I felt this was a slow burner of a read, I struggled to understand the characters at the beginning and found it a bit confusing as to the storyline. However, I persevered and was glad I did. The story continued to improve throughout, with a few twists and turns along the way.

‘A girl covered in blood. A missing man. A cryptic fairy tale.’

My thanks to Penguin U.K./Sandy Cove for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Interview’ by Gill Perdue in exchange for an honest review.

Dublin Detective Laura Shaw is her team’s top interviewer, highly skilled at encouraging victims to open up. Yet her latest case not only tests her skills but forces her to face her own past trauma.

Fourteen-year-old Jenny was found wandering in distress and both her younger brother and mother have been severely injured in a car accident. Her stepfather, Stuart, is missing. After a medical examination it is clear that Jenny has been abused.

Jenny seems to be suffering from Acute Distress Disorder and at first does not speak though when she does communicate it is through riddles and a fairytale that clearly has meaning for her. The Police are concerned about Stuart’s whereabouts yet Laura has to balance the need to locate him with the necessity to protect Jenny’s fragile mental state.

The story is told from three first person perspectives: Jenny’s rambling stream of consciousness; Laura’s account that includes her memories, and occasional contributions from Laura’s fellow garda, Niamh. The chapters are quite short and the story moves quickly taking place over four days with an epilogue rounding things up.

Aside from communicating through the symbols of Irish folklore and fairytales, Jenny also references the lives and music of the Beatles. This kind of idiosyncratic language felt quite authentic along with Laura seeking a route to communicate through an interpretation of Jenny’s words rather than forcing her back to lucidity.

The novel often enters quite dark territory and was at times a harrowing read.

Overall, I found ‘The Interview’ an intriguing psychological crime thriller and a strong debut.

I liked the characters and the well-developed, although quite disturbing, story. Found it a bit repetitive at times due to the different points of view, but thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

A teenage girl is found covered in blood in a Dublin suburb, her mother and brother are in serious condition in hospital and her stepfather is missing.
The teenager, Jenny , is admitted to an adult psychiatric ward and specialist Garda Detective Laura Shaw who is a specialist in interviewing victims, along with her partner Niamh, is tasked with trying to find out what happened.
The plot unfolds through the interviews with Jenny although she refuses to speak about reality, instead telling them a fairytale. On paper , Laura's life looks good but as she interviews Jenny, the cracks in her in own life seem to widen, as her past comes crashing back and she becomes more reckless in her actions at work. Time is of the essence , as the hours tick by in the interview room as both Garda work to try and unlock the fairytale Jenny is telling them.

This was a good strong debut. A new twist on a psychological thriller and Perdue writes with empathy and authenticity. It's a bit of a slow burn and it took a while to fully engage me but the writing and the dynamic between the two Garda characters keep me reading. Both Laura and Jenny were interesting, really well developed characters and the coded fairytale was a clever tool to use, however, it did get a little repetitive at the midway point, that's my only criticism. The plot builds nicely to a tense and riveting conclusion. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed lots of elements of the book. It reads potentially like the first in a series for Detective Laura Shaw and if so , I would be eager to read what happens to her next.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Content warning: abuse, assault, sexual assualt.

I loved the way this was put together, focusing on the interview that takes place over the course of a few days. Held in the adult psychiatric ward, 14 year old Jenny has been found on the street, covered in someone else's blood and almost hypothermic. She won't engage in conversation, except in her head. We don't know whose voice is continually saying "shut up bitch", "dumb bitch" in her head. We do understand early on that her stepfather has been sexually and physically abusing her and physically abusing her mum and baby brother. But where is he? Has Jenny killed him? It's a rush to find him. Laura, the garda who is a trained and experience interviewer is going through her own troubles and is finding this case getting to her preventing her normal objective, empathic approach. She makes a potentially fatal mistake, can this be put right? A really engrossing read. #netgalley #theinterview

I enjoyed this a lot. The main characters were well written, and the descriptions of the terrible abuse suffered was sympathetically handled. It was well paced and the general air of confusion brought to life. Recommended.

I absolutely loved the sound of this book, however, I found that the reality didn't quite live up to the expectation.
The Interview is a story about a young girl, Jenny, who is found covered in blood and her step-father is missing. She is obviously suffering with the after effects of trauma and other mental health concerns. Then we meet detectives, Laura and Niamh, who come to question Jenny. Much of the dialogue from Jenny is told in riddles and fairytale references and it is unclear whether she is a victim or a suspect. As the story unfolds, we learn that Laura is dealing with her own trauma which all comes to a head.

The story is told from 3 points of view - Jenny, Laura and Niamh. Whilst it was insightful to hear the thoughts of an assault victim, I found the repetitive jumble of thoughts quite hard to read and found myself getting a bit fed up with it.
I found that I didn't really 'like' any of the characters, which didn't help with reading this book as I just wasn't invested.

Overall, the premise was good and there were parts that I enjoyed, but it was a bit too slow paced and repetitive for my liking.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for sending me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Reading this book you would never guess its the authors debut book!! The storyline has been well researched and well written. It's dark, disturbing and compelling.

