A dark page-turner, that keeps you guessing a good way through the read. Gripping and suspenseful but lacking in character development.

This book followed the lives of lots of different women and was quite dark but a good read.

I did think it was obvious who the killer was but I enjoyed finding out the stories of each of the women.

A great read which we discussed at my bookclub.

Thank you for the arc.

Fierce gripping and dark story telling, 'Speak of the Devil' is the story of seven women all of who have reasons to kill the same man. Their stories are well told and captivating, and I was intrigued to find out more about what had been going on.
A skilled debut novel

The beginning of this was super intriguing and I was pulled in immediately. I loved picking apart the mystery and putting the clues together. It kept me engaged and interested all the way to the shocking ending. I’m excited to see what the author writes next and I’ll be sure to check it out! Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for a chance to read and review this.

Wilding has assembled a strong cast of characters to build up the murder mystery of 'Speak of the Devil'. Although I found this book initially difficult to get into, after the first fifty pages it proved a pacey, tense story withe plenty of mystery.

If you are someone who needs to pay attention to trigger warnings, however, or likes to be aware, I would urge you to check them for this book.

I had high hopes for this based on the premise and I was certainly not disappointed - I could barely put it down and cannot wait to see more from Rose Wilding. This was an incredible debut made even better by the so casually diverse cast, it’s hard to find that so it was refreshing to see people not defined by this diversity. Would recommend this to anyone who loves thrillers with complex plots and a feminist twist.

Speak of the Devil" by Rose Wilding failed to captivate my interest. The plot felt predictable, lacking the depth needed to engage readers. The characters seemed one-dimensional, making it challenging to connect with their struggles or triumphs. The writing style, while competent, lacked the spark to elevate the narrative. The pacing felt inconsistent, with moments of slow development and rushed resolutions. Overall, the novel left me underwhelmed, offering little to distinguish itself from other works in the genre.

This was a really gripping read that I struggled to put down. Finished it pretty quickly and found myself very invested

Ill be honest, I got an ARC of this one back in November and even though I was so excited to read it I just couldn't get into it. I put it to one side and I miiiight have forgotten about it until a few weeks ago. I decided to give it another go and I'm SO glad I did!

Seven women arrive at a hotel room and find the severed head of a man they all had a reason to kill. And as the story unfolds we find out what influence he had on all of their lives, what gave them all reason enough to want him dead.

With seven suspects plus the detective investigating the murder I was worried the characters would get muddled up, especially as we switched between them, but Wilding did a great job at slowly introducing more and more detail around each woman. I definitely changed my mind a few times about who the killer was, and for once I was actually wrong at the end which is so refreshing!

Another major win for me is the unexpected representation in this book! From the 8 main characters we have 3 sapphics and 1 trans woman, and if you know me you know how much I love getting to see that.

Once I got back into the story the second time around I had no trouble racing through it, the pacing was steady throughout with no annoying lulls, and enough intrigue that would have kept me going through them anyway!

4 stars and a recommendation to me if you enjoy some murder mystery and complex characters
Review dated June 23rd

New Year's Eve, 1999. New millenium has already started and 7 women gathrered in the hotel room. But there are not alone... There is a man. Or should we say, a head of the dead man. Who is he? Someone important for every single one of them. The only thing that connected them somehow. And now, he is dead. And they wanted to know who the killer is. One of them? Maybe.

7 women in the room. This sentence is enough to understand that it won't be easy, for sure. The story itself is not, nor the writing. I understand that we shoudl take a look on all of these relations, but I was bored to death.

Nothing extraordinary, nothing engaging and beside that, this was just "flat". No emotions, no speed, no turns and unexpected news that would make it just a pinch better. So, nooooo. Not this time.

A really great and intriguing read. I loved the characters and the story. Will look out for more from this author.

The pacing was a little off putting; slow to start, picked up after a while then the plot seemed to come to a screeching halt.

The premise is great, it should be intriguing and make me not want to put the book down but it was hard work to keep going at times

"Speak of the Devil" opens on New Years Eve in 1999, seven women are standing around a decapitated head in a seedy hotel. Each of these women knew the owner of the head, and each of the women have motive. It falls to Nova, a detective to establish what happened, after the crime scene is made to look like it is linked to another case that she is working. What follows is a sensationally dark tale where even the person that Nova loves most falls under suspicion.
I'm usually not a massive fan of multi-narrator stories but for me in this case it worked excellently. I loved the different tones of each narrator and how the present was cleverly peppered with insights from the past. The cast of characters in incredibly diverse but never in a manner that feels forced or tokenistic. I enjoyed the fact that I couldn't predict out-come (on occasion I have accidentally spoiled otherwise solid reads by twigging it too soon), this alone speaks to the deft hand that Wilding used to lead us through the story.
Wilding is unafraid to tackle at times incredibly dark subject matter (examples incl. sexual assault, domestic abuse, gas-lighting, to name a few) but it never feels like it is solely present as a plot device, instead giving us deeper understanding of the seven women and indeed the owner of the afore-mentioned head. I loved that Wilding wrote her characters very humanly, indeed the morally grey elements and the lack of simplicity around whether or not Jamie deserved what he got serves the story very well indeed.
Overall, an exceptionally solid debut, one that I would and have happily recommended to friends who are fans of the genre.

