Seven women sit in a hotel room with the head of a man that they all have motive to kill. They each swear they did not kill him, but in order to save themselves and each other, they need to figure out who actually killed him. As they try to solve the murder, each of their secrets comes to the forefront. Will they solve the murder, or will they all go down?

Speak of the Devil creeped me the heck out in the best ways. A unique who-done-it that will live rent free in your brain for days after you finish...

A well-done story about seven women who were all treated badly by the same man. As the story begins, they have gathered together and are staring at his decapitated head. Each woman suspects someone else in the group of committing the murder but no one is admitting it.

Over the course of the book, we are given the back story of each woman and their relationship/interaction with Jamie. He was truly a complete jerk with no conscience and I instantly believed that whoever had done the deed and murdered him had a good reason. It was easy to see how he would pull people in and then turn on them when he had used them up.

The character study of each of these women was quite interesting and sometimes a bit heartbreaking. Jamie targeted women with weakness and then seemed to know how to capitalize on it. As much as you know revenge isn't a proper answer, it still felt awfully satisfying in this book when he got what was coming to him.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: I also listened to the audiobook and the narration was top notch. It made the story even more enjoyable for me because I felt like I was truly listening to a "production" of some type. Well done! 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley for both the early copies of the audiobook and the ebook. I voluntarily chose to listen/read and review them both and the opinions contained within are my own.

When I first heard the premise of this one, I was intrigued. I love a story where a bad man gets what's coming to him, and this definitely promised that. A group of women who have all been wronged by Jamie Spellman in one way or another are summoned by an anonymous phone number to a seedy motel attic on New Year's Eve 1999, to the unveiling of his severed head. One of them is the murderer, and all of them have strong motive, but no one knows for certain who did it and no one will admit to it. They work together to dispose of the head, and each goes their separate ways, waiting for their lives to unravel. This was a case of too many POVs, with each woman involved getting chapters, as well as the Detective on the case, who is having an affair with one of the women involved. The weaving together of the story was messy, and the pace was slow. The culprit was obvious to me from the start, but I did appreciate that she just snapped in the end and finally faced the reality of her situation. The story had potential for me, but ultimately fell short of what I was expecting it to be.

great book and I enjoyed the characters growth. Loved the friends and how this all worked out. I enjoyed the characters journey to finding oneself and others. I hope to read more by this author again.

This book just was not for me, I could not get into the story line or characters. Trying to keep up with each one was confusing in the beginning to even want to continue. This story starts off strong with gory details and may deter some readers not prepared or interested in this type of thriller.

After reading the synopsis I was really excited to read to this one, but I struggled to get into it so I applied for the audiobook and got it. I'm at 20% and I still feel lost. I've gone back and relistened a few times but the multi-layers of characters are just too much for me. It's probably a case of right book, wrong time, but this is a DNF for me. Thank you, I won't be sharing this feedback until I can give it a second go.

This book is one that I had to sit with for awhile after reading to fully understand all of my feelings about it. It is a deeply impactful work that covers the stories of abused women, the nuances of human relationships, and the aftermath of tragedy. The author included realistic portrayals of sociopathic abuse and the spectrum of ways that PTSD can manifest after the fact. Even though such heavy topics were in the book, I still found it extremely enjoyable. It is a page turner that I could not put down once I started it.

A dark and twisted story about a group of women who have all been hurt by the same man and how is head ended up detached from his body.

It took me a little longer to get into this one and I think that’s because there were so many different perspectives. It takes longer to get to know the characters and there isn’t one viewpoint that is more dominant than the others.

This was a decent read. It was an interesting story about how one man can ruin the lives of many women and what those women are capable of when they join forces. The pace was a little slow for me but overall I enjoyed the originality of the story and watching these vulnerable women discover their strength.

Speak of the Devil is an interesting mystery that takes on an uncomfortable topic of women who are assaulted, abused or manipulated. Too often they are ignored and the perpetrator, usually a good looking, charming or wealthy man, goes unpunished. This is a story of what happens when it doesn't necessarily go that way ..

