Member Reviews
On New Year's Eve 1999 seven women hold conference in an empty room in a hotel in the bad part of town sitting with the severed head who is an enemy in different ways to each of the women. Throughout the story, it is revealed who that man, Jamie, is and what he did to potentially prompt this murder. This story is told in the different perspectives of all the women as well as the lead investigator of his murder.
I found this book to be quite compelling. Jamie Spellman just seems like a completely awful person who potentially got what he deserved. The author did SUCH a good job of outlining each of the characters, giving each of them such clear motive that it certainly kept me guessing until the end who was the true killer. I found it completely awful at times the influence that men have on impressionable women, and hate that this story probably isn't far off from real events that happen. That being said, it kept my attention and kept me up reading past my bed time to figure out this mystery. If you love slow burn mysteries with deep character development, this is the book for you!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy of this book. All opinions within this review are my own.
I enjoyed this who dunnit mystery. Seven women end up in a hotel room with {part of} a dead man...one they all wished dead. Nobody claims responsibility and we learn more as they try to figure out who killed him.
This is a great thriller! It pulled me in from the beginning and I just couldn't put it down. I love a great whodunit - everyone has a reason to murder but who did it - type story. It was well paced and kept me guessing - loved it!
Seven women enter a hotel room to find a man's head on the floor. All have reasons to want him dead. But who killed him, and why?? I could not read fast enough!
A dark appealing thriller that grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go until the very end. Jamie Spellman has lost his head, literally. There are seven women looking down at it and one of them is the murderer. Such an intriguing page turner!
A fresh, interesting thriller from this debut writer. I was intrigued to see how it would all pan out, and liked all of the intertwining stories (though it took me a while to keep everyone straight). A good one for thriller readers!
This was a confusing book. It kicks off with a lot of characters and a lot of action but without any clarity on who they are, what is happening, and why. It slogged on and on until about halfway through and I thought it was picking up but in the end it was to anticlimactic. We do get backstories on the characters but I still didn't felt like I didn't understand them or their motivations sufficiently. Not my favorite thriller, unfortunately.
A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.
This book sounded intruguing but it was a bit slow and confusing. There were so many characters to keep track of and I had to keep stopping to think about who was who.
This story was character driven and it had a few good twists but all in all it fell flat for me.
I do appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.
I was really excited to start this one and it started quite strong but too many characters became tough to keep track of and I constantly had to stop and think who was who.
Somewhat slow and confusing in the beginning, this story grew on me. I think some of my confusion was so many characters right off the bat. A good read with a few good twists.
Seven women all brought together by their combined hatred for one man; discovering that he has been not only killed but beheaded. It feels perfect, their dreams have come true hes out of their lives for good but which one of them did it?
I really liked the premise of this book but by 40% of the way through I was still so confused on which character was which and almost gave up. I was unsure who the culprit was until it was revealed but I think that’s because I was still figuring out the characters right up until the end. Could have been a great nail biting read if it was more engaging.
This book started out strong then just fell short for me.
Seven women gathered around a severed head. All the women have some kind of history with him and apparently it is not that great. Then it starts jumping around and it's not so good. Or at least it wasn't for me. It did have great promise but I have to say it is a DNF for me.
Thank you NetGalley and St Martin's for this ARC. I'm sorry but I just didn't like this one.
Hell have no fury like a woman scorned times seven. Picture it, seven women and a severed head. Intriguing and mysterious sum up this original thriller. The pacing kept me interested, although I still wanted more answers even after the abrupt conclusion. The premise sparked my interest and the mystery kept me engaged. Thank you NetGalley and Minotaur Books for my copy.
I wasn't too sure about this book when I started reading it but it slowly grew on me. It covers topics from murder, rape, abuse, suicide just to name a few but I think they were executed very well. There were a lot of characters to keep up with which at times was an issue but after a while I was able to follow along towards the connection point. Overall this was a good read.
Started strong and I loved the idea for the book. The jumping around was confusing at times but I still enjoyed the idea and I'm grateful for the free copy.
The story begins with a group of 7 women gathered in a room New Years Eve 1999. I thought cool a mystery at the new millennium! What I read was this group of women ends up gathered around a severed head. I’m not squeaking about that type of thing so I was intrigued. Unfortunately, that was the most intrigued I became with this one. Each woman had a connection to that severed head, but I didn’t feel the connection to the storyline. I am wondering if it was because of the translation. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This was interesting. It starts with a bang - a man’s severed head in the middle of a room surrounded by a bunch of women who have a history with him. None of those histories are good. The rest of the book jumps around in time and among characters, letting us in to why all of them had a reason to kill him.
I did enjoy the character driven aspect of this and learning how he had harmed each of them. All the jumping around in time and between characters was a little confusing. What I liked the least was the very abrupt ending which left a lot of questions unanswered and plot threads dangling.
Still, I would definitely read more of Wilding’s books and would recommend if you like character driven thrillers.
It takes a little bit of time to get the feel of Speak of the Devil There are a lot of characters to keep track of and a lot of pieces to the story, but, once it's all sorted out, what a story it is. It's the story of wronged women who find not only each other, but their own power. Sometimes revenge stories can be too over the top, too unbelievable, but Speak of the Devil was perfect, and I found myself cheering for each one of Jamie's victims as they find not only each other, but themselves.
Seven women…one man…….all connected. The reader knows that immediately from the opening scene but it takes a while to find out how and why.
We meet the seven ladies on New Years Eve in a discreet, out of the way room where there’s a table with a cloth over it. When it’s removed, they discover the head of the man they all know and who they were there to discuss.
Then begins the rollout of the individual stories of how this man affected their lives, never in a good way, but none of them are coming forth to say they were the one to do this! They were all above reproach but as you learn about them you realize it could have been anyone of them who could justifiably have committed this murder.
There was more flipping back and forth than I, as a reader enjoy, both between characters and their time with him. Adding to the mix is a relationship between the police investigating the crime and one of the women.
It’s an interesting thriller with contemporary issues which are the reasons the victim was so despised.
This just didn't work for me on audio. Not sure if this would have worked better in physical format, but I was bored for the most part. Also, a lot of characters, and that always throws me off. Yes, the subject matter was heavy and dark, and the end kind of made up for it. But I could not remember most of the plot after a month, or two.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio and the publisher for my review copy.