Description 🔖

Detective Laura Shaw is successful, happy and accomplished. She has a great job, fantastic husband and an adorable baby daughter. She is well respected amongst her colleagues and is known to be able to get even the most vulnerable of witnesses to open up.

When Laura and her colleague Niamh are sent to interview 14 year old Jenny, everything changes. Jenny is an assault victim who has been taken into hospital covered in blood, but the blood is not her own. The poor girl will only talk in fairytales and refuses to give Laura or Niamh any solid information.

Laura behaves strangely during the interviews and outside of the interview room. It appears that something about this particular witness has triggered her and Niamh is left bewildered, trying to hold everything together. Laura is on the edge of a breakdown and disaster and faces a very difficult decision; is everyone’s life really worth saving?

General Thoughts 🤔

This book gripped me right from the start as it jumps straight into the drama. I liked that a lot as it got me turning the pages and wanting to know more and more about what had happened to Jenny. I quite liked the fairytale way in which I had to try and piece together her story. Even though it was pretty obvious to work out what Jenny had been through, it was interesting to hear it from her subconscious.

As much as I enjoyed the interviews with Jenny and the tension created by Laura falling apart during them, I was a little disappointed to not leave the interviews more. I would have liked to have known even more about the background of the various characters and maybe to have been given more detail about what had happened in the run up to Jenny finding herself in hospital.

Characters 👫👭👬

There weren’t many characters in the book but there were enough for me to have likes and dislikes. The easy one for me was Laura. I couldn’t get along with this character, however hard I tried. I completely appreciate that the woman had her own demons and problems, but I thought she should have taken responsibility for that and stepped aside if she was not able to handle the job she had been given.

I really liked Niamh. She seemed incredibly smart and was able to play different roles to achieve an objective. I think that the interviews would have gone very differently if Niamh had been leading as opposed to Laura. Niamh struck me as a bad ass side kick that really should have been the star but was loyal to her friend and colleague.

Writing Style ✍️

The whole book is written from three points of view; Laura’s, Jenny’s and Niamh’s. I really enjoyed the way the author told the story through these three women, however I thought it would have been really interesting to have heard snippets of the story from some of the other characters.

I liked that the chapters were short and snappy as it kept the pace of the book going and had me on edge. It felt like I was reading against a timer that was quickly running out.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was an enjoyable thriller and was a relatively quick read. The story was a really good concept, but I think that it could have been taken a little bit further and turned a good book into a great one. I did enjoy the tone of the book and the writer’s style, so I will definitely look out for more from Gill Perdue.

I found The Interview to be a slow burn until around a third in. I loved the way everything unfolded slowly giving you a peek of what might have happened. And then a heart thumping crescendo that had me reading past my bedtime. The characters were well defined and easy to empathise with. Trigger warnings as it deals with abuse.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reader copy.
I couldn’t put the book down although its a harrowing and graphic story. A teenage girl is found covered in blood and can only talk to the police in fairy tales.
The police detective is dealing with her own traumas. The question is whether she can get beyond her own experiences to work out what has happened to the girl.

14 year old Jenny is mute, traumatised and living in a world of her own. She is suspected of knowing where her step-father, who is missing, is. Laura, a special victims interviewer and her partner, Niamh, are tasked with interviewing Jenny and getting to the truth.. As Jenny's story unfolds Laura's professionalism and control appears to be fracturing and one begins to wonder who this tale is about.
Told with empathy, great attention to detail and with building tension this is a compulsive read. Can't wait to read more by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Gill Perdue/Penguin General UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

An incredible debut from this fantastic author, it's so well written and researched. It's a very dark and disturbing story but compelling, a real page-turner. Thank you so much to the publisher and the author for the advanced copy.

I thought this would be my kind of book having read the blurb but unfortunately I just couldn’t get into it. I did try several times but it was very slow to start with, became very repetitive during the interview and I got totally lost and confused with the whole ‘Fairy Tale’ story. It is very rare that I don’t finish a book and my apologies to the author for this but I just couldn’t carry on reading.

Jenny, who is 14, is found covered in blood, which is not her own. Laura is the one questioning her. Both characters were annoying. It felt like Jenny was far younger than 14 the way she spoke. Laura clearly had issues of her own too and not a character I could warm to.

Written from the point of view of both Laura and Jenny with quite a lot of dialogue and thoughts.

Deals with abuse and mental health issues.

Thank you to netgalley, the publishers and the author for an arc. So sorry I couldn’t finish reading. I won’t post my review on websites online as I want to give the book chance. Just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean that others won’t love it.

Well after a slow start I actually found this quite compelling. This is told from three point of view- Jenny the victim/suspect who was found in the street hypothermic and covered in blood and Laura and Niamh the detectives tasked with interviewing her. While we get a bit of a back story for Niamh the main characters are Jenny and Laura and we get a much fuller background on them. The interview of Jenny triggers something in Laura and her subsequent behaviour threatens the integrity of the enquiry. I didn’t find Jenny or Laura the easiest of characters to take to but the gradual revealing of their stories made for gripping if uncomfortable reading. I think this one may stick in my mind for a while yet.

