Speak of the Devil

A great basis for a murder mystery. We meet seven women, all damaged by the same man, all with their own reasons for seeking revenge. It is a good “page turner” with gruesome twists and turns along the way. The women evoke strong feelings of empathy and outrage in the reader.

This would benefit from tighter editing. At times the reader is unsure of a character’s involvement in a dialogue.

Rose Wilding has the potential to follow in the footsteps of Ann Cleeves or Val McDermid.

- Debbie D

I thought the book had a riveting start and the plot was well thought out.

Some of the women characters were better portrayed than others so maybe more succinct re-capping would have made it easier to remember the various characters and their stories.

I was interested in Maureen’s story because she brought Jamie up but blamed him for the death of her sister. He was an utterly despicable character and no one would mourn his death. Having said that, it didn't look as though there was any love in his life right from the word go. The one instance of a little thawing on Maureen’s part was soon obliterated by Maureen herself and following that, the lesson Jamie learnt was revenge. Would he have turned out differently if his upbringing had been different. But then we wouldn't have had a book!

The treatment of Kaysha at the hands of the police was utterly heartbreaking but sadly a story that isn't a fiction.

I thought it meandered a bit by the end. I began to lose a bit of interest. Maybe it would be improved by tighter editing.

- Rachel D

This debut novel by Rose Wilding tackles the subject of a gruesome murder from the perspective of seven possible female perpetrators. The women have all suffered some form of abuse at the hands of the victim, Jamie Spellman and survived.

It’s New Year’s Eve, the victim’s severed head is sitting on a homemade altar in a hotel room surrounded by the seven women, all scarred in some way from his behaviour and one of them is guilty of his murder. A very exciting start! The fireworks went off, such potential I thought but then the story gradually fizzled out for me.

There were too many characters, all of whom had backstories that needed telling but they were somehow too longwinded and the need for them to interconnect seemed too forced and slowed down the pace of the novel, taking away the initial thriller element.
Jamie was a despicable man and it appeared very quickly and clearly to me that maybe he deserved his fate. There wasn’t enough jeopardy for me and in the end I wasn’t really bothered who committed the crime or how! However other readers may disagree.

- Kathy S

Not a bad attempt for a first novel. I did however feel Rose had too many characters to whom she gave elaborate back stories, and this slowed the flow of the story and at times caused confusion with who was who.

I thought it showed promise with an interesting and very different start. As the book progresses and the characters are introduced, some of the language used is unnecessary and I felt vulgar. The author seems to want to shock by using biological terms or bodily descriptions in a very insensitive way. It seems that the author has descriptions or situations that she is determined to include although they don't add to the story just digress from the plot.

An interesting storyline that I felt needed to be sharper and tighter and less info about lesbians which at the moment don't add to the plot.

If and when it is edited and the length reduced, I feel I would recommend it. At the moment I wouldn't rush out and buy it or be enthusiastic about recommending it.

- Ann M

I listened to the book, and I think it is a slightly different experience going through a book this way. The gripping start, which saw the main characters gathered in a room looking at the severed head of a man was a powerful introduction. I felt the portrayal of the male protagonist throughout was well structured, and the way in which the seven womens’ stories are intertwined with his was very cleverly done by the author. I was not expecting the ending, it kept me guessing and I was glad that all of the loose ends were tied up. As a crime novel, this was a strong plus for me.

As the book developed, individual chapters were written from the viewpoint of the different women. Early on, we see the wickedness of Jamie Spellman, his ability to manipulate and hurt women, emotionally and physically. It’s not hard to believe that he should have suffered a revenge killing. This is a book which covers many aspects of gender empowerment and sexuality, male and female. I’m not sure the lesbian relationship strengthens the plot, but I enjoyed listening to it and would recommend the book.

- Michaela B

This book was not for me, the characters were not developed fully, the plot felt "bitty". I think the novel would have been better if it had been a little longer and took more time to really fill out the characters and plot. It was, however, very readable and I did want to know who the murdered was.

A really good read, got straight to the point.
Reminiscent of Richard Osman and Ann Cleeves
A quick easy read, short chapters which I liked. Kept you guessing to the end.
Didn’t like the lesbian angle and thought there was too much swearing.

Eunice
Hemsworth Library Reader Group

The book opened well, with a strange scene in a hotel room - with all eight main characters featuring. It was an exciting start. The next few chapters dragged slightly because we were being given descriptions of some of the characters from the first scene. It was easy to read with a nice flowing style but a slight let-down from the drama of the first chapter, and there seemed to be a lot of characters to get to know.

Having said that it was clear who was who - so after reading through all the descriptions I did have a good picture in my mind of the main characters and had some details about their relationship to the dead person.

As the story led on I was becoming quite intrigued in the plot, and the story moved on quite quickly after all the introductions. I wanted to keep reading to find out more about each of the characters’ lives and who had done the crime and why.

As I neared the end it got clearer as to who had done it, and the end was well written.

I did not really build up much empathy with the characters and most of the way through I felt as if I was reading a story, I wasn't particularly rooting for anyone. I would have liked there to be a few less characters so that I could have seen more in depth about them. Some issues were touched upon but not really examined with much nuance.

I thought it was interesting reading, but I would imagine it is for a younger audience than myself. I would aim it at teens to thirty-year-olds. I think it was not really something I would have chosen to read, but we all have different tastes and that cannot be helped.

Having said all that, the plot was well put together, and the characters were believable and even though I would not recommend it to my generation (I'm 56) I am sure younger people would enjoy it. I believe I have read too many books for this one to have seemed too dark or shocking for me.

Julie.
Hemsworth Library Reader Group.

The novel settled in by the second chapter. The characters are mostly well drawn and explored gradually as the story progresses. Interestingly, for a book beginning with a decapitated head, the book was really centred on abuse committed by that man throughout his life on the women abused by him. A central theme is abuse by coercive control: how people are made to believe in things that are not real, and how difficult it can be to recognise that control. This is most evident in Jamie’s relationships with the women, but also to a degree in some of the relationships between the women themselves.

There is a moral dilemma too, should the murderer be tried and convicted? The man had after all committed so many crimes that arguably should have led to him serving life sentences. The fact that reported crimes were ignored by the police highlighted the misogyny within society. This book entertains a novel twist on a “whodunnit”, although the reader is invested in discovering the perpetrator, this is almost secondary to the motives for murder that each women had.

This book comes with rave reviews, but I was slightly disappointed on reading it. Whilst I enjoyed the fast pace of the book and was interested to read each woman’s story as it was revealed, I did not feel invested in any particular character, so would not have been shocked whoever the killer was revealed to be. However, I did need to know that the mystery was resolved – and that Nova (the detective) would have closure – whether or not she chose to act upon it. Although I recognised many of the red herrings thrown onto the path leading us to suspect the more prominent members of the group, I always assumed it was going to be a ‘minor player’, so was not surprised to see who was named in the end.

I did find the ending a little contrived – for example it was not really explained why one character committed suicide, conveniently placing themselves in the role of scapegoat, - and found some of the connections a bit loose, such as how characters ‘came across’ important personal information, how the wife was able to attend the emergency meetings if she wasn’t allowed out of the house and how the group were able to ‘seduce’ a ‘tame’ detective who would cover for them. On the whole I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to other readers. It is mostly aimed at female readers, given the subject matter and the resolution. I, myself, feel uncertain about the fact that the murderer went unpunished – even though the man murdered was portrayed as evil and had done harm to each of the women involved with him, I still question whether we should take the law into our own hands. The fact that the women had banded together to file evidence against him, should have been enough to get a conviction – I think that would have been a better symbol of empowerment, especially if it had allowed others to come forward and exorcise their demons.