Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding is a tale of revenge, of evil and of the secrets we keep.

Summary -

"...Eight faces are illuminated , ghastly and sunken-eyed in the flickering light. Seven women sit in a semicircle, their bodies pointing toward a kind of altar in the middle of the room. They all look at him, some of them just glancing now and then, some of them staring, unable to avert their gaze. Only one of them knew he would be here; the others are in varying states of horror at the sight of him. Even the one who brought him is horrified, maybe more so than the rest..."

The seven women stand around the severed head of a man they all know. The wife, the teenager, the ex, the journalist, the colleague, the friend and the woman who raised him. They all had reason to kill Jamie, yet each one denies having done it. But now they must look out for one another as they try to unravel just what happened. Before the Police do.

"...Olive, look, we don't know who it was. But it's done now, and all we can do is look out for each other. He harmed us all, and I'm not condoning what happened...but...it's done.'
'And what if this murderer, whoever she is, but let's call her Sarah,' Olive says. 'What if she does it again? What if she decides to behead the next man who looks at her the wrong way?'
'Jamie isn't dead because he looked at someone the wrong way,' Kaysha spits. 'He's dead because he was an evil prick and it caught up with him.'
'He was good.'
'He was a fucking murderer, Olive,' Kaysha says, taking Olive's wrist.
Olive's eyes widen. "Get out.'
'He took everything from you. Why are you still protecting him?'
'Just get out of my house,' Olive says, her face flushed with rage..."

Jamie wove in and out of each of the women's lives, often with devastating results. But now, one of them has fought back and the consequences of her act threaten them all. But the bigger question remains. Not who killed Jamie. But what do they do when they find out. If they reveal the killer, do they reveal all the secrets and lies they've kept hidden as well? Even murdered, Jamie is still terrorizing the seven women.

Review -

Speak of the Devil is horrifying as it is tragic, with a well structured murder mystery at the center of it. It begins full throttle and the first page reels the reader in but alas, from there it slows down and never truly captures the intensity and angst of the beginning of the novel. But as each story within the story unravels we begin to understand the impact Jamie has had on all of these women. Wilding does an incredibly intricate job of developing the female characters in this tale. Each of them. Unfortunately she does not do that with the male characters and what are left with there is what there is far too much of in modern novels. If you have a female lead then all the male characters are evil, callous or remarkably stupid.

That's too bad because this is really a good start to what could have been a murder mystery that would remind us all of an Agatha Christie tale. It really did start off that good.

Are there bad men in this world. Of course. There are some pretty bad women too.

A good book that will find its audience I am sure.

There are a lot of things I loved about this book - the narration changes perspectives among several women whose lives were all impacted by one man. The book starts off with this man's murder, and each woman is a suspect, for there are several reasons why someone might have wanted him dead. I loved the slow reveal of each woman's backstory. There are several heavy triggering topics in this book, but the author writes them with care. While it is a slow-build story, it is a very fast read. The characters are very well-developed and I was very invested in the story. I would recommend this book.

Thank you to @netgalley for the audiobook version of Speak of the Devil.
Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding
Published: June 13, 2023
⭐️⭐️⭐️
>>Seven women, one dead man. Who killed him to save the others? They all had a reason to want Jamie Spellman dead. When his head turns up separated from his body at their meeting, they must figure out the murderer before the cops do and implicate them all for murder.
Ok so, I really wanted to love this book. Really, really. I love a good thriller/murder mystery. The narrator was great and the premise was great too. I, however, found it to be too many characters to keep up with. Seven perspectives is too many to keep up with, especially with an audiobook. I would have preferred maybe 2 or 3 personally. The mystery itself was good. A lot of twists I didn't see coming, particularly the ending.

Speak of the Dead is a fast read with an unbelievable ending that will shock you. A group of seven women have been secretly meeting to discuss what they are going to do about Jamie. Everyone of them has been wronged by him and now they seek revenage. New Year's Eve they all meet in a storage room at a run down hotel. Hidden by a pillow case is Jamie's head. His body is hidden somewhere else. The women all suspect each other and quickly come up with a plan to evade the police.This one will deffently keep up at night guessing who actually did it an why

This audio book was such an amazing listen. I was socked by the twist and the turns in the book and will for sure listen/ read more books by this author.

Speak of the Devil
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Author: Rose Wilding

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: All of us knew him. One of us killed him...

Seven women stand in shock in a seedy hotel room; a man's severed head sits in the centre of the floor. 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 done it, yet each swears she did not. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who is responsible, all while staying one step ahead of the police.