Jenny is 14 and a patient on the adult ward of a psychiatric hospital in Ireland. She was found by the side of the road, alone, and covered in bruises and blood and with recent signs of sexual trauma. Melanie, her mother, and her younger brother Karl are in an hospital ICU after a serious car crash. But the stepfather, Stuart, is missing. The Garda or Irish police want to find him and think that Jenny holds the key.
However, she is electively mute and suffering from PTSD. So, Laura and Niamh who are both highly successful Specialist Victim Interviewers have been sent to try and unlock what is going on in Jenny’s mind. Laura really wants to help Jenny but both she and Niamh are under pressure from their senior manager to get results and find Stuart. The story is told through the interviews with Laura and Jenny both in the first person hence the book’s title. Niamh is the third viewpoint and is more of an observer to the interaction between Jenny and Laura.
Jenny speaks and thinks in fairy tales, Irish folklore and myths and Laura wants to unpick the symbols to find the truth. Laura appears to be happily married to her teenage sweetheart, Matt, and they have a 2 year old daughter. But she also has a dark secret that, as the sessions with Jenny continue, begins to surface and to ‘seep out like blood through a bandage.’ Laura has never told anyone about it but it became a huge unspoken secret between her and her mum. Niamh sees its effects as it begins to take hold of Laura’s life. She wants to help but feels pushed away and Jenny observes this.
Jenny slowly begins to reveal to the reader about the horror at home with Stuart who took over the household when her father died. A cowed mother, a terrified Karl and Stuart’s horrific plans for her. To the outside world he’s a great guy with a great family but on the night of the crash they were returning from the office party which didn’t go to plan.
When Laura decides to unofficially take Jenny out of the hospital and back to her home, she escapes and runs back to a place she considers safe. The fairy tales are about to be finally unravelled and Jenny’s spell will be broken.
This is an ambitious and confident debut novel and I thought that the author controlled the plot very well. But it won’t be for everyone as it is a tough read in places due to its subject matter and its unflinching portrayal of domestic and sexual abuse. I liked Jenny who was caught in the world of childhood while being forced to deal with the adult world that was being forced on her. And yet she is the one that decides to act. I thought that the scenes with her communicating in fairy tales and other symbolic images and also Beatles lyrics were very effective as well as the scenes featuring Laura’s resurfacing PTSD.
Halfway through the book I did start thinking ‘Where is this going?’ but I was glad that I persevered as it was a very powerful plot. However, for me, the book became a little preachy towards the end although I agreed with the views that were expressed. I also didn’t agree with what happened to Stuart at the end but this is a personal opinion and I won’t say anymore as it will be a spoiler. It wasn’t an easy read but I admired the author for her courage in telling this powerful story in her first novel.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

I found this both gripping and slightly annoying.

It’s told mainly from Laura and Jenny’s pov. Laura is a Garda, a new mum and she holds a secret. I didn’t get good vibes from Laura I felt she was irrational at times and her demeanour was very off putting. Although she had been through something in her past which would explain her behaviour, it was just a little off putting for me.

Jenny who is 14 comes across a lot younger. She battles with herself and you can never quite be sure what she is going to say and if she is really the victim. Her thoughts were intriguing but some elements of her speech I didn’t feel sat right for a girl of her age.

The writing style for me was quite jumpy in places and there were times I struggled with the language used when switching characters.

I was gripped and really wanted to know what was going on in Laura and Jenny’s head. Is all as it seems or are we to quick to judge people at face value.

Keeps you guessing
The reader knows something has happened but not what, and this isn't fully revealed until the end. I liked the different character points of view. Difficult themes were covered sensitively.

A brilliant first book. I wasn’t sure at the start but I got drawn in very quickly as we started to get to know Laura, the leading detective. It turns out Laura is quite damaged herself and interviewing the victim brings it all back to her.. A strange fairy tale like scenario is woven with a girl in a tower - is the victim the girl in the tower or is she looking in on the girl in the tower?
A great psychological thriller that you can’t put down.

A truely unsettling psychological thriller set in Ireland. A hard harrowing read in places but exceptional writing by Gill Perdue.

A 14 year old girl, Jenny, is found covered in blood. Her mother and younger brother are fighting for their lives in hospital and her stepfather is missing. The police are trying to find the stepfather as they fear the blood may be his. The only problem being Jenny is not speaking.

Detective Laura Shaw and her colleague, Niamh, are tasked with trying to get the girl to talk. As the interviews proceed Laura is suddenly transported back to a time in her past that she has fought to bury. But can she overcome her past to help Jenny and ultimately find the stepfather.

This is a gripping psychological thriller with some harrowing parts to the storyline. The characters are great and I really warmed to both Laura and Niamh. Some exceptional writing make this a thriller you won’t want to put down.

Thank you to Penguin General UK., Sandycove and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book.