwined connections become clear. Now their only mission is to protect one another and try to find out who killed him. Fantastic debut novel!

A suspenseful novel of revenge and unlikely sisterhood. It kept twisting and turning but always kept my interest.

On NYE, seven women end up in a dreary hotel room with the decimated head of a man they all knew. Told in alternating POVs we learn about the man and his relationships with all the women. It took me a very longtime to finish this book and I was close to not finishing it. I found the 7+ POVs difficult to keep track of and felt the pace of this book was very slow. It also has a lot of British slang in it which is hard to understand at times- I say this as someone who has lived in the UK for over 3 years.