Against the ticking clock of a murder investigation, each woman's secret is brought to light as the connections between them converge to reveal a killer.

My Thoughts: This story opens up with the plot, seven women in a hotel room sitting in a circle with Jamie, the deceased’s decapitated head in the center. Everyone of the seven women has been hurt by this man, in one way or another. One of the women accomplished the task. The seven women are not interested on which of them killed this man and decapitated his head, only that all seven remain out of jail, protecting each other. To step up the mystery, the investigator in charge of investigating this homicide has intersected with one of the seven women.

The story is narrated by several characters in a third person perspective. The narration is in present day and flashbacks of how each of the women intersected with Jamie, as well as how we got to this point. Then the story progresses over the next two weeks after that fateful evening. The exploration into the characters was not divided equally, but I am sure that was by design. The characters were created with mystery, while the author’s writing style was complex, suspenseful, and twisty. My con was that the ending felt rushed. Overall, this was an enjoyable story.

This story does touch on some triggering issues such as rape, gaslighting, transphobia, gender preferences, and police negligence. This is a dark, disturbing, compelling, and gripping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I was fortunate to have both the digital and audiobook version. The narrator on the audiobook were great at voice variation and really breathed life into the characters. I highly recommend picking up this novel!

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.
I enjoyed the audiobook narration.

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!
Audio was well done.

I found this book very hard to follow on audio - there are the 7 women wronged by Jamie as well as the detective investigating and all have backstories and drama. It’s an interesting concept and idea, but there were too many POVs. Some of them were well developed but others blended together and I couldn’t remember much about them. I enjoyed the diversity in the book, and am always here for a feminist revenge story. I definitely think this is one to do on physical, not audiobook or be ready to take notes and pay close attention. It’s an intriguing story but felt like a bit too much for me to follow, especially on audio.

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. The narration added a layer of suspense and realism. Thank you, NetGalley for my audiobook.

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 head, a head of a man all are familiar with. Most wished they had never met him. A murderer, however, must be found, as well as the rest of his body. So, who of these seven killed him? If I could have jumped in the book, I would have, He had few if any redeeming qualities. So, we learn each of these women's stories, and their interactions willingly or not, with this horrid man.

Seven women, took a while to sort them out in my minds eye. Not an easy to read story, some seriously awful things. Women are so often victims, but one decided not to be. But which woman?

Narration by Colleen Prendergast was awesome.

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.

If there is one thing I can say about this book...the man certainly deserved to lose his head!!!

I found Speak of the Devil a good book, however with POVs from the seven women who knew the murdered man, Jamie, I did find it overly confusing, making the reading go a lot slower than I would have liked.

All the women had very interesting stories, and that is what kept me reading, even with my confusion, and I enjoyed reading their stories and how they intersected with Jamie and what led them all to be together in the hotel room in which he was found. The women's stories have a purpose and are for the most part dark, so there are several triggers for those who might be sensitive to things like that.

As I said I found it difficult to read at the beginning with so many characters, but I urge the reader to keep with it, it is worth it in the end. I almost put it down several times and am very glad I didn't.

DNF :(

I couldn't follow what was going on AT ALL in the audio. There were too many characters to keep track of and no differentiation between character voices, which I think would have helped a ton. The story intrigued me so I plan to try again with the physical book, but some real changes would need to be made to the audio for it to be understandable.

Holy crap this book was extra, extra creepy and twisted, and I was here for every single moment of it!

Speak of the Devil was a great read. It was the 1st book I’ve read/listened to by Rose Wilding. The only downfall for me was the MANY characters. At times I had a hard time keeping them straight. But that would be my only complaint, This is very much a solid and very original debut novel. This one delivers a wonderful murder mystery that will keep you listening way into the night or until the final revelation .

Thank you to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review. If you love revenge stories this one is definitely for YOU!! Happy Reading.

This audiobook is told from several different perspectives and I feel that it may have been better for me to have read a physical copy of the book in order to keep track of everyone. I did enjoy the storyline and found the ending to be surprising none-the-less

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Seven women, each connected in their own way to the one body laying in front of them. Kicking off with a bang and never releasing your grip in this whirlwind whodunit.

The characters took some getting used to as they were quickly dropped before backgrounds played out but otherwise kept my attention intrigue.

I enjoyed this book. I was genuinely interested in the story and bought into hating the MMC. I probably would have liked this slightly better if I had read the physical or ebook due to the many narrators and POV's.