From the blurb this book held great promise, and started off intriguing. However, the story just did not move on. Countless repetitions during the interview, and really did we need so much dumb bitch?

Laura was strange, so consumed by her OCD yet acted completely out of character towards the end of the book. Would she really have been allowed to return to her job? Never mind that she shouldn’t have held that role in the first place!!

There were a few flashes of brilliance in the writing, and I really liked the way that the author phrased certain events.

There are deeply disturbing issues raised in this book, and on the whole they were handled well, but the story was too dragged out and the actions of the Garda silly and unbelievable.

2.5* rounded up to 3*

Thank you NetGalley.

This is an unsettling story but showing deep understanding of the issues surrounding domestic abuse. The story of Jenny, brought in for interviews by the Dublin Garda, is rich in understanding and empathy. She has been abused by her stepfather who has disappeared. Her mother and brother are severely injured. She finds it difficult to tell her tale and resents the intrusion by the lead interviewer, Laura. It is a weakness of the book that Laura appears to be more emotionally damaged than Jenny. If the book was solely about that damaged teenager, it would be better. There is a great detail of fanciful description which makes it a long read.

Laura and Niamh are detectives specially trained in interviewing victims.
They are called to speak to Jenny, a non-responsive teenager found covered in blood by the roadside. Jenny’s stepfather is missing and the team is under pressure to find out information.
Laura, who normally excels at her work appears to be wrongfooted by this case and the victim and eventually takes some risky decisions to get answers.
The Interview is a struggle for a number of reasons. The small amount of information being disclosed by Jenny is presented as a fairy-tale, blurring the lines with reality and it is often impossible to know if Jenny is speaking in her own head or aloud. As a device, this would be fine in the context of solid characters and clear direction, but both are lacking.
Laura is difficult to empathise with in terms of her background and her current behaviour as is Jenny’s mum, and the interviews seem endless, going over and over the same stuff.
There is however, a sincerity and lack of self-consciousness in the descriptions of the violations. The imprint left on the victims is portrayed in a way which truly reveals the horror to which they have been subjected.

Really enjoyed it. A bit disturbing, and sometimes a little disjointed and hard to follow, but it was well written and you had a lot of sympathy for the characters.

The Interview, the interminable interview as I prefer to remember it by. Some very serious subjects form the skeletal shape of this novel. The interview occupies at least a third of the novel and whilst it tries to expose the thought processes of a teenage girl in deep shock, it's hard not to feel both ennui and frustration. If you're a lover of the phrase, 'Dumb bitch', then this is the book for you, it's used ad nauseam in the teenager's thought processes. I asked my partner if she thought in swear words (because I couldn't recollect if I did) and she couldn't recollect it either. Yes, for sure when it's vocalised but never in thought. I realise an author doesn't have the luxury of thought conveyance other than in the written word but less can be more when it comes to swearing. Laura the SVI (Special Victim Interviewer) would never have done what she did to bring the novel to a conclusion. Taking the victim out of hospital without the authority to do so and as for putting down a sidearm when it could have been holstered, just beggars belief. For me it was a powerful story poorly executed.

I was looking forward to reading this but just couldn’t get into it and stopped reading it. I don’t really like disturbing books. Thanks to Netgalley.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Fantastic story and characters. I stayed up late to finish reading as I literally could not put this down. Highly recommended.

There was one point when I wondered why I was reading this, a seemingly unrelenting tale of misery and abuse. By the end however, I realised I had not only learned something, but enjoyed the journey. You will be desperate for Jenny to find peace, eager to learn why Laura is so shaken and for her to find her own peace and really want to spend a night out with Laura’s colleague Niamh, who seems to have life sorted. Hovering throughout on the edge of horror, we are left at the end with hope.

Unfortunately the pace was far too slow for me and I struggled to vonnect with any of the characters. For this reason it has to be a dnf.

The Interview by Gill Perdue tackles some very difficult topics/subjects in which we meet our characters - Jenny, a 14 year old girl and Laura which is a victim support officer sent to interview her. Begins off with a slow start but gradually does pick up. I liked this book, it is a little different from the usual genres of police procedural which i really liked but the book does talk a bit about difficult subjects which i did find it is sad but the author wrote the interview exceptionally well and was a very good read. I look forward to reading any upcoming books the author may release in the upcoming future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for this advanced copy read in exchange for my honest review.

An intriguing premise, but the execution doesn't do it justice.

This Dublin set novel features a pair of detectives interviewing a fourteen year old girl. She was found covered in blood - not her own. And her stepfather is missing. Laura and Neave attempt to find the truth, but Jenny isn't making it easy, talking of fairy tales and a mystic island. What is she hiding?

Three quarters of the book comprises a series of interviews, with point of view switching repeatedly between the three main characters. There is a massive amount of repetition and very little to move the narrative forward. Little detail is given of the investigation that is presumably going on outside the interview room. No mention of clues, suspects or theories. Just interminable questions with few answers. Both Laura and Jenny are prone to recalling past incidents at length, so the pace is far too slow to keep the reader's attention.

3.5 stars from me!!

I loved the premise of this book but it just fell a little flat for me unfortunately.

I loved the different points of view and the chapters alternating.

I feel not an awful lot happened in the book. It’s probably more of a character driven novel than a plot driven one. But for me I didn’t feel the characters were developed enough and therefore I didn’t feel connected to any of them.

However I was keen to pick it up each time I did and find out what happened to Jenny and her family.

Still an enjoyable read! Just not as gripping as I expected it to be.

