Speak of the Devil

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Chandler said: “It’s rare to find a book where the plot is as compelling as the writing is dazzling and which has important things to say about women’s lives, across age, race and sexuality without ever forgetting that totally believable characters are what drives a novel. It is also a novel suffused with moments of joy, connection and empathy; a love letter to Newcastle and to ordinary people finding ways to navigate vibrant, messy lives.” A dark and twisted commentary on the treatment of women that asks the question, are women truly to blame when they take charge of abusive situations after the world refuses to listen to them?

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review. 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” Brilliant, fast-paced . . . loved the connection of all the women, the strength in their united pain' READER REVIEW

Next up were easily the powerful topics central to the book. Between questioning religion, the impact of impossible childhoods, and LGBTQ+ bias/bigotry, the depth of the plot was truly startling. I could easily see how such a manipulative man was able to harm these seven women so profoundly. Described in a way to both elucidate this fact but also draw out my empathy, the writing perfectly walked a line between the two. Wilding’s debut thriller asks which of seven women beheaded a man they all had compelling reasons to kill. 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

It would, personally, have worked better if the only POV we had was the detective’s, if we didn’t know anything about any of the other characters or their movements. Then, perhaps, there would have been some tension in it all. Because they all have motives, that’s kind of the point. But a more conventional framing of seven suspects and they’re all lying would have probably been a lot more thrilling. Wilding is from Newcastle upon Tyne, works as a tutor, and has an MA in creative writing from The University of Manchester, where her tutors included Jeanette Winterson, who recommended her writing to Evans at PFD. 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. 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.

I do recommend reading this book, as it held my interest and was very interesting. I could relate to that of Jamie Spellman (because unfortunately we all know some nasty people). I could also relate to each of the women as their stories felt so real and emotional. To all my GR friends that are worried that this book might be too much for them, it is labeled as General Fiction- and rightfully so (maybe with a hint of suspense). What stands out is the police’s atrocious treatment of Kaysha when she reports her rape. This scene is the epitome of victim blaming. It happened because she was inebriated; she sent mixed signals by accepting a drink and the policeman suggests that she should consider the impact on Jamie’s life if she pursues her charge. The mystery was sound and everyone had a valid motive. The thing I struggled with the most was that, while we saw all the awful things Jamie did, I didn’t think the author gave us enough of a glimpse into what actually made these ladies LIKE him so much. Obviously there were some reason everyone fell in love with him but I couldn’t figure out what it was. Overall, I wish I could’ve gotten to know all the characters better, but the sheer number of them and the constant jumps between timeframes made it somewhat hard for me to fully engage. That being said, the 2nd half of the book gelled for me better than the first half. I liked the ending- it was abrupt but it worked. 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.

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 Wilding delves deep, focusing on a character-driven story in her deliciously tense debut.” – South Florida Sun-Sentinel The narrative keeps alternating between the seven women, and in addition to their name being listed at the start of a chapter-it would have been VERY HELPFUL to list their connection to Jamie as well. Examples: Kaysha, the journalist, Ana, the colleague, etc. This book started out with a bang, with 7 women gathering around the severed head of a man they all knew. After that, though, I felt there were too many characters and too little detail to get to really get to know them. The rest of the store gives you glimpses into each of the women and their reasons for hating Jamie while the reader, along with the detective, tries to figure out what happened.

Featured Reviews

Seven women gather in a hotel room to find a man's severed head. Each of them had a reason to want him dead, but they all deny involvement. Although there is a plethora of characters, Wilding manages to make each woman easy to differentiate, developing their own personalities so that they are distinct from their counterparts and it is not difficult to tell each one from the other. Jamie Spellman did a lot of bad things to the seven women who sit around his severed head on New Years Eve 1999. Each of these women had a motive to murder this monster. Nova is the detective on the murder case and has to unravel each woman’s story to find who is responsible. One complication is that one of the women is her ex girlfriend. Olive nods at Sarah’s flask. “Suppose you did it while you were drunk. You mightn’t even remember.”

It’s 31 December 1999, the eve of the new millennium. Seven women form a semi-circle around the head of a man in a room in a run down hotel with a shady reputation. All of them had received a message from an unknown number earlier that evening: ‘Meet in the usual place, tonight, 7pm. Emergency.’The women’s] stories converge in a way that will appeal to Kate Atkinson’s readers…This debut author is one to watch.” – FirstCLUE What about Olive? A still grieving widow who has been running from her past, she had long thought she knew exactly what occurred all those years ago, but what if she’s been wrong all along? We’d argue, however, that the main character is the book’s setting – the streets of Newcastle. ‘I love the North East. I think it’s such a brilliant and beautiful place and it has so much of its own character,’ says Rose. ‘I knew with these seven women that some of them would need to coincidentally know each other and Newcastle is such a good place for that. Plus, Newcastle is so often overlooked. In my head when I was writing it was always Newcastle but I was never really naming anywhere to begin with. Jeannette said if I was going to set it here, then I needed to give the setting its own character. I didn’t know how to do that but it all came together, and when my editor first read it she said “it’s a love letter to Newcastle”, and I was so glad it had worked.’