An emotional, strong and hard to put down novel

 

  ⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑  I was gripped by The Interview, a tense psychological thriller about an abused 14 year old girl, Jenny, and the quest from police interviewers Laura and Niamh to find out a) what happened to her and b) where her missing stepfather is. The tension is gritty, raw and finely wrought but may be very upsetting for those who prefer to avoid the topics of child sexual abuse, suppressed trauma, gaslighting and rape. These feature heavily in The Interview and make the story a solid one but I want readers to go in forewarned.

The story of Jenny and the abuse she suffers at the hands of her stepfather takes a fair amount of work to unravel for Laura and Niamh but there is another trauma in Laura's past that continues to haunt her and grows more present in her life now that she is the mother of a two year old. Laura knows trauma, so is good at her job, but she is falling apart as the story progresses. The combination of Jenny's difficult life and Laura's struggle with mental health makes this a timely and powerful story.

To say I enjoyed The Interview seems a bit crass, given the heavy topics but I did feel emotional involved in the story as it felt authentic in its pain. I highly recommend The Interview to others.