The Interview Room [Hardcover]

Author Roderick Anscombe details in this book the battles, psychological and literal, between Paul Lucas, a forensic psychiatrist, and Craig Cavanaugh, a twenty-two-year-old, dangerously intelligent sociopath-psychopath, who is heir to a politically powerful financial empire. Paul's assignment is to evaluate and make recommendations to the court about treatment or imprisonment for Craig's terrifying stalking and harassing of a woman. Anscombe writes of the slow degeneration of the therapeutic relationship as Craig sets out to destroy Paul, manipulating Paul's colleagues, family, and wife into joining in this destruction. Paul's weaknesses and vulnerabilities, heightened by the death of his young son, his suspicions about his wife's behaviour, his desire for a research grant, and his failure to follow basic, self-protective, sound therapeutic protocols when dealing with such a patient are described in painful, tedious, misstep-by-misstep fashion. Anscombe, a forensic psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at Harvard Medical School, knows the traps of ego, counter-transference, and desire to win that can befall therapists, even those at the top of their game, and subjects Paul to most of them, in slow-torture, drip-by-drip fashion, until the unclear ending.

No doubt all of us can be fooled or bested by con artists and psychopaths at times, and it is easy to see how Paul falls into Craig's traps. What is not so easy to see is why Paul doesn't pull out of the assignment when he is pressured before he begins as to what he should recommend. Or why Craig's behaviors during the first interview, red flags for an alert therapist (insisting on touching the therapist, refusing to accept the patient role, casting himself as an equal in the assessment process, almost provoking a physical confrontation, forcing Paul to dance to his tune), don't cause Paul to change his therapeutic stance, recognize his inability to deal with this client at this time, or recommend that Craig be transferred to another psychiatrist. Therapists know that there are times when it is best to back away from treatment of a client. Or if the decision is to accept the patient, then safeguards are usually put in place to protect the therapist, the patient, and the institution. Few if any such safeguards are described here: no meaningful staff meetings, no grand-rounds procedures, no collegial processes to review or talk over progress--not even informal means that most therapists set up with colleagues to reassure themselves that the therapy is on the right track and to discuss possible alternatives. Anscombe keeps the pressure on Paul too intense, the introspection too continuous, the feelings of inevitability too unshakable, the foreshadowing of defeat too inescapable, and the ending too ambiguous for many readers. Unlike Jonathan Kellerman, who writes books about equally evil and manipulative patients, Anscombe seldom lets up on the negativity or allows his protagonist many victories. After awhile, the reader may decide that so much gloom may not be the best way to relax with a book.

This is a book, however, that many readers will find invaluable. It would be of great help in the training of beginning therapists and in further education of experienced ones. Anscombe's traps set for Paul are typical of therapeutic interactions; and Paul's actions would be grist for the mill for discussions about ethics, proper professional distance, and effectiveness with clients for readers who are in helping professions. Anyone who deals with manipulative people could benefit from recognizing and analyzing Paul's dilemmas. Readers who treasure true writing ability; who delight in spare, elegant prose and realistic dialogue; and who enjoy the works of authors who are masters of their field (psychiatry, in this case) will find a gem here.

Roderick Anscombe's The Interview Room is one of the best, well-written thillers I read in 2006. The book is very original and provocative in portraying the story of a prison psychiatrist whose twisted patient -- a sociopathic stalker -- engages him in a deadly war of wits, and which ultimately leads to a series of circumstances that turn his wife against him and implicate him in murder. In my opinion, The Interview Room will be enjoyed most by thriller lovers who seek rich character portayals, sharp, crisp dialogue and narrative skills and who like their justice subtle. Be aware that if non-stop action is what you're looking for, The Interview Room may not be the book for you. I, for one, am looking forward to reading Anscombe's earlier thriller, Shank, and will be one of the first on line to but his upcoming book, Virgin Lies, which is due out in March.

This is one of the best pyschological thrillers I've read, with one caveat. (I'm sure it helps that the author himself is a forensice psychiatrist.) If you're a fan of Law and Order: Criminal Intent - this book has echoes of it, though of course with greater depth and twists. It starts with a great premise, the psychological manipulations and conversations keep you interested... and then, well then the ending while resolved the way it needs to be.... stretches into the implausible. A scene in a dark basement with guns ablazing, - didn't do merit to the intelligence and imagination of the rest of the book.