An incredibly complex story with the two main characters being a young victim of domestic and sexual abuse and her contact in the Guarda, the Irish Police Force, who needs to gather information that will enable the Force to arrest her abuser. The victim is protecting herself by not acknowledging recent events, and is converting her trauma into stories and fairy tales. A massive obstacle is that it is not just known victims that have, or are, suffering. Others involved are desperately trying to get through this case while dealing with their own past traumas, mental anguish and memories that are triggered by the victim's story.

I was excited by the concept of this, and did enjoy the dual perspective but I wasn’t as engaged and interested as much as I had hoped. I liked the start and the ending, but the middle fell flat for me and felt quite repetitive

I’m a bit on the fence with this book.
It is well written,the characters are great and it deals with one hell of a gritty subject matter.
I can’t say it’s not a book for me but it is a book I put down ,left for a few days but always came back to. It may be the subject matter, to allow me to process and reflect I don’t know.
It’s clever in that I couldn’t leave it but I also couldn’t stop thinking about it and could remember all that went before when I picked it up again.

The Spiel sounded intriguing. A 14 year old girl being interviewed, her mother and brother seriously injured in hospital, her abusive Step-father missing. She isnt saying a word. Is she a victim, a witness or a perpetrator?

How this book panned out however left very little intrigue, tension or interest. The problems for me at least, were many.

For a start, our central character Laura, the lead detective, I found incredibly annoying throughout. Like so much so that I hadnt an ounce of interest in her or her story. Sure she has had trauma in her life and is not in the best place and I`m not trying to down play those whatsoever but we keeping hearing from her partner Niamh what a fantastic and cool headed detective she is. The perfect mentor. Hello, has someone robbed the real Laura and replaced her with this borderline narcissist? Incompetence after incompetence and all we get is the odd "cop on" from Niamh.
Also the way she treated her husband like a doormat and yet he was cool and fine with it. Come on like.

The story is narrated from three different viewpoints, each of the detectives -Laura and Niamh and also the teenage girl Jenny.
Again, Jenny I found incredibly annoying. "Dumb bitch" this and "dumb bitch" that. It is used three time in one paragraph alone. It was incredibly tiresome. Yes there is a link to her abuse and again I`m in no way trying to downplay it but we are sledgehammered with this phrase from her throughout the whole book by the author. As subtle as a brick.

The first two thirds of this book are incredibly slow with little or nothing happening in the main story. Its basically the two detectives "interviewing" Jenny with them trying to get her to talk. " Come on Jenny you are safe here, tell us where he is" and Jenny in her own head saying "dumb bitch dumb bitch". Interview ends for the day and we get some mostly irrelevant soap opera like filler of the detectives life stories that are of no interest whatsoever. Then back we go to the interview with the same exchanges, and this takes up more than half the book.

By the time something did happen and the story started moving, I really didnt care about any of the characters or what happened to them and actually found them extremely irritating.

It all comes to its inevitable conclusion with "dumb bitch" going into hyperdrive in the last few chapters.

Some really serious subject matters here are told in the most laborious and uninteresting way with terribly written characters and an even worse book.

I`m sorry to be so down on this book but it left me annoyed at so many junctures that I would be anything but honest if I didnt vent my true feelings.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

Garda Laura Shaw based in Dublin, is interviewing Jennifer, a traumatised fourteen-year-old girl, found in shock and covered in blood but Jenny is not talking. Laura’s colleague, Niamh is taking notes and monitoring. Jenny's stepfather is missing and her mother and younger brother are also found, both unconscious and seriously injured.

Although this book is well written, I found it hard to get in to, mainly because I found one of the main characters, Laura irritating and unprofessional, being preoccupied with a trauma in her own past and refusing to acknowledge or get help with her mental health issues. I carried on with the book and enjoyed the ending, which neatly tied everything up.

DNF. Sorry. I quite enjoyed first 20pc but the story wasn’t going anyway. Traumatised girl being interviewed by police psychologist - we get it, but chapter by chapter the story should progress. Not stay still re establishing the fact that the girl is traumatised, the lead interviewer has her own issues (which frankly make her appear bad at the job…) may well get way better, but I was bored and irritated so gave up

I don't usually read much fiction with lots of police procedural content, but I'm pleased I made an exception for this. The story is told through the perceptions of Laura, Niamh - two Irish Garda - and Jenny - who is a disturbed teenager with information on a crime, but she isn't speaking. The character development of these main characters was great, although I felt we could have had a bit more on an arc for Niamh. Laura and Jenny's stories cross over in a remarkable way, which gives Laura the insight to help her. But - is Jenny all she seems? The pace is very good and Perdue writes Jenny's voice with skill. And does the same with Laura. I felt Niamh's perspective wasn't entirely necessary and didn't add a great deal to the story. Perhaps there will be a follow up with Laura and Niamh working together again.

I was given an ARC of this book and I found the topic disturbing but very well done.

The story is brutal. It’s written from three points of view in the first-person narrative – Laura, Jenny and Niamh. Each of the characters is well-developed, each distinctive, each interesting, each having a story of their own.

When Jenny is brought into the special interview with Laura (the interviewer) and Niamh (the note taker), the atmosphere is tense. A man is missing and something terrible has happened to others. The truth must be found but Jenny (witness, victim, criminal?) speaks of imaginary places and people.

I liked how the story was split into three perspectives – Jenny’s certainly gave insight into the horrors of her life. Laura’s secret is eating its way into her sanity, resurfacing because of this case and Jenny’s situation. Niamh is the happiest of them, and we understand why – she’s wise and loving and understanding.

The themes are harrowing but I don’t want to give spoilers. It’s fast-paced and definitely a page-turner. I thought the writing style suited the story, while the suspense and mystery heightened the experience.

Highly recommended, though be warned, it’s emotional and raw.