This one can be a bit hard to follow. In the beginning you are thrown into the present, where women are meeting in a room on New Year's Eve. Little by little you are introduced to them and their relationship history with Jamie. It's slow going but I really enjoyed it.

You get to know the characters better as the story goes while following the mystery. This may not be for everyone as some heavy topics are touched upon but I would recommend this one for those who enjoy a mystery and don't mind a slow pace.

I sincerely appreciate St. Martin's Press for the review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Sadly, I wasn't able to connect with this story or the characters, so I stopped reading it about one-third of the way through. While the prose is strong in and of itself, I was unable to connect with the characters emotionally or get invested in the action of the plot.

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

Published: June 13, 2023
Minotaur Books
Genre: Thrillers
KKECReads Rating: 4/5
I received a copy of this book for free, and I leave my review voluntarily.

Rose Wilding is a queer, working-class writer from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. She has an MA in creative writing from The University of Manchester, where she was mentored by Jeanette Winterson. Speak of the Devil is her first novel.

“Revenge.”

A friendship built on trauma can lead to deadly ends. Being a master manipulator and a cruel human can make you feel powerful. Secrets, a mystery, and a willingness to ignore the truth could lead to freedom.

This was an interesting book. The way it was told through multiple points of view at various points in time was well done.

There were a lot of characters in this book, but how they were written and connected was intense. The dark truth that not everyone is who we think they are lurked beneath the surface throughout the book.

Some of the book felt like it dragged on, but all details were necessary to the story. The way this plot collapsed was well done. The ending was unexpected and intense, with a twist you won’t see coming.

This one was so difficult to enjoy. I tried so hard, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around all the characters, 9 POVs was just way too much for me. Someone with a better attention span would probably enjoy it, it has a good premise. I DNF at 25%. I’ll blame it on my ADHD.

This one had me captivated from the beginning. I loved it!
Seven women all have reasons to kill Jamie, only one did, will you be able to figure out which one did it?

Content Warning

This book contains depictions of child abuse, the aftermath of sexual violence, physical and emotional abuse against women. Speak of the Devil treats all of this as best as any author can.

TL;DR

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding is a hell of a ride. Her depiction of gaslighting is as devastating as it is accurate. Follow seven women as they try to figure out who among them killed the horrible man that connects them all together. Can they find the murderer before the police do? And if they find out who killed him, will they protect her? Highly recommended.

Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.

Review: Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

Fiction can be a powerful tool for depicting societal ills. It is a tool of empathy that places us in the head of a wholly different person than ourselves. Sometimes, that’s wonderful; sometimes, it’s uncomfortable; sometimes, it’s horrifying. On the best of occasions, it’s all three. Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding fits all three categories. It’s an uncomfortable story about wonderfully flawed women in a horrific situation. The women are all connected by a monster of a man, and readers feel for the women as we learn their stories. We feel empathy for them even if we don’t condone their actions. Speak of the Devil is a book that deals with tough, downright awful, things done to women in an empathetic way. It asks tough questions of its readers to which there are no good answers. Speak of the Devil is a tough, impressive, wonderful debut.

Seven women are called to a seedy motel on New Year’s Eve in 1999 where they find the severed head of Jamie Spellman. Each of the women’s lives have been affected by Jamie. None for the better. Kaysha Jackson, a journalist, had gathered all these women into a seeming support group for those whose lives Jamie has trashed. She takes it upon herself to protect the other women since she was the one to bring them together. When the head is found by the motel staff, the detective assigned to the case is Nova Stokoe, a woman dealing with a crisis of conscience. Nova also turns out to be Kaysha’s ex. Kaysha and the other women of the support group must figure out who killed him before Nova and the police do. Why did the killer do it?

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding is a third person, close omniscient point of view thriller. The narrative flits back and forth through time to flesh out the women’s lives. It’s a quick book filled with difficult topics, and Wilding handles everything with skill. She balances sensitivity to her subject while making poignant character portraits and maintaining enough tension to keep readers glued to the page. Speak of the Devil is an impressive debut.

