Speak of the Devil

On New Year's Eve 1999, seven women arrive at a run-down hotel room in Byker, Newcastle, summoned by an anonymous message. On the floor lies the severed head of Jamie Spellman. Every one of them had cause to wish him dead, and every one insists she did not kill him.

They cannot go to the police, so they turn on the only puzzle left: which of them did it. A detective is already closing in on the case, which leaves them little time to sort out the truth among themselves.

The novel is a crime story and a whodunnit with a large cast, told in single chapters that pass from woman to woman. Among the seven are Jamie's wife and his aunt, a colleague, a widow, and a teenager he groomed. Another struggles with drink. The last is the journalist who found them and brought them together. Each chapter lets one woman's secret and long backstory come out.

The book runs on anger. It looks at the roles that men who do harm push women into, and at the people nobody believes. Sexual violence, abuse and misogyny are part of the story, and some of it happens on the page.