Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding – Book 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…

Opening sentence: Fireworks pop and fizzle in the dark sky above the city, hours before the new millennium, and Maureen watches them for a second before she pushes the window open and closes the curtains.

Meet the seven women

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.

She didn’t think it would lead to this, and she realised as she looked at Jamie’s severed head that any of these women might have done this. She knew better than anyone that they all had reason to.

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.

A feminist thriller

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.

• Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC;
• Get your copy of Speak of the Devil here;
• Published by John Murray Press 22nd June 2023;
• 384 pages;
• My rating: