speak of the devil book review

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SPEAK OF THE DEVIL

by Rose Wilding ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2023

Man-hating driven to a furious point.

Wilding’s debut thriller asks which of seven women beheaded a man they all had compelling reasons to kill.

Once DI Nova Stokoe learns that the decapitated head found in an upper room in Newcastle’s Towneley Arms Hotel is that of scientist Jamie Spellman, the mystery is only beginning. Despite his undoubted charm and the coveted grant he’d won to support a project intended to identify the perpetrators of long-ago sex crimes, Jamie was a master manipulator who seems to have seduced, gaslighted, threatened, and betrayed every woman who crossed his path. It’s clear from the beginning that the women in his life—retired policeman’s wife Maureen Jones, infertile Sadia Spellman, wealthy Sarah Smith, librarian Olive Farrugia, cafe server Josie Kitchen, journalist Kaysha Jackson, trans chemist Ana Maria Cortês—have somehow made common cause, but it’s much less clear how they came together in ways that transcended the particulars of their nominal relationships with him. As the story leaps from one woman’s point of view to the next, a damning portrait emerges of a man without scruples who richly deserved his death. What’s most distinctive here is not the question of whodunit or even the piercing group portrait of the women in Jamie’s life but the delicate care with which Wilding ensures that even the most routine revelations—which of these women was Jamie’s aunt, which one his wife, which one the mother of his child, which one his rape victim, which ones his sometime lovers, which of them cast a spell that involved the sacrifice of a sheep—arrive with a jolt.

Pub Date: June 13, 2023

ISBN: 9781250886934

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Minotaur

Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023

SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | CRIME & LEGAL THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Nora Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2024

A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.

Roberts’ latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three.

Every summer, John and Cora Fox visit Cora’s mother, Lucy Lannigan, in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, leaving their children, 12-year-old Thea and 10-year-old Rem, for a two-week taste of heaven. The children love Grammie Lucy far more than John’s snooty family, which looks down on Cora. Lucy, a healer with deep Appalachian roots, loves animals, cooks the best meals, plays musical instruments, and makes soap and candles for her thriving business. Thea—who’s inherited the psychic abilities passed down through the women of Lucy’s family—has vivid magical dreams, one of which becomes a living nightmare when a psychopath robs and murders John and Cora as Thea watches helplessly. Thea’s description of the killer and her ability to see him in real time help the skeptical police catch Ray Riggs, who goes to prison for life. Although Thea and Rem go on to have a wonderful childhood with Grammie, Thea constantly wages a mental battle with Riggs, who tries to use his own psychic abilities to get into her mind. Over the years, Thea uses her imagination to become a game designer while the more business-minded Rem helps manage her career. Thea eventually builds a house near Lucy, where a newly arrived neighbor is her teen crush, singer-songwriter Tyler Brennan. Tyler has his own issues and is protective of his young son but slowly builds a loving relationship with Thea, whose silence about her abilities leads to a devastating misunderstanding. At first Thea tries to keep Riggs locked out of her mind. As her powers grow, she torments him. Finally, she realizes that she must win this battle and destroy him if she’s ever to have peace.

Pub Date: May 21, 2024

ISBN: 9781250289698

Page Count: 432

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024

ROMANCE | GENERAL ROMANCE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

More by Nora Roberts

BOOK REVIEW

by Nora Roberts

IndieBound Bestseller

THE SILENT PATIENT

by Alex Michaelides ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 5, 2019

Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.

A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.

"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.

Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7

Publisher: Celadon Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018

GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | THRILLER | SUSPENSE | PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

More by Alex Michaelides

by Alex Michaelides

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Books on the 7:47

Book review blog / author interviews / all things bookish, speak of the devil by rose wilding – book review.

• by Jen | Books on the 7:47
• Posted on June 22, 2023 June 18, 2023

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;

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Book Reviews, Author Interviews, Guest Posts, Ratings, and More!

#BookReview Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding @Rose_Wldng @MinotaurBooks @StMartinsPress #SpeakoftheDevil #RoseWilding #MinotaurInfluencers #SMPInfluencers

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.

A dark and nuanced portrait of 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.

Dark, intricate, and engrossing!

Speak of the Devil is a layered, unsettling tale that sweeps you away to Newcastle, England and into the life of DI Nova Stokoe, a young police inspector who suddenly finds herself embroiled in a complex murder investigation involving the decapitated head of an esteemed scientist and a suspect list that includes seven local women all who at some time were a victim of his manipulation, deviance, gaslighting, betrayal, violence, or cruelty, and thus all with a motive for his murder.

The writing is brisk and tight. The characters are secretive, cunning, and vulnerable. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, builds quickly creating intensity and suspense as it unravels all the personalities, motivations, relationships, deception, and devious behaviours within it.

Overall,  Speak of the Devil  is, ultimately, a story of lies, revelations, secrets, deception, betrayal, manipulation, mayhem, depravity, hatred, vengeance, violence, and murder. It’s a clever, sinister, solid debut by Wilding that certainly kept me thoroughly engrossed from start to finish.

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About Rose Wilding

ROSE WILDING is a crime writer from the north of England. She studied at the University of Manchester, University of Sunderland, and Towson University. When not murdering fictional people, she can usually be found drinking coffee, reading feminist sci-fi, or posting more pictures than anyone needs of her two chihuahuas on Instagram. Speak of the Devil is her debut novel.

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What Jess Reads

Just a girl and her books

Book Review: Speak of the Devil

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL | Rose Wilding 06.13.2023 | Minotaur Books Rating: 3.5/5 stars

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.

Speak of the Devil is a fascinating premise revolving around one recently murdered man and seven women who are connected to him in different ways. Each of the women has a story to tell and Wilding smartly weaves their history throughout the story of the present day investigation. I loved getting to know each of the seven women, as well as the detective in charge of working the case. With all of the different POVs I did find it challenging to keep straight who was who at the beginning of the book. Over time however, it becomes easy to tell each of them apart (and thankfully each chapter is labeled just in case!). 

All of these POVs revolve around our dead man, Jamie, who turns out to be pretty darn horrible. I enjoyed how Wilding examined society’s take on Jamie’s actions against these women and who was ultimately believed/not believed or painted in a good/bad light. The content of Speak of the Devil gets pretty dark at times and touches on many sensitive topics, so I encourage everyone to check the content warnings available on Storygraph.

The pacing is slow burn with a solid amount of tension throughout on what will happen, the identity of the killer, and how the mystery will unravel. If I was to categorize this book, I would put it more in the mystery/contemporary fiction genres versus the thriller genre that it’s currently being marketed under.

Overall, Speak of the Devil is a very solid debut novel that leaves me intrigued by what Wilding will put out in the future!

A huge thank you to Minotaur Books for my gifted copy.

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Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding – Review

By Sandra Callard

This alarmingly unique debut novel centres on a group of women who all have had damaging issues during and after relationships with the same man, whose real personality is easily hidden by his outward appearance of a young, handsome and caring person.

Jamie Spellman is particularly good looking, has no problem at all in attracting women of all ages and most women think they are lucky to have caught his attention. But his penchant is to then use them for sex, abuse and humiliation, usually for quite some time, and then drop them and move on to another target, leaving behind a string of disillusioned, pregnant, embarrassed – and very angry – women in his wake.

A group of some of the women he has humiliated arrange a meeting to discuss how they could put a stop to his activities. They meet in the shabby upstairs room of a local pub and, on entry, are faced with the horror of the decapitated head of Jamie on the floor. They know the killer is likely to be one of them, as they are all his victims, so they begin the search, alongside Detective Inspector Nova Stokoe.

This detective is sharp and clever and works closely with the women as she watches for any slip they may make to point to the truth. She is horrified by the things which are coming to light regarding the deceased man but the search for the killer is slow. The women are a heady mixture with various sexual proclivities which err on the side of fun, and all are horrified when Spellman’s real personality is exposed.

“Unusual slant”

The theme of the story is unusual and bold, and it is seen purely from the side of the injured women. It is an unusual slant on the everlasting male/female debate which comes down clearly on the female side. There are not many male characters, but this is definitely a story concerning women to the almost total exclusion of men, as the horrors that Jamie inflicted on these people seem to make every other man a suspect – even though we all know this to be unfair.

The book plays about with time, and necessitates a regrouping now and again to sort out where the reader is in the timeline of the story. This does seem a popular thing to do at the moment, and I do not like it, but it takes only seconds to arrange your mind and you are on your way again and following the story.

The book is a fast read, and the denouement is shockingly descriptive, with a most unexpected twist. It’s is a fitting finale to a complicated but readable book which never once pulls its punches.

‘Speak of the Devil’ by Rose Wilding is published by Baskerville, £14.99 hardback

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Book details

Speak of the Devil

Author: Rose Wilding

ONE 31st December 1999 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. Sarah has already lit the candles, and hands her one as she sits back down. 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. A woman called Ana gets up and kneels in front of him. She hasn’t prayed for years, not since she was fresh from Brazil, but the words slip out of her mouth as if they have been waiting for her, the Portuguese fast and slick, almost inaudible over the noise of the party below. Sarah lights a cigarette with the flame of her candle. “I think it’s a bit late for that,” she says to Ana, but does not get a response. Sarah leans back in her chair and crosses her knees, looks around at the other women, but no one pays her any attention. Kaysha Jackson—the journalist—lurches out of her seat and into the en-suite, where they all hear a retch and a splatter. She comes back a few minutes later, pale, splashes of vomit down her jumper. Sarah takes her hand, and their fingers lace together, brown skin and white almost indistinguishable in the gloom. Josie, who is the youngest, and is pregnant, is crying. Her pallid face is blotchy and swollen. “Where’s the rest of him?” she asks, her voice cracking. “We don’t know, love,” Maureen says, reaching across to lay a hand on Josie’s arm. “Someone does,” Sarah says, flicking her finished cigarette onto the floor and grinding it into the carpet with her boot. She looks at him again, meeting his eyes. It’s been a long time since she saw him, even longer since they were in this room together. He looks different now, and she feels different now. She loved him then. His hair is longer than it was, and it’s standing on end, as if he’s been dragged by it. She supposes that he might have been. His face looks thinner than it did, and his nose looks flat and broken, and dried blood is smeared over the bottom half of his face. She imagines how it must have burst from his mouth, maybe as he tried to say one last clever thing. He was always clean-shaven when she knew him, but he has a short beard now, thick around his mouth and chin, petering out down his throat and stopping abruptly where his neck does. The rest of him is missing. * * * The women are in a top-floor suite in a cheap hotel on the outskirts of the city, one of the best rooms once but now just a place to store broken things. Boxes of long-lost property disintegrate under the window and a mattress slumps against a wall. “Is anyone going to own up?” Sarah asks. No one speaks. “We weren’t ready,” she continues. “Ready?” asks Kaysha. “We hadn’t even decided.” “I never would have agreed to this,” Olive spits. She is a white woman in her fifties. She has gray hair, cut close around her neck, which she smooths and tucks behind her ears every few minutes. She crosses herself with her fingertips and closes her eyes for a second. “We know, Olive,” Sarah says. Sarah is in her midtwenties, unusually pale with a mass of unbrushed black hair. She has a rose tattooed on her throat and wears a leather jacket. Her accent is local, but less natural than some of the others, her vowels less flat, as if she is trying to hide where she is from. “Well, I think we all know who we suspect,” Olive says, her eyes lingering on Sarah. “You did suggest it,” Maureen says to Sarah, dabbing her watery eyes with a handkerchief. “I know what I said,” Sarah says. She pulls a hip flask from her boot and takes a mouthful. Olive nods at Sarah’s flask. “Suppose you did it while you were drunk. You mightn’t even remember.” Sarah opens her mouth to retort. “Stop it,” Sadia says, cutting Sarah off. “We don’t need a shouting match. We were lucky no one came before.” When the women had arrived fifteen minutes earlier, the head was covered by a pillowcase. They’d all taken their usual seats, all frowned at the makeshift altar in the center of the room, all wrinkled their nose at the smell of rot and pennies. There was no small talk, but Josie had asked what was under the pillowcase. When no one answered, Sarah stood and pulled the pillowcase off with a flourish, rolling her eyes, only for them to widen when she revealed what was underneath. Some of the women had screamed. “It must have been you,” Sadia continues, tipping her head toward Kaysha. Sadia is holding a baby monitor and she drums her fingers on the plastic, letting anger and impatience mask her horror. Sadia has deep brown skin and even features, straight teeth and long eyelashes. In a different life, she’d have been a model or a movie star, not the widow of a dead scientist. “You arranged all of this. You’re the only one who has everyone’s phone number.” “I know how it must look,” Kaysha says. “But I didn’t do it.” Earlier in the evening, each of the women had received a message from an unknown number: Meet in the usual place, tonight, 7 p.m. Emergency. This followed the usual format of Kaysha’s messages, though she’d never called an emergency meeting before. “How could someone have had all our numbers then? Someone else must know about us,” Maureen says. She is fanning herself with a leaflet from her handbag. “You said that our information was safe with you,” says Sadia, looking at Kaysha. Kaysha frowns. “It is, look,” she says, and unzips a pocket on the inside of her jacket, feeling around for the scrap of paper where she’d jotted down everyone’s phone numbers months earlier. The list is no longer there, and she can’t hide the confusion on her face. She glances at Sarah, who she lives with. Sarah shrugs. “You’ve lost them?” Olive asks. Ana, still kneeling, crosses herself and stands. She is tall and classically beautiful, with dark hair and golden-brown skin. “There are ways to find out phone numbers,” she says, sinking into an armchair beside Sadia. There is silence for a few minutes. The baby monitor crackles. “I can’t believe you brought the bairn,” Sarah says to Sadia, finishing whatever is in the flask and slipping it back into her boot. She lights another cigarette. “I didn’t know what I was walking into.” “Where is she?” “Next door. She’s been awake since four this morning; she’ll be asleep for a while.” “Some mother.” “Don’t start, Sarah,” Kaysha says. She is in her early thirties but looks younger, and is dressed in a black suit. Her eyes dart around the room, looking for something to focus on other than the head. “Can we cover him up, please?” Josie asks, looking at the floor. A sequined dress is stretched across her rounded belly and the glitter on her cheeks sparkles in the candlelight. She was on her way out to celebrate with friends when she got the text. Sarah picks the pillowcase off the floor and drapes it back over the head. It doesn’t cover him completely, but she makes sure she at least blocks him from Josie’s view. When Sarah sits back down, an eyeball stares at her through a gap in the fabric. “Does anyone else think that it’s about time we rang the police?” Olive asks, jutting out her chin and glancing around at the others. A silky whisper drifts around the room at the word police . “If you were going to ring them you’d have done it by now,” Sarah says. “I think we should ring them too,” Maureen says. A bead of sweat rolls from the hair at her temple down the side of her face and under her soft jawline. “And get done for conspiracy to murder?” Sarah asks. “Good plan, aye.” Kaysha rubs her forehead with her fingertips. “We can handle this, we just need to be clever about it.” “What are we going to do then?” asks Sarah. “Pick those up, for a start,” Ana says, pointing to the cigarette butts by Sarah’s feet. “Evidence.” “How on earth would they link that to me?” “We’re not in a position to take chances,” says Ana. “We need some bleach.” TWO Kaysha 31st December 1999 Sarah Smith’s house is way out of the city, past the suburbs and the smaller towns and villages, alone in the nowhere land between places. When darkness falls there it falls thick and fast, and it clings like treacle to the grass and the trees to make way for the moon, which is a bright crescent as Kaysha parks by the front door in the last minutes of the old millennium. They sit in the car for a long time and watch the stars. Sarah traces constellations on the fogged windscreen with her fingertip. Kaysha follows her girlfriend’s fingernail, thinking about the blood that is caked underneath it. “Makes it seem like almost nothing, doesn’t it, when you think how big the universe is,” Sarah says. “No,” Kaysha says. “Who do you think did it?” Sarah asks. Kaysha gives her a long look, and Sarah cocks her head to one side. “It wasn’t me.” “I don’t know yet.” “Bet it was the wife. It’s always the wife.” “Maybe,” Kaysha says. Sadia would have had good reason to kill him, but then, they all would. “If it’s her, what’ll happen to the bairn?” Sarah asks. Kaysha says nothing, but reaches out and squeezes Sarah’s arm. Sarah turns back to look at the stars. “I hope it wasn’t Sadia,” Sarah says quietly, and then takes off her boots and goes into the house. She comes back out minutes later with a bottle of whiskey and a blanket, and they both strip. They pile their clothes onto the grille of a barbecue that has been standing by the front door since their first week together, scorched fat still caked onto the metal. It is beginning to rust. Sarah pours whiskey over the bleach-streaked clothes and sets them alight. The women press themselves together under the blanket, skin on skin, passing the whiskey back and forth as the flames warm their hands. The cold night numbs them, and they let it. Fireworks pop against the horizon, and Kaysha’s phone rings. Her mother wishes her a happy New Year and hears in Kaysha’s voice that something is wrong, even though Kaysha is trying to sound cheery. Kaysha tells her that she will explain when she sees her, says goodnight, and they go inside, where Sarah drinks, and Kaysha begins to build a timeline in her head. THREE Nova 3rd January 2000 It’s a Monday but the city is quiet as the sun begins to rise. Adults pull heavy blankets tighter around their bodies, enjoying the last long sleep of Christmas break while children finish off tins of sweets for breakfast. Light yawns into a sky the same color as a peach skin and the river reflects it, yellow-red lapping the muddy banks. The six iconic bridges are lit, one by one, and their shadows sharpen and stretch across the water. The night’s frost glitters and begins to melt on the breeze blocks and abandoned cranes of construction sites along the quay, where they are preparing for the arrival of the seventh bridge. Detective Inspector Nova Stokoe is woken by a phone call about a body and pulls her Escort into a car park near the docks half an hour later. The three floors of midsixties brick look odd against the warehouses that have grown around it. Tufts of grass poke through cracks in the tarmac and empty flower baskets hang along the length of the conservatory that fronts the building. A faded sign reads Towneley Arms Hotel . There are two police cars and a CSI van there already, and Nova glances at herself in the rearview mirror. Ginger curls frame her jaw, messy from the night before, and she spends a few seconds trying to neaten up before abandoning the effort. Her freckles stand out more than usual against her pale skin. She spent the evening in one of the underground pubs off the high street, didn’t get home until four, and definitely shouldn’t have driven this morning. She swallows two paracetamols to ward off the hangover and gets out of the car. A man with a serving trolley stacked with boxes clatters across the car park as she approaches the hotel. He grins and a gold tooth gleams in the sunlight. “Going in here?” she asks, holding the door open for him, and he winks as he passes. “Morning,” he says to the old man at reception, and then disappears through an archway at the far end of the room without waiting for a response. Nova flashes her badge at the man at reception, and he ignores her for a second while he tops his coffee up with whiskey. His hands are shaking. “Upstairs, hinny,” he says, tipping his head toward a set of stairs to the right. “Top floor. It’s gruesome, mind.” “Stomach of steel, me, man,” Nova tells him, and goes up. The top floor is cordoned off with police tape and she can smell the corpse from down the hall. She wonders how long it has lain there. PC Ella McDonald is standing beside an open door with her hat in her hands and a look on her face that Nova knows too well. “Nice of you to turn up last night,” says Ella quietly, but not quietly enough. Nova looks over Ella’s shoulder. “Have you taken any statements from the staff?” “Were you with someone else?” “What about the guests? Any statements from them?” “Dick!” whispers Ella. She brushes past Nova, who watches her go down the stairs, too tired to feel guilty. There are baubles scattered across the corridor, and she nudges a couple out of the way with her shoe as she enters the room. Three white bodysuits are moving around, dusting for prints. A floodlight illuminates their workspace. A man’s head is on a table. Nova can see no sign of his body. The room is ripe with bleach and decay, and she holds a finger over her nostrils before moving closer. “Has the body been taken?” she asks one of the CSIs, glancing around for a chalk outline. “Doesn’t look like it was ever here,” he shrugs. The head is balanced on top of an open book that rests atop a pile of hotel bibles on a bedside table in the middle of the room. Fluids have seeped out of the neck and onto the book so she can only make out a few words around the edges of the page, but by the brown leather cover she can see that it’s a bible too. “When you move it, can you make a note of the page number?” “Aye, I’ll put it in the report,” he says. “I have had a look though, and I think … just based on where the book is opened and the few words I could make out, I think it’s the page with Leviticus 24:19 on it.” Nova lifts her shoulders and the CSI smirks. “Didn’t go to Catholic school, did you?” he says, not really asking, and she shakes her head. “You’ll know the passage. Leviticus 24:19 is an eye for an eye . I’ll double check it all when they move him, but I’m fairly sure. My dad used to like that one.” “Revenge,” she says. The page could be random, she supposes, but it seems unlikely. It looks like a revenge killing. She wonders what he did to deserve this. “I’d imagine so,” the CSI says. “You’re an ugly fucker, aren’t you?” she says, turning to the head, leaning close to it. She’s seen bodies that were more decomposed, but she hasn’t seen one as interesting as this before. His mouth is a little open and maggots slither inside. His eyes and nostrils have started to ooze brown foam, but other than that his skin is gray, as if all of the color has leaked out of him. There’s nothing particularly distinctive about him—white man, dirty blond hair, short beard, no tattoos, no scars. Not even a pierced ear. His nose looks broken, but other than that it doesn’t seem like he’s been beaten up prior to his beheading. She crouches and inspects his neck. Dried-out threads of flesh are twisted and decaying across the book’s pages. Certainly not sliced off in one clean sweep. “How long do you think he’s been here?” The CSI shrugs. “Hard to tell. The window was open and it’s been frosty, so that’s probably slowed everything down a bit. Forty-eight hours if I had to guess.” Copyright © 2023 by Rose Wilding

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Seven women, inextricably linked by one man, must figure out which of them killed him in order to protect one another in this electrifying debut thriller. New...

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Seven women, inextricably linked by one man, must figure out which of them killed him in order to protect one another in this electrifying debut thriller. New Year’s Eve, 1999. Seven women are gathered in a hotel room at midnight; a man's head sits in the center of the floor. They all had a motive to kill Jamie Spellman. They all swear they didn't. But in order to protect one another, they have to find out who did. The ex, who drowns her darkest secret in a hip flask as the woman she loves drifts further away. The wife, living out her fairytale marriage in a house tucked into woods so thick no one can hear a scream. The widow, praying to a past she no longer knows whether she can trust. The teenager, whose wide-eyed crush has trapped her in an unrecognizable future. The mother figure, battling nature versus nurture under the weight of her own guilt. The friend, forced to choose sides over and over, until she learns the price of choosing wrong. And the journalist, who brought them all together—but underestimated how far one of them would go to keep believing the story they’d been told. 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. Marking the debut of an extraordinary new talent, Rose Wilding's Speak of the Devil explores the roles into which women are cast in the lives of terrible men…and the fallout when they refuse to play pretend for one moment longer.

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Minotaur Books

9781250886934

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In the news.

“With seven unreliable narrators, the twists in this one will keep readers guessing.” – Parade “Wilding delves deep, focusing on a character-driven story in her deliciously tense debut.” – South Florida Sun-Sentinel “This captivating debut literary thriller entwines the searing stories of several women who suffered at the hands of the same man. This cautionary tale satisfies in its culmination of long-overdue justice for spurned women.” – Library Journal (starred) “What’s most distinctive here is not the question of whodunit or even the piercing group portrait of the women in Jamie’s life but the delicate care with which Wilding ensures that even the most routine revelations...arrive with a jolt.” – Kirkus Reviews “A clever and tight thriller that demands to be read in one setting.” – Crime Reads “[The women’s] stories converge in a way that will appeal to Kate Atkinson’s readers…This debut author is one to watch.” – FirstCLUE “Mesmerizing and unflinchingly dark...Wilding is a powerful new talent whose captivating characters will stay with readers long after they’ve finished the book.” – Rachel Kapelke-Dale, author of The Ingenue " A propulsive and complexly layered story...Fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware won’t want to miss this one." – Nora Murphy, author of The Favor “Harrowing and haunting, Rose Wilding’s assured debut is full of nuanced, complex, beautifully flawed characters...completely compelling.” —Sara Nisha Adams, author of The Reading List "Absolutely, barnstormingly brilliant. Beyond gripping, with wonderful characters you know and care about, feel rage for and with. Perfectly paced and plotted, I loved every dark, clever, powerful page." – Cressida McLaughlin, author of The House of Birds and Butterflies “Wilding takes an axe to toxic masculinity...maneuvering her vivid characters around like a virtuoso puppeteer. It’s a powerful, accomplished and important debut from a writer who has not only found her own voice but given one to others who have previously been silenced.” – Trevor Wood, author of Dead End Street “Assured & compelling…Rose Wilding’s evocation of the Newcastle setting & pitch-perfect ear for dialogue make every one of her characters live & breathe. I love the way she can unpick their lives before our eyes, exposing every secret.” – Kate Rhodes, author of Crossbones Yard “Utterly unputdownable, absorbing, dark and at times ineffably beautiful...With unforgettable, complex characters and a sympathetic, painterly eye for detail that makes them and the landscapes they inhabit leap from the page, Wilding conjures their stories to life in all their knotty, vibrant glory. The result is not to be missed.” – Lauren Brown, author of Hands: An Anxious Mind Unpicked “A very accomplished debut...I loved it.” – Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of The Lies You Told ‘With beautiful, gripping writing and depth, Speak of the Devil is a mesmerising, moving story that is impossible to look away from. Superb!’ – Gytha Lodge, bestselling author of Little Sister "A smart and totally compelling tale of revenge - with brilliantly complex characters. It hooked me from the opening page and kept me guessing right up to the end." – Emily Koch, author of Keep Him Close “A story with a fiercely feminist heart [and] lots of moments that stopped me in my tracks.” – Katie Bishop, author of The Girls of Summer

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Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding, a review by Jacquie Jordan

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding “ Speak of the Devil ” is the perfect book for someone looking for a murder mystery with a consistent sense of dread. In the story, a gruesome discovery forces seven women to find the murderer amongst them in order to protect their secrets. The book alternates between the investigation and flashbacks into each woman’s past, where we see why each of the women had a motive to kill the victim. The antagonist’s use of gaslighting keeps the characters, and the reader, constantly guessing whether or not they know what happened and who they can trust. The book ends with the accidental discovery of the killer and a surprisingly bloody end. 5 out of 5 stars

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Speak of the Devil, a review by Shelley

St. Martin’s Press | Minotaur Books Publication Date: June 13th, 2023 304 Pages Goodreads | Amazon

This book was better than I thought it would be after reading some of the reviews. It is a really dark book with plenty of subjects discussed; we have a murder (beheading) rape, transphobia, spousal abuse, gaslighting, suicide and marital affairs. This isn’t light reading, to say the least. It has a lot of strong female characters and if feminist revenge is your thing this is the book for you. I love a good book about a bunch of women who have had enough and aren’t gonna take it anymore.

Some reviewers have mentioned that there are a lot of characters to keep track of and it is hard to keep them all straight. I had this problem at first but once I got into the swing of things it became easier. The individual voices eventually become clearly defined as it is told from each character’s point of view and they get their own chapters so the reader gets to know them and learns of their backstory because the timeline goes back and forth as well.

As the story weaves on, we eventually learn that the women are all connected in some way through the male character these women all have in common. His name is Jamie and he is a douche canoe. I did figure out the ending before it was revealed but not much before so I still got my aha moment. This was a pretty strong debut and I look forward to reading what this author comes up with next.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

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For readers and writers, speak of the devil – book review.

-Guest post by Chick Lit Cafe-

Speak of the Devil (Speaking in Tungs Book 2) by Karla M. Jay

Marleigh Benning thinks she’s mastered being a home speech therapist in the most remote region of Pennsylvania… and that the steep learning curve is behind her. But in Speak of the Devil further surprises await around the next bend, as her six unpredictable clients throw her for another loop; her relationship with local fireman, Lawyer, heats up to alarm-level arson; and she discovers why her birth parents went underground.

The biggest danger Marleigh faces as she traverses the rolling, verdant terrain, going house by house to improve speech and articulation, is her inadvertent entanglement in a clandestine heroin operation.

Speak of the Devil is the fabulous sequel to Karla M. Jay’s book, “ Speaking in Tungs .” In it we have Marleigh Benning, a compassionate and caring speech pathologist. Readers follow Marleigh on her adventures in rural Pennsylvania where she has recently moved to from San Francisco, California.

Out of her element, but determined to make it work, her new caseload gives her a run for her money as her, sometimes, ill-tempered patients occasionally try to thwart her. But, she always remains kind and gives them her best with her utmost dedication. Besides her quirky patients, she has a lot going on with her daily life. Her romance with the hot fireman, Lawyer, is heating up.

She continues the search for her parents and finds out about a possible witness protection connection. She winds up right smack dab in the middle of another mystery that threatens her life. Her life is complicated, yet rewarding. But more than that, she is in serious danger.

Karla M. Jay has hit it out of the park with her latest book, Speak of the Devil . With lovable fun characters and great descriptive writing, what’s not to love about her books? With never a dull moment, I was completely caught up in the mystery and suspense, and Jay writes it so well. The characters are so real and endearing that I fully connected with them in a passionate way. I was drawn in with amusement by the sincerity and humor of the characters with their flaws and strengths.

The detailed writing held me captive and I fell in love with the rural setting in small town Pennsylvania, The townspeople and setting had my imaginary senses soaring. This really is a fabulous story with a sensational storyline and plot. With an unpredictable outcome, Karla M. Jay has woven together a unique and original novel that readers will revel in.

She writes with flawless capability that has a mix of mystery, comedy, excitement and emotion. The suspense is permeating and had me on the edge of my seat. What a truly amazing novel is Speak of the Devil . Chick Lit Cafe highly recommends this captivating book. Buy it and be glad you did.

This guest review was contributed by Chick Lit Cafe , featuring powerful, engaging book reviews.

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Speak of the Devil – The BOLO Books Review

by Kristopher | Jun 2, 2023 | Review

There is something undeniable about the thrill of discovering an impressive new author with their debut novel, knowing that you are about to start an extended journey with this individual that could potentially span years. Readers will have that feeling when they pick up Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding—a truly unforgettable work of fiction that feels more like the work of a seasoned veteran than a first-time writer venturing into the crime fiction genre.

Aficionados of crime fiction can hardly ask for a more gripping opening to a novel than that which is offered in Speak of the Devil . In a demolished apartment building on the top floor penthouse suite, seven women stand in a circle around the severed head of a man, with no body in sight. The life trajectories of each of these women was derailed in some tragic way by the evil machinations of Jamie Spellman (the dead man) and readers are quickly told that one of the women present killed him. But which one?

Rose Wilding’s strength lies in her ability to bring each of these women to life—giving them each point-of-view chapters—as they outline their various connections to Mr. Spellman. It makes for a miasma of time shifts that keep readers on their toes, but never loses them in the fog of temporal variance. There’s also an eighth woman—the detective investigating the crime—who is the impetus for several of the women telling their story. No doubt, it is a lot of characters to keep track of, but readers who invest fully will be justly rewarded by the conclusion.

At a time when the community is demanding diversity in their crime fiction, Rose Wilding has this covered—also proving that writers can craft characters beyond their own lived experiences as long as they do the research necessary to present them in non-stereotypical ways, free of unwarranted judgement and scorn. The seven women in Jamie Spellman’s sphere are racially diverse, they represent  varied sexualities (lesbian, straight, bi), most are cis-gender, but there is trans representation, their  ages vary widely, as do their backgrounds, and lastly they reflect different personality types—at least one of which is capable of murder.

Now Speak of the Devil could have suffered if these women all had similar conflicts with Jamie Spellman, however Wilding seems to have an inherent understanding of this, so the backstory for each woman is unique. We have relatives, coworkers, friends, and lovers—each of whom has a legitimate reason to want Jamie Spellman dead. The reader’s experience of figuring out which one did the deed is a bit like: “she should kill him,” “oh, she did it,” “how can she let him live,” to the eventual, “I’d like to kill him myself.”

Speak of the Devil is a gritty read—which should have been signaled by the dripping severed head on the table in the opening chapter. The list of trigger warnings that could accompany this novel include major topics like domestic violence, rape, humiliation, and self-harm, as well as less egregious ways of inflicting damage that under Rose Wilding’s writing skill and ability to craft tension hit equally as hard as the criminal mistreatments do. This is not a novel for the faint of heart, but again, those that can stick with it will find they are glad that they did.

Rose Wilding’s Speak of the Devil is easily one of the strongest debuts of the season and it will leave crime fiction readers anxious to see what she has to offer next.

BUY LINKS: Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to BOLO Books by the publisher. No promotion was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

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Welcome to My Life

Review: speak of the devil.

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.

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

© PrimmLife.com 2023

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.

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.

From the Publisher

Seven women, inextricably linked by one man, must figure out which of them killed him in order to protect one another in this electrifying debut thriller. New Year’s Eve, 1999. Seven women are gathered in a hotel room at midnight; a man’s head sits in the center of the floor. They all had a motive to kill Jamie Spellman. They all swear they didn’t. But in order to protect one another, they have to find out who did. The ex, who drowns her darkest secret in a hip flask as the woman she loves drifts further away. The wife, living out her fairytale marriage in a house tucked into woods so thick no one can hear a scream. The widow, praying to a past she no longer knows whether she can trust. The teenager, whose wide-eyed crush has trapped her in an unrecognizable future. The mother figure, battling nature versus nurture under the weight of her own guilt. The friend, forced to choose sides over and over, until she learns the price of choosing wrong. And the journalist, who brought them all together—but underestimated how far one of them would go to keep believing the story they’d been told. 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. Marking the debut of an extraordinary new talent, Speak of the Devil explores the roles into which women are cast in the lives of terrible men…and the fallout when they refuse to play pretend for one moment longer.

Review: Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

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.

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.

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 by Rose Wilding is available from Minotaur Books now.

7.5 out of 10!

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Speak of the Devil: A Novel Hardcover – Import, 13 June 2023

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Seven women, inextricably linked by one man, must figure out which of them killed him in order to protect one another in this electrifying debut thriller. New Year’s Eve, 1999. Seven women are gathered in a hotel room at midnight; a man's head sits in the center of the floor. They all had a motive to kill Jamie Spellman. They all swear they didn't. But in order to protect one another, they have to find out who did. The ex, who drowns her darkest secret in a hip flask as the woman she loves drifts further away. The wife, living out her fairytale marriage in a house tucked into woods so thick no one can hear a scream. The widow, praying to a past she no longer knows whether she can trust. The teenager, whose wide-eyed crush has trapped her in an unrecognizable future. The mother figure, battling nature versus nurture under the weight of her own guilt. The friend, forced to choose sides over and over, until she learns the price of choosing wrong. And the journalist, who brought them all together―but underestimated how far one of them would go to keep believing the story they’d been told. 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. Marking the debut of an extraordinary new talent, Rose Wilding's Speak of the Devil explores the roles into which women are cast in the lives of terrible men…and the fallout when they refuse to play pretend for one moment longer.

• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Minotaur Books
• Publication date 13 June 2023
• Dimensions 16.64 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
• ISBN-10 1250886937
• ISBN-13 978-1250886934
• See all details

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“With seven unreliable narrators, the twists in this one will keep readers guessing.” – Parade “Wilding delves deep, focusing on a character-driven story in her deliciously tense debut.” – South Florida Sun-Sentinel “This captivating debut literary thriller entwines the searing stories of several women who suffered at the hands of the same man. This cautionary tale satisfies in its culmination of long-overdue justice for spurned women.” – Library Journal (starred) “What’s most distinctive here is not the question of whodunit or even the piercing group portrait of the women in Jamie’s life but the delicate care with which Wilding ensures that even the most routine revelations...arrive with a jolt.” – Kirkus Reviews “A clever and tight thriller that demands to be read in one setting.” – Crime Reads “[The women’s] stories converge in a way that will appeal to Kate Atkinson’s readers…This debut author is one to watch.” – FirstCLUE “Mesmerizing and unflinchingly dark...Wilding is a powerful new talent whose captivating characters will stay with readers long after they’ve finished the book.” – Rachel Kapelke-Dale, author of The Ingenue " A propulsive and complexly layered story...Fans of Lucy Foley and Ruth Ware won’t want to miss this one." – Nora Murphy, author of The Favor “Harrowing and haunting, Rose Wilding’s assured debut is full of nuanced, complex, beautifully flawed characters...completely compelling.” ―Sara Nisha Adams, author of The Reading List "Absolutely, barnstormingly brilliant. Beyond gripping, with wonderful characters you know and care about, feel rage for and with. Perfectly paced and plotted, I loved every dark, clever, powerful page." – Cressida McLaughlin, author of The House of Birds and Butterflies “Wilding takes an axe to toxic masculinity...maneuvering her vivid characters around like a virtuoso puppeteer. It’s a powerful, accomplished and important debut from a writer who has not only found her own voice but given one to others who have previously been silenced.” – Trevor Wood, author of Dead End Street “Assured & compelling…Rose Wilding’s evocation of the Newcastle setting & pitch-perfect ear for dialogue make every one of her characters live & breathe. I love the way she can unpick their lives before our eyes, exposing every secret.” – Kate Rhodes, author of Crossbones Yard “Utterly unputdownable, absorbing, dark and at times ineffably beautiful...With unforgettable, complex characters and a sympathetic, painterly eye for detail that makes them and the landscapes they inhabit leap from the page, Wilding conjures their stories to life in all their knotty, vibrant glory. The result is not to be missed.” – Lauren Brown, author of Hands: An Anxious Mind Unpicked “A very accomplished debut...I loved it.” – Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of The Lies You Told ‘With beautiful, gripping writing and depth, Speak of the Devil is a mesmerising, moving story that is impossible to look away from. Superb!’ – Gytha Lodge, bestselling author of Little Sister "A smart and totally compelling tale of revenge - with brilliantly complex characters. It hooked me from the opening page and kept me guessing right up to the end." – Emily Koch, author of Keep Him Close “A story with a fiercely feminist heart [and] lots of moments that stopped me in my tracks.” – Katie Bishop, author of The Girls of Summer

About the Author

Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Minotaur Books (13 June 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1250886937
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250886934
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 476 g
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.64 x 2.54 x 24.13 cm
• #110,788 in Crime, Thriller & Mystery (Books)

About the author

Rose wilding.

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.

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Speak of the Devil: How The Satanic Temple is Changing the Way We Talk about Religion

• ISBN-10 0190948493
• ISBN-13 978-0190948498
• Publisher Oxford University Press
• Publication date February 17, 2020
• Language English
• Dimensions 9.3 x 1 x 6.4 inches
• Print length 272 pages
• See all details

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (February 17, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0190948493
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0190948498
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1 x 6.4 inches
• #205 in Atheism (Books)
• #379 in Religious Studies (Books)
• #673 in Religion & Philosophy (Books)

About the author

Joseph laycock.

I am an associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University. I write on a variety of topics related to American religious history, including American Catholicism, moral panics, and new religious movements (NRMs). In my writing I try to strike a balance between advancing a scholarly conversation about religion and reaching out to include the public in that conversation.

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The Author Started as a Skeptic. He Came Out a Believer in Pure Evil.

“The Devil’s Best Trick,” Randall Sullivan’s in-depth occult investigation, is not for the easily frightened.

By Clancy Martin

Clancy Martin’s most recent book is “How Not to Kill Yourself.”

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THE DEVIL’S BEST TRICK: How the Face of Evil Disappeared, by Randall Sullivan

When I was 12 years old, my family went on vacation and, at my request, left me behind. My mother told me that I could sleep in her and my stepdad’s bedroom — normally strictly off limits to kids — and watch their TV. The first night they were away, I made a horrifying mistake: “The Exorcist” was debuting on Canadian television. It came on around sunset. I turned on the TV and climbed into my parents’ bed. You know what happened next.

I wanted to go turn off the TV, but I didn’t dare for fear of what might be waiting in the darkness. I tried hiding under the covers but that only made it worse. I don’t know when I fell asleep, but I do know that every time I closed my eyes I could see the ravaged, green, grinning face of Linda Blair. As Randall Sullivan would say, the face of evil.

The Devil’s greatest trick, as the saying goes (attributed sometimes to Baudelaire and other times to “The Usual Suspects”), was to convince the world he doesn’t exist. Sullivan, an investigative journalist, goes out looking for him in our modern world. And “The Devil’s Best Trick” is a master class in the difficult art of first-person, narrative nonfiction.

At the start of his journey, Sullivan’s not sure if he believes in the Devil; by the end he is certain that Satan is real. Sullivan is never showy, and doesn’t insert himself into the story more than necessary, but we always feel he is there with us — which is often comforting and necessary, given his sinister subject.

The prose has wonderful momentum even when he’s writing about arcane debates in the early Christian church. Each chapter is a turn, a surprise. The writing is never clichéd, nor is the thinking. Sullivan knows a great lede, and he’s just as good with cliffhangers.

He tells us that he cut quite a bit of the murder and torture material, but parents should still skip Chapters 9 and 10. When he says, of the serial murderer Westley Allan Dodd, “I’m not going to describe the things Dodd did next; they’re too horrible,” we are grateful; what he has included is very difficult to read.

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