Book Review: The Interviews

Reviewed by Toni Woodruff

An unlikely series of events that takes mystery and suspense to a whole new level

Content Warning: graphic violence

Nothing is as it seems in The Interviews. The author, Lazarus, takes the current state of our country and whips it into a story of a domestic terrorism group who wants to leave this world better than they found it. But be warned, the road to get there can be shocking. You can expect violence, critical thinking, and a ton of twists and turns in this mystery thriller. 

The Interviews begins with Shawn Thomas in a police interrogation room. The interviews that proceed—thought to be about the protests he partook in the day before—quickly turn into a much more serious questioning session than expected. 

As the detectives pick Shawn’s brain about his past, the murder of his ex-girlfriend, and his former best friend, we soon realize that there is far more going on than just the protests, and that Shawn is a less than reliable narrator at best. Told in three distinct parts, this story takes readers on an unpredictable ride.  

I thought I knew where this book was going for the first few chapters, but…I was wrong. 

What starts as an anti-police story transforms into that of a homeless man suffering from hallucinations and PTSD, who doesn’t know what role he plays in the domestic terrorism group he’s joined. 

But Shawn is just a piece of puzzle that is The Interviews.

The first section of this book is part of what “The Cause” is all about, and it expands greatly throughout the story to include more people and ideas than you would believe. Each chapter reveals a new piece of the bigger picture and adds up to what is ultimately an epic ending, but sorting all the pieces out in the meantime can prove to be a challenge. 

For example, some of our main characters change roles throughout the the story and some chapter-ending scenes are flipped in the very next chapter. I couldn’t always tell what was real or a hallucination, who was on whose side, or who/what the enemy was. As I adjusted to this style of storytelling, I began to take everything with a grain of salt—and I was still mind-blown on multiple occasions.

Covering topics such as police brutality, racism, manipulation by news outlets, and the state of the country in general, The Interviews is a good book for people who like mysteries that tackle current events. The story grows in intensity as you read on, and if the violence and extremeness of it all doesn’t sway you, it can make for a thrilling reading experience. 

Genre: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Print Length: 343 pages

ISBN: 979-8833416051

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