Feminist Thriller Review: Speak of the Devil | Rose Wilding

Speak of the Devil is a dark, debut thriller by Rose Wilding centering around seven women who all have a motive to kill the same man. And it appears they did…

About the Book | Speak of the Devil

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. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

Review | Speak of the Devil

This book is dark, if that wasn’t alerted to you by it opening with a decapitated head and seven women standing around it. The darkness serves a purpose though. The man at the center of all of the women’s rage represents the patriarchy that governs our society and forces women to adopt beliefs about themselves and other women that are harmful and unhealthy. The author, Rose Wilding, says in an interview that Jamie does represent the patriarchy, and also that he is inspired by several men she has known and perhaps dated in her life.

It’s December 31, 1999—the eve of the new millennium. The book opens with a man’s head in a run-down hotel room and seven women surrounding it in a circle. This is the story of furious women. Of women who all have a motive to kill the man in the center of the room. The women are angry, but which one of them swung the axe that killed Jamie Spellman?

Earlier in the evening, the seven women received a text message from an anonymous number: Meet in the usual place, tonight, 7pm. Emergency.

No one knows who sent the message… was it one of them in the room? Or someone else? Each woman has a motive to kill Jamie Spellman. Jamie Spellman is a husband and father. He’s done despicable things. He has treated all of the women poorly. But did one of them take justice into their own hands?

Detective Inspector Nova Stoker is called to the shady hotel several hours later and discovers Jamie Spellman’s severed head. The body is missing. The head rests on a stack of bibles, one of which is open to Leviticus 2:16, highlighting the well-known verse speaking on an eye for an eye. Who wanted revenge on Jamie Spellman? The walls have a snake symbol and runes painted on. It could be occult symbols, or perhaps someone wants the police to chase down an empty lead.

The women themselves are diverse, both in race and sexual orientation, as well as lifestyle, work, and age. Ana is a colleague of Jamie’s and a trans woman whom he stabbed in the back. Maureen is the aunt who raised Jamie and saw the evil inside of him. Olive is a vulnerable widow whom Jamie took advantage of after her husband’s death. Sarah has turned to alcohol to numb the pain that radiates through her soul caused by Jamie. Sadia is Jamie’s wife, who was victimized by her own infertility. Josie is a child, merely 14 years old and infatuated by Jamie. Finally, Kaysha is a journalist who was sexually assaulted by Jamie fifteen years earlier, and has tracked down the other six women to form a group to share their stories.

These seven women were each taken advantage of cruelly by Jamie in different ways. They have bonded together through hatred, fury, and trauma.As the book goes on, the women become more complex. Kayshia is dating one of the other women, but she is also having an affair with Nova, the DI working the case. Nova is in a relationship with Ella, though she no longer feels in love with her. Ella has breast cancer.

The women are damaged, and their lives are complicated. The book explores each of their backstories, and often that took control of the narrative above and beyond the murder of Jamie and decapitation. The story uses multiple narrators effectively, though at times I struggled to keep straight who was who until I got into the back half of the book.

The reader will feel rage reading the book, because it highlights things that so many of us have experienced. Kayshia goes to the police after she is raped, but they don’t take the case seriously, believing it was her fault because she was drunk. Ana dismisses Kayshia’s claims about the sexual assault, believing that someone like Jamie was too attractive and popular to resort to something like that. Women are unfortunately rewarded for not believing other women. Ana spreads rumors about Kayshia, revictimizing her over and over again. But Ana is a victim, too. Jamie gaslights her repeatedly. Sadia looks the other way through Jamie’s infidelity, becoming both an accomplice and a victim all at once.

This is a good book, though not an easy book to read. The stories are messy and disorienting at times. The book is filled with rage and it’s hard not to take it on yourself. I connected very little with the characters, though it didn’t detract from how I felt reading their stories. None of the women are a perfect victim, but they are victims who deserved better nonetheless. The legal system expects perfection from women to work correctly. In a way, the legal system victimizes them again.

We all know men like Jamie. Most of us have been victimized by a man like him in one way or another (or in many ways). I can’t imagine any woman reading this and not feeling anger and deep sadness. This is a feminist thriller for all of the women out there who are tired of being silenced.

Thank you to Minotaur for my copy. Opinions are my own.