I found this book really hard to get into, I love the idea of the plot but found the whole book dragged along, the main character was not likeable and I found myself getting annoyed by her back and forth ways. This just wasnt for me

A good thriller although I found some of the acts of the main character jarring and too bizarre. Would be happy to read more from this author

Revelle has a difficult job in her hands – she’s caring for a young boy who’s been passed from pillar to post through the foster system. She’s taking the leap to adopt him to give him stability but it’s not easy. Not that normal parenting is easy!

Revelle sees herself as someone who can manipulate evidence without trace, she has the power to make a difference in a criminal case. She can place someone at the scene of the crime, she can suggest a taxi driver thinks something untoward is going on in the back of a cab. All by the slip of an interpretation. Who would know, right? Wrong!! She’s been rumbled… with dramatic repercussions!!

As thrillers go, The Interpreter is one of the slow burners of the genres. For me I’d put it more in the same basket as Paula Hawkins’ A Slow Fire Burning. It’s not quite got the legal thriller aspect that I got from Sarah Vaughan’s books. That said I got into Revelle’s head, her worries, her thoughts and then got glimpses of the mind of the antagonist forcing this interpreter’s hand or mouth as the case may be!

Robinson’s debut is a promising one. It had me guessing, who was this protagonist threatening Revelle and her son and demanding the misinterpretations? I will be looking out for what comes next.

Not too sure what genre this fits into but more of a physiological thriller than anything else. Told entirely from the point of view of Revelle who is an interpreter working for the Courts and Social Services. This is a really slow burner and the reader needs lots of patience before we discover what Revelle has actually done wrong and who is blackmailing her. This was a great idea for a book with a great plot and so much potential however, the pace in the middle half of the book was just a bit too slow for me.

Briefly, Revelle is in the process of adopting Elliott but has her own dark secrets from the past which come home to haunt her. She is been forced to misinterpret comments made by suspects in court and she knows that if she is found out she will likely both lose the adoption and end up in prison herself.

This was a really interesting concept. It got me wondering if an interpreter in a court case could actually, either on purpose or mistakenly, misinterpret a word such that it gave a completely different meaning and could potentially affect the verdict. Full of suspense and an original storyline this was a good read and I would read the author again. 3.5⭐️

I loved this book at the beginning and found it to be a really intriguing start !!! Then for me it completely lost it ! I got bored and found myself lugging through ! Underwhelmed on the whole ! Not the worst I’ve read ! Still worth a look if you like a thriller !!!

Revelle is a multi language interpreter who although works freelance does most of her work for a company who provide interpreters for the courts and police and this has become her area of expertise. Revelle learnt her languages as a result of her mother constantly moving with her work around different countries. She has recently applied to adopt a young boy, Elliott, who is currently with her having previously been in several foster homes after he was taken away from his parents following substance abuse. There are interspersed sections where we get dialogue from someone, we know not who, describing scenes they find themselves in and there is a mention of a person that is yet not featured, as if someone or somewhere in the past.

OMG! A book where the tension was palpable, I almost felt nervous, I was so on the edge of my seat!I quickly found myself liking this- even in the early chapters where we get a feel for Revelle and her situation. The writing is cleverly done so there is a build up of tension even before anything really happens and I found myself both liking Revelle and turning and turning to find out what was going to happen. A very well presented stunning, captivating plot so brilliantly executed. Wow! One thrill of a read- sign me up for the next one please!

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Really enjoyed this book I couldn't work out the ending till I read it which was really good . Good storyline well worth a read .

A really fascinating premise and a strong start but alas these were the only merits of this book for me. I really liked the idea of this one but the execution did not work for me. An unlikeable main character couple with the slow pace of this one, left me scanning large sections of this once I got to the mid way point. I came close to giving up at several points and in hindsight , I probably should have.
This one wasn't for me. Could have been my mood at the time of reading but overall was disappointed expecially as I really liked the idea of this book.

It's not often that a thriller really captivates me but The Interpreter definitely did. Filled with intrigue, and suspense, I couldn't put it down.

Revelle is a polyglot. She spends her days interpreting in courts, police stations, hospitals etc. But she no longer takes on child protection cases. Because of a genuine mistake she made eight years ago that had catastrophic consequences.

She is also in the process of adopting Elliot, a young boy she's been fostering.

But it seems that someone is trying to stop this process and will stop at nothing to do so.

A cat and mouse thriller with questions galore, all interconnected and ultimately answered. Smart and sophisticated writing, fantastic characterisation and a fast paced plot that keeps the reader on their toes to the very end.

From the premise, I was eager to read The Interpreter, however I struggled with it. I found whole sections to be slow paced and really didn’t like the main character. I was expecting to be completely drawn in to the plot but found the whole book underwhelming. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House UK Vintage and the author for the chance to review.

An intriguing premise. The most dangerous person in the courtroom isn't the killer! The interpreter can alter a few words in the translation and change a 'guilty' to 'innocent', and vice versa. Just think about it!

Ravelle speaks several languages and works as an interpreter in court. She is also in the middle of an adoption process. When it seems as though a guilty man is going to be found innocent of a murder, Ravelle changes a few words in the man's alibi so he is convicted. After all, he's guilty, isn't he?

When someone uncovers the fact that Ravelle lied, this puts her and her son at risk.

Chapters are in current time following Ravelle's story but there is also a second voice, which I couldn't figure out.

