Review: The Interview by Gill Perdue ★★★

 




A girl covered in blood. A missing man. A coded fairy tale.

Detective Laura Shaw seems to have it all: a supportive husband, a happy two-year-old and a great career. She is her team's top victim interviewer, a genius at getting vulnerable people to open up.

That's until she meets Jenny - a 14-year-old assault victim who talks only in fairy tales. Jenny's stepfather is missing and the blood on her clothes isn't her own, so Laura's colleagues need answers fast.

But Laura's strange behaviour makes the girl shut down even more, leaving her bewildered partner, Niamh, desperately trying to rescue the situation.

It seems that this case has triggered something deep within Laura, and Jenny is not the only one with secrets. As the clock ticks down, Laura teeters on the brink of disaster, grappling with the biggest question of all:

Is every life worth saving?

Review

An intriguing character-driven mystery that reminded me of a one-act play. The story will come out eventually, but can you guess how it will end?

The Interview by Gill Perdue flips sides between an extremely disturbed and unreliable narrator, Jenny, a 14-year-old girl who's been picked up by police covered in blood and refusing to talk, and seasoned victim interviewer Laura, who has her own demons to fight.

Jenny's narration is all over the place, she has an awful lot going on internally and berates herself frequently as a "dumb bitch." Particularly when she finds herself almost answering detective Laura even though she can see through her sneaky interview techniques. Jenny is not dumb at all. She's just coping.

The Interview explores some quite dark themes and does it well and effectively. As the pieces come together, your understanding of Jenny's internal monologue will start to crystalise, but fair warning, it's not a pretty picture.

Although I was absorbed when actively reading The Interview, it's not the type of book that makes you desperate to get back to it after putting it down, its pace was a little slower than that. It's more of a patience game. A slow jigsaw, if you will, but enjoyable nonetheless.

If you like the Netflix show Criminal, you will likely enjoy this book.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review ★★★

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