Speak of the Devil
The ultimate revenge thriller
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4.0 • 6 Ratings
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'A clever and utterly absorbing thriller which marks the arrival of an author to watch' i News
'A powerful feminist thriller . . . twisted in the best way' Clémence Michallon, author of The Quiet Tenant
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 didn't. In order to protect each other, they must figure out who did.
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 beautifully written debut thriller about 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.
MORE PRAISE FOR SPEAK OF THE DEVIL:
'A devilishly immersive read - Rose Wilding is a wonderful new talent' Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire
'Get ready to cheer these women on' Prima
'I loved it' Harriet Tyce, author of Blood Orange
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilding debuts with a wickedly clever feminist thriller about the murder of a corrupt womanizer. On New Year's Eve 1999, in Newcastle, England, seven women sit in a seedy hotel, having answered a terse message: "Meet in the usual place tonight, 7 p.m. Emergency." In the center of the room is Jamie Spellman's severed head, which has stained the stack of bibles it sits on red with blood. The bible on top is opened to Leviticus 24:19: "An eye for an eye." Each of the women knew Spellman, and each maintains their innocence in his murder, but at least one of them has put this gruesome relic on display. Was it widowed Maureen Jones, mysterious Sarah Smith, librarian Olive Farrugia, teenager Josie Kitchen, journalist Kaysha Jackson, chemist Ana Maria Cortês, or Jamie's wife, Sadia? And, for that matter, what do each of those women have in common? Newcastle Det. Insp. Nova Stokoe is assigned to find out. Alternating viewpoints among the seven women and Sotkoe, Wilding charts how each woman's path crossed with Jamie's, and the mechanisms with which he abused each one's trust, friendship, dreams, and bodies. With sure-footed prose, Wilding nimbly constructs a captivating treatise on revenge and exploitation that rumbles with deep, bracing anger. She's a writer to watch.
Customer Reviews
Powerful first novel
Get yourself comfy you won’t want to put this book down!
Repetitive and long winded
Started off well but it just became boring and strung out . Gave up half way through as I just lost interest and found I didn’t really care who dunnit.