Q&A with Michele Campbell

 

 

 

Michele Campbell is the author of the new novel The Intern. Her other novels include The Wife Who Knew Too Much. A former federal prosecutor in New York City, she lives in New England.

 

Q: You’ve said that The Intern “represents a return to roots for me.” How much did you draw from your own experiences in creating your character Madison?

 

A: Madison Rivera is a lot like me. We’re both of Puerto Rican heritage, from modest backgrounds, and went to big-name schools where we felt like outsiders. We’re both lawyers by training, and love the law, but questioned our place in the legal profession because we lacked connections to smooth our paths.

 

In writing her, I wanted to highlight an aspect of the Latina experience that I don’t often see reflected in popular fiction. Not the immigrant’s journey, which is not mine, but that of the next generation, trying to get ahead on a less-than-level playing field.

 

In many ways, Madison’s journey is my journey – minus the murder, of course!

 

Q. The writer Helen Wan said of your characters, “Both Madison and Kathryn are believably imperfect, each struggling with her own family ties and inherited obligations, while trying to pursue happiness and ambition at the very highest echelons of law and society.” What do you think of that assessment?

 

A: It’s right on point! Both women are caught between family loyalty and ambition, for sure.

 

Madison lands the internship of a lifetime working for charismatic federal judge Kathryn Conroy. But she has a secret that could destroy her career. Her troubled younger brother Danny was arrested, and Conroy is the judge on his case.

 

When Danny goes missing after accusing Conroy of corruption, Madison’s quest for answers brings her deep into the judge’s glamorous world. Is the judge a mentor, a hero, a criminal, a victim? Answering those questions requires Madison to investigate the judge’s past, in which her family secrets play a huge role.

 

The Intern asks not just whether we can escape the past, but whether it’s wrong to even try. What do we owe our families as we move on to new challenges, and what happens when the price of loyalty is simply too high?

 

Q. In our previous Q&A, you said of The Intern, “This book will be a combination of a modern, female-driven psychological thriller and good old-fashioned legal thriller in the vein of John Grisham or Scott Turow.” How did you balance the two as you were writing the novel?

 

A: I simply put two interesting women in a situation that mixes twisty, cat-and-mouse psychological suspense with the gripping stakes of a classic legal thriller, and the balance flowed naturally.

 

Madison is a deeply ambitious law student. She idolizes Judge Conroy and sees her as the perfect mentor – until her own brother accuses the judge of corruption, and then goes missing. Searching for answers, Madison worms her way into Judge Conroy’s life, and the judge encourages this.

 

The reader doesn’t know which woman to trust. Are they using each other? Are they a danger to each other, or are they secret allies?

 

The action unfurls against the glamorous backdrop of Back Bay Boston, and the courthouse, where the stakes could not be higher. So the book is legal thriller and psychological suspense in equal measure. It’s really fun!

 

Q. How would you describe the dynamic between Madison and Kathryn?

 

A. Friend and enemy. Cat and mouse. Love and hate. These two characters are engaged in one of the great balancing acts, and the suspense could not be higher. Also, I think readers will love the ending.

 

Q. What are you working on now?

 

A: A genre-bender that’s part thriller, part fantasy and part historical. I’d describe it as The Nightingale meets The Midnight Library but with the pace of a thriller. That’s all I can say for now, but I’m very excited about it!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Michele Campbell.