A disturbing journey through conversations between garda interviewers and the victim of abuse. Each character hides their own secrets and the story builds to a climax in a spiralling descent of battling inner demons. The disjointed feel of the book mirrors what is going on in the characters ' minds.

A great story which could be so true. Hard to follow sometimes as you understand how the mind can make things seem but a very impactful story

This book tells the tale of two SVI Guards, Laura and Niamh, and a fourteen year old abuse victim, Jenny. It is, as the title suggests about the interviews that they conduct trying to find out what happened to Jenny before she was found covered in blood, her mother and brother in a severe condition after a car accident and her step-father missing.
This is a really difficult book for me to review. For me, and this is absolutely and purely my opinion, it’s not possible to say I enjoyed it. As a retired nurse who has worked in child protection, I have read a lot of factual reports of abuse and I’ve never once finished reading one and thought ‘that was great’. And that’s how I fee about this book. It’s a distressing topic, made all the more so by the fact that Laura is, in fact, more than a little unhinged herself and that concerned me from the start - that this was never picked up in her training!

The first part is very slow and 40% into the book, I almost gave up completely. I’m not a big fan of the author’s style of writing but I can see how it fitted the topic with the chapters being the narratives of the three characters. The chapters in ‘Jenny’s voice’ were mostly of her thoughts and were very abstract and disjointed, which I’m sure is probably quite accurate but not easy to read.

The pace did, however, pick up and led to a dramatic end. I despaired, however, of the number of times that the detective made pretty serious procedural errors and showed signs of her own instability and still remained on the case but maybe that can happen.

I can see that the book is very well researched although I find it hard to believe that a fourteen year old child would be put in an adult psychiatric ward?? Would the child psychiatric wards really be that full that a sectioned child couldn’t be found a bed?

My thanks go to the author, the publishers and to Netgalley for an advanced e-reader copy of this book and I apologise for giving a poor review, especially when it’s a debut novel but I cannot lie and say I enjoyed it.

This is a brilliant book centring around Jenny and the mystery 9f what has happened in her recent past. With her mum and brother injured, uncommunicative and hospitalised, Jenny is clearly traumatised but is she victim or perpetrator? What has happened to her apparently doting stepfather? Laura and Niamh are assigned to deal with her case and try to establish the truth and track down the missing stepfather.

In the process, Laura be ones more closely involved than she should and begins to explore parallel issues from her own past. A gripping read from start to finish.

A harrowing story of two female gardai attempting to piece together the traumatic events that led to a young girl being discovered with blood (not her own) on her clothes and a reluctance to speak or trust anyone. A life hangs in the balance and the two officers need the girl's cooperation in order to prevent an untimely death.
The book is competently written and the plot holds together as the officers tease out a story of child abuse and violence. The officer leading the interview has her own problems, identifies strongly with the girl and barely holds herself together to conduct the sessions. Towards the end of the story, she goes off on one of the irrational tangents that have become all too prevalent in this type of novel.
I found it hard to carry on reading after the halfway point as I couldn't understand why she was allowed to continue with the case when all around her could see she was falling apart. I did finish it but felt the basic, decent plot would have benefited from a different treatment.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Well what a read that was!

A 14 year old girl, Jenny, is brought to hospital after being found in the street. She is covered in blood - but the blood isn't hers, she doesn't even have any injuries. However, what she does have is evidence of old injuries that have healed without treatment. Her mother and brother are both in intensive care and her step father is missing. Kept on the mental health ward while she is being interviewed, Jenny is determined to stay silent.

Laura is the detective assigned to the case and her job is to make the girl talk and tell her story. A very reluctant Jenny starts talking in riddles about a princess who lives in a tower with an owl and a mouse. One day a prince comes but he isn't handsome yet the princess falls for his charms - even though he hurts the mouse and the owl. Laura desperately tries to make sense of what she hears and tries to force Jenny to tell them where her step father is but Jenny just won't talk.

Accompanying Laura is her assistant Niamh. Niamh battles to make Laura go slowly with Jenny and can't understand why Laura is in such a rush to push Jenny for her story. She accuses Laura of going to fast and tries her hardest to slow things down, but she doesn't understand just how much Laura sees of herself in Jenny. Because Laura has a secret. A secret she hasn't told anyone - not her mother, her husband, no one. And this secret is colouring the work that she does. Will Jenny spill the beans or will Laura ruin the investigation.

This is a tightly woven story set across just a handful of days. The chapters alternate between the characters allowing us to get a really in depth insight into their thoughts and feelings (admittedly, Niamh has less chapters assigned to her and we don't see the same character depth but she is there to temper Laura and try to reign her in and this works well). Laura's story is slowly revealed through her chapters and almost parallels with the revelations about Jenny and how she came to be in hospital. It is a slow, at times painful, walk towards what really happened but it unravelled in a way that kept me coming back for more and more.

If you are triggered by stories like this then it definitely won't be for you, but it is a cracking good read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a good read! A bit of a slow burner but the final section has major suspense and tension, alongside a good resolution. I felt some scenes were quite repetitive but that may also be because I read a lot in this genre.

An intriguing psychological thriller that covers many dark issues so not an easy read. When 14 year old Jenny is discovered wandering the streets covered in blood and her step father is missing, Detective Laura Shaw has to find out what has happened. Jenny's mother and brother have been injured in a car crash but although Jenny herself has been sexually assaulted the blood found on her is not hers.

The only way Jenny can piece together the events leading to the car accident and her stepfather's disappearance is through fairy tales. This didn't make it at all easy for the reader to follow and I can imagine some will not finish the book because of it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read and review The Interview.

