T.M. Hanson

Name & Author: Speak of the Devil by Rose Wilding

Genre: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Crime.

Diversity Tags: Queer, Women-Centred/Women-Led, Religion and Spirituality (Paganism and Islam), Mental Illness.

Rating: 3.5/5.

Summary

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.

Triggers

There are a variety of dark and heavy topics, such as murder, abuse, sexual coercion and rape, infertility, transphobia and homophobia, ritualistic murder/animal abuse, misogyny, slight gore/mentions of harm, police incompetency, suicide, substance abuse, mental illness, and mentions of abortion. This is definitely not a light reading, emotionally speaking, and can potentially trigger people who are sensitive to these topics.

Review

I decided to read Speak of the Devil about a month ago because the blurb caught my eye whilst I was perusing the new books in Waterstones. I have to be honest, the idea of a severed head being found in a seedy hotel, as well as a good old murder mystery, is my idea of fictional fun, so I was willing to give it a go.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the novel- I wasn’t sure how immersed I would be in the reading, despite the summary, but I found myself reading it in under twenty-four hours. The story was solid, though I wouldn’t say it was excellent. It was simply enjoyable, interesting, and heartfelt in its exploration of women’s trauma, something that very much drew me to the story and enabled me to connect to it emotionally. It’s very much a feminist revenge story, so if that’s something you’re into, you will most likely enjoy this book.

I appreciate Wilding’s willingness to explore and reveal all of the different ways women are mistreated within a patriarchal society, collectively and individually. This book doesn’t beat about the bush in terms of some of the darker aspects of misogynistic abuse and harm towards women, but that’s not a weakness. Any story that is willing to lay bare aspects of our society that are ingrained, unsavoury, and harmful is note-worthy, and I can feel Wilding’s anger and hurt resonating throughout the story.

Regardless of minor edits that could be made, this is what makes it a good story for me. You can feel the emotion from the author and the characters, and it helps to immerse you into the novel, as well as encourages a sense of injustice. It reminds you of the work still to be done, individually and as a society, as it touches upon some of the darker aspects of patriarchal behaviour. Yet, it doesn’t feel preachy nor an overkill. I felt it was simply a reminder of the ways women can suffer at the hands of men in a succinct novel format.

In terms of the crime itself, I did enjoy the unravelling of the murder and figuring out who it was. It was fairly easy to guess or assume, but the ending was still satisfying in terms of how it was done and why. Wilding was able to make all of the women sympathetic for vastly different reasons, as well as make Jaime awful enough to wish, as the reader, for his death or at least understand why someone would want to kill him in the first place. It occurred to me, when reading this, that it’s just an extremely dark take on the old-fashioned whodunnit as we see in Agatha Christie or Murder She Wrote. This modern, feminist twist on a traditional formula definitely worked in my opinion and does gain kudos from me, as it can be hard to update these formulas in a way that feels different or refreshing, as well as make them almost unrecognisable, so I was definitely pleased with how Wilding was able to bring something modern to something so familiar.

Characters

For me, the beginning was a little confusing, as there were several characters being followed by the narrative and it begins with all of them in one room. As there haven’t been any previous introductions, it’s hard to track who’s who and their relationship to the victim- Jaime. This becomes easier overtime as you do get to spend more time with each character, as well as an overview of their relationship to Jaime, so you are able to differentiate who’s who. At the end, I was able to go back to the first scene in order to appreciate the initial reveal of the murder and each person’s reaction. Yet, I did feel this was a weakness of the book, as I felt hindsight shouldn’t be needed to understand the first few chapters in the sense of knowing who was who. I did spend a few chapters not really understanding who it was that I was following, despite the chapters being divided by character name. So, I do think the reading of the book could have been made easier by introducing the characters differently.

As someone with diverse identities, I appreciate the range and thought that went into the diversity of the characters. There are women of various races, religions, sexualities, and who are not all cisgendered. I appreciated this for the acknowledgement of how women can be mistreated, abused, or coerced by men in a variety of settings and ways- this isn’t narrowed down to just one type of woman or background. I also liked that it covers some of the basic reasons for why women either misunderstand, neglect, or fall victim to abuse in a way that is understandable, whilst still holding some of the women accountable for allowing such behaviour to continue. It also opens up the conversation around nature vs nurture, in regards to how we allow such behaviour to arise in society and whether it’s down to the individual or society to change, or even both. Altogether, I can tell Wilding felt strongly about representing women as much as possible, and that was certainly felt. This was a part of the novel that I very much appreciated personally.

The Ending

For the most part, I did find the ending to be satisfactory but the pacing was definitely rushed. It unfolded over time, yet, as it comes to the reveal, it finishes very abruptly. I would definitely have preferred to have seen and heard the reactions of some of the other characters, as well as the conversation that was hinted at the end. Anti-climatic or disappointing isn’t the right word, but it did feel a bit like ‘oh’ to have it come to an abrupt end. In my personal opinion, I think giving it one or two more chapters so that the story had space to finalise a few loose threads would have enhanced it a little bit more.

Would I recommend?

Yes! As a quick read, I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for feminist literature, queer literature, or just a quick dive into a dark murder mystery/thriller. As I said, it can be quite heavy at times but if you’re okay with exploring and sitting with those topics, there’s no reason not to read it. I enjoyed it enough to read it again or read another of Wilding’s future pieces. This was her debut novel so I’m okay with there being some minor adjustments needed, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next!