I loved this book, it was a real page turner! The plot was well paced and although it covered a lot of heavy topics, I didn’t feel weighed down by them, I was just completely gripped by the story.

I also have to give huge props to the cast of characters - it was refreshing to have such a casually diverse range of characters whose identity isn’t their only notable trait. each of the women were individually characterised beyond their sexuality, gender identity or whatever else might make them stand out as ‘different’ and I loved watching the story unfold through various perspectives which really helped to built a strong character foundation.

Definitely going to be recommending this everywhere I can!

I really enjoyed this book, although I wasn't sure what to expect going into it as it sounded like a lot...but I'm pleased to say it was a brilliant, gripping and shocking read. Would definitely recommend!

Seven women stand in a seedy hotel room; a man's severed head sits in the centre of the floor. Each of the women has a very good reason to have done it, yet each swears she didn't. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who did.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into this book but it was quite the wild ride, I was pleasantly surprised (and not just at the sheer amount of casual queerness throughout).
I found the structure really interesting in how it revealed Jamie's character as well as the mystery of his murder. We see how his life intersected with (or more accurately, how he inserted himself into) the lives of these women and how their experiences of him vary. Some are bad from the get-go, some he fools for years, but as it all unravels (and comes together) his true colours are revealed in various horrifying ways.
The discussions around rape and sexual assault, homophobia, transphobia, and abusive relationships were all really hard hitting while keeping the women at the centre throughout. The through-line of the entire narrative highlighting how hard it is for women to be believed in any number of situations, and the despair and damage it causes.
With such a large cast of characters and narrative voices it took a while to be able to distinguish them all from one another, an element which I feel could have benefited from another round or two of edits to neaten up and make clear.
The ending also felt slightly abrupt, I felt like we were cheated out of some of the run-up to the final dramatic decision and confession, but overall it was pacy, with plenty of twist and turns so I really enjoyed it.

Thank you NetGalley and John Murray Press for my e-arc of this title, received in exchange for an honest review.

Well, Speak of the Devil definitely opens on a unique premise! Seven women are gathered in a Newcastle hotel room on NYE 1999 with the decapitated head of a man (Jamie) who has wronged all of them in different ways. Quite the way to start the new millennium. This is a murder mystery where the potential murderer is right there in the room from page one. But who is it…

So, in the room we have Sadia (Jamie’s wife), Maureen (his aunt who raised him), Ana (his work colleague), Olive (his friend, probable mistress), Josie (his much younger – teenage – friend), Sarah (his ex) and Kaysha (a journalist who has past links to him).

Kaysha is the one who draws all the women together – they are not a group of friends, their paths only cross when Kaysha wants to gather them all to get their side of the story on Jamie – the toxic man in question.

As well as the women trying to work out who finally took the step to kill Jamie (as none of them is admitting to it) we also have Nova, the official police presence in the story who is looking into the case.

As is the way in Speak of the Devil – she has links, specifically to journalist Kaysha who just happens to be her ex-girlfriend. This lends another intriguing layer to the story.

I did enjoy the premise of this book and its feminist focus, highlighting the difficult lives of different types of women across society. It was fast-paced and did keep me guessing. But a part of me felt like, maybe because there were so many characters to keep track of, it was hard to fully understand why each woman would really go as far as killing Jamie? Although maybe that was the point – quiet rage being the issue in society.

Speak of the Devil is a cleverly plotted murder-mystery though and the ending was very satisfying. Perfect if you’re looking for something a little different for your next murder mystery / crime read.

A real page turner that sucks you in as you try to work out which of the seven women actually murdered Jamie. As we engage with each women we realise what a vile man he was and in fact each and everyone of these women had just cause. Nova the detective was also an interesting character.

The premise of this book definitely intrigued me from the moment I read the synopsis. The severed head of a man, in the middle of a room, with seven women surrounding it. Who is responsible?

I do love a good who and whydunnit. I also enjoy good character building which this book definitely had. I did find myself a little lost at times due to the number of characters involved in the story, but that was likely down to my concentration levels and not the book itself.

There are a lot of dark subjects covered in this book like rape, infidelity, suicide and more, so it is definitely worth checking the trigger warnings before jumping in.

This is definitely a dark book that keeps you thinking all the way through. I would recommend this if you are a fan of complex thrillers with an edge.

Let me start off with a disclaimer; I don't read thrillers! The last one I read was god knows how long ago, and I generally don't have the patience for them. And yet, I had all the patience in the world for Rose Wilding's debut novel, Speak of the Devil.

Speak of the Devil is a tricky novel to write; it's not just that Jamie is despicable; the women are whole people. Each of them is the perfect victim for Jamie because, well, in the eyes of the law, each of them has a reason to be lying. Each of them is not the perfect victim for the legal system, as shown time and time again. She shows us why these women were easy for him to manipulate, and she doesn't inadvertently slut shame as she depicts them as human beings. Doing that is hard, and it takes a solid writer to do that consistently throughout the book. That whole thing with Ana and Olive; very few writers have the guts to play it like that and to play it well!

So with that, I don't want to write more on this book and inadvertently spoil it for you. You should go ahead and read it, even if you don't usually read books in the thriller category. It consistently maintains the voices of these very different women and doesn't confuse you because each is shown to be a very different person.

With that being said, the ending was a bit anti-climatic for me, and I didn't vibe with it.