Characters

All seven women and detective Stokoe get their time in the spotlight here. Wilding excels at fleshing out these characters enough that they feel real and enough that we care about them without oversharing. The book opens with the seven finding the head, and then detective Stokoe arriving on the crime scene. It proceeds forward to the next day, New Year’s Day 2000. Then the novel flashes back in time to paint a picture of Jamie’s affect on a particular woman. While building her female characters, Wilding also builds Jamie’s character through the eyes of the other women. He’s a fascinating and wholly disgusting person, but none of the women in here are exactly good. Each woman has her own flaws; they lie; they cheat; they undermine other women. These actions, however hurtful, pale in comparison to the harm Jamie causes. He is a sex predator, through and through, potentially a pedophile. To him, other people exist solely for his own use – whether for pleasure, career advancement, or camouflage.

At the beginning of the book, I wanted to know who murdered Jamie. As the story progressed, I cared less and less because I became wrapped up in these women’s lives. They were interesting, heart-breaking, and so very human. (I also cared less and less because Jamie was truly terrible.) Wilding doesn’t ease the pressure on her audience though. Throughout the book – in the past and present – the heartbreaking continues. I felt for each of these women even though I didn’t like some of them.

Nova and Kaysha were my two favorite characters. Kaysha did everything she could to cover up the murder and protect the women. Her intentions were noble if not legal. Nova, as a lesbian cop, struggles with the structural biases in the police force, and it’s causing her to question her job. While I may not agree with these women’s thoughts, I found them compelling and thought-provoking. Their relationship, past and present, is adorable and self-destructive. Now that I’ve finished the book, I hope they found a good couple’s counselor and begin to work on themselves and finding a way forward for them.

Narcissist by Nature or Nurture

Jamie Spellman is a narcissist. He used these women to get what he wanted without sparing a thought for the effect it would have on the women’s lives. They were tools to him, and he used them to build a life that allowed him to be a shit to more and more women. He did truly horrible things. Gaslighting was his preferred tactic, but he wasn’t above drugging, abusing, or lying. Through any means necessary, he would achieve his ends. So, how did he get that way?

Jamie’s mother died during childbirth. His aunt, then, proceeded to raise him. She was cold and distant. She blamed Jamie for killing her sister. Jamie’s mother and aunt had fled their strict father, yet another horrible man. Jamie’s mother wanted an abortion, but Jamie’s aunt wouldn’t let her get one. When his mother died, Jamie’s aunt couldn’t forgive him. She raised him but was not mothering. On his birthdays, they visited his mother’s grave because that was what the day was. It wasn’t Jamie’s birthday; it was the anniversary of his mother’s death. His aunt wouldn’t even say ‘happy birthday’ to Jamie.

So, Jamie had a shitty childhood. One could even say that the aunt was emotional abusive and/or stunted his emotional development. Does that really result in psychopathic behavior? Or was that already in Jamie’s biochemistry? Was it a combination of both? Did his awful upbringing exacerbate his natural terribleness? I don’t have the answers, and Wilding doesn’t give her thoughts on it.

The inclusion of his aunt in the group of women Jamie has wronged strikes me as odd. She thinks Jamie wronged her by killing her sister, but that’s one ruined life Jamie can’t take the blame for. Is Wilding asking if the aunt bears any blame for what happened to the women? Well, one character in the book sure thinks so. But for Wilding and for me, that’s too simple, too pat, and it relieves Jamie of his own agency. People have shitty childhoods and don’t become monsters. I think that Jamie’s upbringing set the stage, but Jamie took to it, and he acted out his own shitty drama upon it.

Was Murder the Right Option?

Jamie was a terrible person who scarred these women. Each of them were hurt to their very cores by Jamie; for some, this included physical hurt as well. He emotionally and psychologically manipulated six of the seven women. His effect on their lives significantly altered the course of six of the seven in horrible ways. But did he deserve death?

It’s clear that had Jamie survived, he would have continued as the predator that he was. His death saved other women from pain and abuse. That’s clear. He needed to be stopped, and that’s exactly why Kaysha formed the group. They were trying to stop him using a legal system that didn’t (doesn’t) believe women. Separately, a few had tried to stop him, and the system failed them. Would they have succeeded as a group? (Your answer indicates whether you’re an optimist or pessimist.) In the end it doesn’t matter. Death stopped him despite his horrors stretching beyond his grave.

