The Interview by C.M. Ewan

Macmillan | 2022 (17 February) | 439p | Review copy | Buy the book

Kate Harding is ready to reboot her life. The chance comes with a last-minute interview for a post at Edge Communications, a famous PR company. The interview is set for 5pm on a Friday, not the best of times perhaps, and things don’t start well. She’s late, daunted by the size of this massive new glass building in London, and then finds herself being interviewed by someone other than she expected, the rather charismatic Joel White. The interview takes place in a glass office, high above London’s streets. Joel begins to ask his questions and, as they become increasingly personal, Kate’s anxiety and nerves are transformed into terror.

And that’s pretty much all I want to say about the plot because The Interview  is a fabulous, tense stand alone thriller and it shocks time after time as Kate descends further through the circles of hell. If only the people in the streets below would look up! Interviews can be frightening at the best of times and it’s easy to empathise with Kate as she sits in this glass box facing questions from a man who clearly knows far too much about her. But this empathy then becomes mixed up with tension, fear as the thriller takes off and becomes a truly exhilarating read. It’s not often I can say that about a thriller, perhaps once or twice a year.

Much of the novel takes place over a very short period of time, making it all the more urgent and immediate, but as it goes on we have flashbacks, teaching us more about Kate and her interviewer. This adds context to the interview, although my favourite sections were definitely those set in this incredible building, which couldn’t be more fitting for such a horrifying scenario! The fact that everything takes place just out of plain site of a busy London, with office workers pouring out of the surrounding buildings into pubs and bars, adds so much to the tension. I have to add that I really like Kate’s character, her resilience and courage.

if ever a book should be called a page turner, that would be The Interview. It is chilling and intense but more than anything else it is thoroughly entertaining.

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