I did struggle with parts of the book as it seemed to be quite slow after such a gripping start. I lost interest and skim read over some irrelevant sub plot details.

The most interesting part was that it actually made me think about the justice system and how easy it could be for statements to be lost in translation. Scary really!

Revelle Lee is telling the court how she witnessed a hit and run but thinks the driver couldn’t see the victim. However, she didn’t really see the incident, she is just repeating, in English, what the witness is saying in Italian. Her job is to do this verbatim, no mistakes, no additions or subtractions, no emotion, no nuance. The verdict under consideration may well turn on this witness statement. She is very good at her job, translating for courtrooms, police interviews, social work cases, in any one of her ten routine languages. She also speaks German (making her a hyperpolyglot) but, after a traumatic case early in her career, she has refused to work in this language. The work is freelance and she is in effect on call all day, every day. She is in the process of adopting Elliot, a ten-year-old boy, so her life is frantic. After the trial she meets Sandra, who works six days a week in the driver’s house and does babysitting on Sundays, and hires her to watch Elliot while she responds to an urgent call out. When Sandra is found dead, Revelle is booked to speak to a Polish alibi witness and influences the case by slightly mistranslating his evidence. Shortly thereafter she starts to get various harassments which could potentially block the adoption process. Is this timing coincidental or is it connected to another case? Who is the mysterious woman who appears in interpolated scenes and what is her connection to Revelle?
The plot ricochets between scenes and also between styles, sometimes a bit too detailed and rather slow, other times too staccato. The plot is interesting and turns on aspects of the justice system which are not familiar, particularly the dependence on absolute accuracy from interpreters and how this can be massaged to mislead. Otherwise it is a bit erratic, and Revelle’s actions, in particular, stretch the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ almost to breaking point. It is quite a fast read and many readers will get carried along with the flow and sail over the flaws.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This book started really well and the concept was original. However, I could not continue to enjoy the book as the interpreter, single mother Revelle Lee got herself into some quite unbelievable situations!

If there were some different and interesting storylines concerning just her job I would possibly welcome it. The adoption story could then be dropped entirely?

Thanks to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the chance to read and review.

'The Interpreter' started really well and the premise was both intriguing and promising. As I read on I found I had little empathy with interpreter Revelle Lee or the frustrating and sometimes quite unbelievable situations that she found herself in. I'm glad I was given the opportunity to read it but sadly it was not the book for me. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an arc.

This book really started with a bang, and was really gripping - but the more it went on the less interested I became.
I felt the plot didn't have much of a focus the more the book went on, it went many different ways with multiple uninteresting subplots. Lacked focus and I felt a bit lost, eventually loosing interest completely.

The Interpreter is a compulsive, highly-nuanced thriller with a truly unique plot, quite the feat in a genre that seems to revolve around identical, repetitive tropes the majority of the time. I must admit, some of the less-than-favourable reviews had me concerned that it was going to be tedious to read, however, that couldn't have been further from the truth. I appreciated that not only was it genuinely thrilling and suspenseful but managed to be intelligent and thought-provoking too. It follows Revelle Lee, a freelance translator currently in the process of adopting her six-year-old foster child, Elliot, whose biological parents had been abusive drug addicts. The plot is a mix of the trials and tribulations associated with the impending adoption and those that crop up during Revelle's job.

Speaking 10 different languages fluently, picked up while moving from country to country for her mother's job when she was just a child, enables her to work in the intriguing field of interpretation and translation, meaning she facilitates everything from the accurate representation of victims, defendants and witnesses in court and police stations to international business transactions and even the relaying of important health information between doctor and patient in clinical settings. However, she usually manages to remain fairly detached from the clients who hire her; that is until she hears a case much too close to home. A case that changes Revelle, her way of thinking and her behaviour, and life will never quite be the same again.

If you are looking for a hard-hitting, thoughtless and no-thinking-necessary type of suspense thriller with countless explosive twists then this may not be for you, but, for me, that is exactly why I enjoyed it so much. Robinson builds the suspense to a palpable level magnificently and with subtlety and nuance. It is a beautifully crafted yarn revolving around main character Revelle, with both her personal/family life and professional/working life integrated adeptly into the mystery; it's once these converge as the stakes rise when the ever-decreasing line between right and wrong begin to blur. It's a story that will make you think about how every word must be carefully chosen in a place as important as a courtroom as semantics could literally be the difference between life and death.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I found this book hard work. It started off well, but then I lost interest, and the ending was pretty poor.

I really enjoyed this book! The book centers on a court interpreter who decides to change the outcome of a trial by mistranslating as she believes the man on trial is guilty. The book had all the elements of a great thriller and I look forward to reading Brooke Robinson's next book.
I will say however that the middle portion of the book dragged and I had to push through to make it to the end.

A really interesting storyline covering a subject I've never heard mentioned before. As an interpreter, Revelle has the power to change words to alter the meaning of what's being said. I had never thought about this before, so it was a fresh storyline. The tension builds throughout the book and we are drip fed information about a misdemeanour that happened in the past, then it all comes together in an unexpected finale. A great read!

I wanted to read this book because of the blurb. I expected it to be more of a thriller and to have more things happening. I liked that the book didn't have anything to do with a love interest, it was just a single woman who wanted to adopt a child. And I loved all the little things about the languages she was speaking and how that affected her actions in the story.