Wilding doesn’t make a judgement on whether murder was the only way to stop him. But she also paints the portrait so that the audience considers his death from a legal or moral standpoint instead of an emotional one. Readers will not mourn Jamie Spellman, but we can debate whether murder was the correct method of stopping him, and whether the murderer deserves to be punished. Wilding further complicates this by depicting the legal system as flawed and biased against women. It leads to interesting thoughts about what justice means.

Personally, I don’t think Jamie deserved to die. He would have better served society by being imprisoned and removed from affecting women’s lives. (Though he’d probably find someone to gaslight through penpals and the internet.) That said, I don’t think his murderer should be punished. Society is better off with that man’s removal, but individuals shouldn’t be able to remove someone without some sort of due process to ensure that the removal is appropriate and best for society. In the case of a terrible person like Jamie Spellman, there are extenuating circumstances that don’t result in a justified killing. But justice isn’t served by jailing the murderer. That person saved others from a monster.

Conclusion

Rose Wilding’s Speak of the Devil is a wonderful, tough book. It starts out as a murder mystery but quickly switches into a race to protect the murderer from the police. Wilding poses ethical and moral problems with this novel that aren’t easily answered even if they’re enjoyable to read about. The women in this book experience truly horrible things, and readers will feel for them. By the end, you’ll want to protect them as much as Wilding does. Highly recommended.

Speak of the Devil begins with an intriguing set up… seven women in a room surrounding the severed head of the one man they all have in common. It’s an interesting premise, and a complex exploration of the ways in which evil manifests itself. Let’s just say, there is never a time when you feel sad that this man was unalived.

Author Rose Wilding does a good job of presenting the points of view of the seven women, all of which had a motive to kill the deceased. However, I did predict who the murderer was pretty early on, though all of the characters had compelling motives. And I’m not sure I like the way that said murder is “resolved” at the end of the book. But I did appreciate the way that Wilding depicts complex issues of privilege and class.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

Interesting story to hear how one man did seven different women wrong! It brought into question "nature vs. nuture" as well! I wanted to slap Olivia for being so naive though! I would recommend, even though it was slow in some parts.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Speak of the Devil falls somewhere between mystery and Clue-like whodunnit, and quite frankly it was a delightfully devious and dark plot to escape into.

The book begins with the head of decapitated man in a room with a group of women who all had excellent reasons to want him dead, and then alternates between perspectives of the Detective Inspector whose working the case and the women and their backstories of how they knew the victim. The victim who is most certainly and clearly, not a good man. The victim who evidently deserved his grisly fate.

Put those two threads together and you have a deeply addictive and compelling storyline that had me literally glued to the page. I read this whole thing in one morning simply because I kept wanting to see how much worse of a man Jamie could be, and I was dying to figure out who actually killed him. When you have multiple suspects who are all VERY POSSIBLY the killer, with VERY STRONG motives, it becomes very hard to guess.

This is the exact kind of summer thriller reading we love - easy and absorbing, messy and dynamic characters, layers upon layers of secrets and topped off with incredibly well crafted plot twists that add to the story and finish it with satisfying aplomb.

Be sure to put this into your pre-order baskets this week so you can get this immediately into rotation. You’ll certainly need to get in on this guess-the-killer fun.

Thank you @minotaur_books for the copy and @rose_wldng - I bow down to your twisty murder mystery brilliance!

One of the most unique thrillers I have read in awhile. Seven women joined together by one common denominator: a dead man. All with interwoven stories of heartache, sadness & brokenness. All of them had reason to kill him, but which one actually did? Rose Wilding's storytelling kept me one the edge of my seat throughout the entire book. I loved the plot & all of the twists that came along the way.

A novel that begins with a dripping, stinking severed head displayed atop an open Bible will not be to everyone's taste. This tale of seven women who had reasons to deliver that fate to the man who wrecked all their lives will appeal to those who enjoy graphic violence and stories of revenge by women against terrible men.