diff --git a/src/calibre/utils/spell/hunspell_wrapper.cpp b/src/calibre/utils/spell/hunspell_wrapper.cpp
index 0a672fd6d6..098b496b5f 100644
--- a/src/calibre/utils/spell/hunspell_wrapper.cpp
+++ b/src/calibre/utils/spell/hunspell_wrapper.cpp
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ suggest(Dictionary *self, PyObject *args) {
 
     const std::vector<std::string>& word_list = self->handle->suggest(word);
 	ans = PyTuple_New(word_list.size());
-    if (ans == NULL) PyErr_NoMemory();
+    if (ans == NULL) return PyErr_NoMemory();
     Py_ssize_t i = 0;
     for(auto const& s: word_list) {
         temp = PyUnicode_Decode(s.c_str(), s.size(), self->encoding, "strict");