“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 didn’t. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who did.

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.

A beautifully written debut thriller about love, loyalty, and manipulation, Speak of the Devil explores the roles in which women are cast in the lives of terrible men . . . and the fallout when they refuse to stay silent for one moment longer.”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. You may have noticed that I’ve been missing in action over the last few months. I’ve been in the midst of a rather long and quite tedious reading and reviewing slump, which was unfortunately coupled with double shoulder surgery. I plan to return to the blog properly in the New Year but until then, I will be sharing the odd meme, along with some of my favourite reads over the past year or so.

With that in mind, I am delighted to be sharing my review of Speak of the Devil with you again today. Speak of the Devil was published by Baskerville on 25th April 2024 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats.

I loved everything about Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding. So much so, that it featured on my Top Ten(ish) Books of 2023 minus an actual review! Not something I’m either proud of, or something I’ve ever done before, but due to one thing or another I was reading voraciously towards the end of last year but struggling to find the time to sit down and pen my thoughts (perhaps because I was putting all my efforts into the reading…). And Speak of the Devil wasn’t the only book to feature in my 2023 favourites that hadn’t, by that point, been reviewed 🙈 Not planning on making a habit of that though! Anyhoo, Speak of the Devil was initially published in hardcover last Summer and it was everywhere. I just couldn’t resist the draw of it – that blurb, that cover – so I was over the moon when my children (with my husband’s help, of course…and a little guidance from me!) gave me the gorgeous signed, spredged Waterstones exclusive hardback edition as a birthday gift. I will treasure my copy forever knowing it was gifted by two of my favourite people (well, three if you include my husband) and knowing now how much I enjoyed this beautifully dark, character-driven mystery.

Speak of the Devil is a dark and gritty story about control, manipulation and revenge. It’s a compelling feminist thriller, and the true definition of a page-turner. It’s New Year’s Eve 1999 and seven women gather in a dank, drab and dreary hotel room gazing upon the severed head of Jamie Spellman. They’re shocked, horrified and unable to fathom what they’re seeing. But it doesn’t take long before the reality of their situation becomes clear. One of them, one of the women standing in that room, viciously and without compunction severed Jamie’s head from his body and transported it to the hotel. They all have their reasons for wanting him dead. But could one of them really do something so horrific and violent? One thing is for sure, they can’t hide what’s happened, particularly as Jamie’s body is nowhere to be seen. Before long, the police will be asking some very tricky questions and every one of the women will be under suspicion. They all claim to be innocent, but there’s no escaping the fact that there’s a killer in their midst…

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Speak of the Devil is such a strong, beautifully written debut thriller that had me in its grip from start to finish. The story is told from multiple points of view. We get to hear from each of the women plus the female Detective Inspector leading the investigation into Jamie’s death. Each character is fully formed and very believable, they’re also diverse and linked to Jamie in a myriad of different ways. You have the relative, the wife, the lover and the colleague, to name but a few. Over the course of the book the reader learns what a despicable man Jamie Spellman was, the way he manipulated and controlled the women in his life and why all seven women had a strong motive for killing him. I was concerned that multiple voices would be confusing but that is not the case at all. Each voice is clear and defined, each character stands tall. I loved finding more out about the women. Their backstories give a good insight into how they, and the other women, arrived at that hotel room on New Year’s Eve. And of course, their reason for wanting Jamie dead. All in all, Speak of the Devil is a confident, assured debut from a writer to watch. I thought the characters were superb, the mystery was intriguing and it played out well (I wasn’t able to guess whodunit – it really could have been any of them!). Each new chapter brought more detail and added to the overall intrigue of the novel and I was wholly consumed by the storytelling. A cracking debut and a highlight of my 2023 reading year, without a doubt. Powerful, razor-sharp and totally irresistible. Highly recommended.

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding was published in the UK by Baskerville on 25th April 2024 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

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.