Speak of the Devil

I received this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding
Narrator: Colleen Prendergast
Published by Macmillan Audio, Minotaur Books on June 13, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Length: 10 hours 3 minutes
Pages: 304
Format: ARC, Audiobook
Source: Publisher
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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, 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.

I thought that this was really good! I enjoyed getting to know each of the seven women at the core of this book and it was quite clear that each of them had the motive to kill Jamie. Jamie was not a good man. In fact, he was pretty terrible, and the things that he did to each of these women left me feeling a lot of sympathy for them. I loved that the book kept me guessing until the very end.

The story opens with the discovery of the decapitated head of Jamie by a group of seven women with ties to the victim on New Year’s Eve 1999. We learn about Jamie’s connection to each of the women and the history that they share throughout the book. We do also see the police detective’s perspective as we work our way through the story. It was quite a few characters to juggle but each of them had such unique personalities that I had no trouble keeping things straight. It was obvious that all of the women had the motive but I wasn’t sure who the murderer was until it was revealed in the story.

I listened to the audiobook and thought that Colleen Prendergast did a fantastic job with the story. I thought that she had a very pleasant voice and I had no problem listening to this book for hours at a stretch. I thought that the dialog between the characters flowed nicely and I liked that she was able to add just the right amount of emotion to her reading. I thought her narration added to my enjoyment of this book.

I would recommend this book to others. I thought that this was a well-done mystery that was nearly impossible to set aside. I thought that this was a great debut novel and look forward to reading more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio.

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