Sorry to say I DNF this book.I found it slow and boring which was dissapointing as I was looking forward to reading it, really tried to stick with it but no I'm sorry I had to give up in the end.
Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK for the ARC.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot.

I have to say that although I finished this book, I did not enjoy it. The story deals with dark themes - including suicide, grief, loss, rape, domestic violence and sexual abuse - and although well written, made me feel depressed. I guess that's a sign of how good the writing is - sucessfully getting across the effects of all the darkness on those it happens to and also those around them.

Not recommended if you are likely to be upset or triggered by any of the above mentioned themes.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Most of the story centres around Jenny a fourteen-year-old girl, who was found wandering the streets covered in blood. Tests revealed that the blood wasn’t hers, but she had been sexually assaulted and traumatised. Now Detective Laura Shaw, a victim interviewer, with her partner Niamh, have to find out what exactly has happened.

When her mother and brother are found unconscious and badly injured in a crashed car, the hunt for her missing step-father is stepped-up. If all the blood from Jenny’s clothes is from him, the chances are that he is dead or dying. But Jenny will only tell her side of what has happened through several fairy tales that are difficult to decipher. There is so much more to this story than you first think.

It is not an easy read as it walks you through the lives of Jenny, her mum, brother and step-father. The way that Jenny copes with it all to re-tell her life is remarkable, clever and distracting. The author has her characters perfected. Jenny, Laura and Niamh, all have voices in this story, with some shocking revelations about their pasts and how circumstances affect their current mental state.

It is a great read, tense with an urgency that could mean life and death for someone.

I wish to thank Net Galley and the publisher for an e-copy of this book that I have reviewed honestly.

I had high hopes for this novel as the blurb sounded amazing and right up my street. Unfortunately I got only part way through as I just could not seem to get on with this novel at all.

We meet two women who are trained in victim interviews and we meet Jenny a youngster who is an assault victim and literally makes no sense in what she is saying.

I always feel defeated when giving up on a book and I really do try and stick with a novel as I realise that sometimes books can take a while for the reader to get into but I just could not get on with this novel. I found it was leaping all over and I started to skip read which is my warning sign that I need to leave it alone.

Thanks to Gill Perdue, NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this novel.

I liked the sound of this one and it had so much potential.

Sadly I found it very muddled and jumped around so much and so fast that I could not keep reading it. It all seemed to blend into each other and I lost concentration with it.

Thanks for the chance to read it but it was not for me

Detective Laura Shaw is good at her job, although since the birth of her daughter she sees danger everywhere.
Then she meets Jenny.
Jenny is 14 years old and has been assaulted. Her mother and brother are injured and her step father is missing but the blood on her isn't human.
But Jenny is in a fairy tale world of her own and can Laura interpret it before its to late. But has Laura been there herself and can she help Jenny?

I really don't know how I feel about this book, the story line was strong and well written but it took me a good 30/40% of the book to start to enjoy it. Although enjoy is not the right word because it deals with dark subjects-domestic violence, sexual assault, mental health. It does demonstrate the huge affect these have not only on the victims but their loved ones too.
I can't say I really warmed to any of the characters however as the book went on I couldn't stop to reading to see what would happen.
All in all, I didn't hate it but didn't love it however I think it will stay with me for a while.

I am very sad to say I had to DNF this book.
The story just did not seem to budge at all, it seemed like one of the main characters had a lot of undealt-with trauma, so to think she was qualified and fit to perform this interview just makes her plain bad at her job.
Also, I felt like I saw what the author is trying to deliver by presenting the 14-year old's perspective the way it was written, but it made for a jarring read.
I did not connect with any of the characters either and did not care for them at all.
I kept on making excused not to pick this book up again and again, so I decided to just leave it as a 'did not finish'. Life's too short.
All in all, I did not enjoy the writing (it sort of felt like driving a car with square wheels for me) or the premise.
Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC, but with sadness in my heart, I still have to give it one star.

This tense thriller is narrated from three different viewpoints: two police detectives by the names of Laura and Niamh, and a teenage girl called Jenny, who is found in the street covered in blood and brought to an adult psychiatric ward. The two policewomen are hoping to interview her, but Jenny is not communicating. When it transpires that her mother and brother are also recovering from grave injuries and that their abusive, violent stepfather is missing, it appears a clear cut case….or is it?
From the beginning it is clear that this is going to be a book about physical and domestic abuse, but still I was not prepared for how graphic its language would be. It is understandable that such serious topics need to be adequately discussed in appropriate language, but there is also something to be said for challenging the reader’s imagination, rather than spelling everything out in brutal language that sometimes appeared nothing short of contrived. I found it hard to get to grip with the repetitive language choices ; some of the interview transcripts were also overly long. I wish to thank NetGalley for the free ARC that allowed me to read this book in exchange for this review but was left with the impression, having read the final pages, that this book would have benefitted from a good edit.

Thank u for the early release copy.

This was a fantastic read,Laura Jenny and Niamh were fantastic character's I love the way the story end no bits to tie and it a explain will definitely be looking for more by the author.

Jenny, a teenage girl is found in a dreadful state. She has been raped and is covered in blood. Her mother and brother are found in the family car some time later, both seriously injured and her stepfather is missing, Laura and Niamh, the gardai interviewing her, suspect that Jenny knows something about this but Jenny speaks only to tell fairy tales and time is running out.

I think it must be the mood I'm in but I just couldn't relate to this book at all. I found it repetitive at times and quite frustrating as a) it was very clear what was going on with Jenny and b) Laura, the more experienced of the guards had issues of her own that interfered with her ability to do her job. Laura with her lack of insight into her own failings was a particularly irritating character. On the plus side, the writing is very good. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I do love a good thriller and mystery but for me this was too slow to get going and I couldn’t finish it on this occasion.