CONFESSIONS IN THE INVESTIGATIVE INTERVIEWS: A FORENSIC LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ROBERT BRYNDZA’S THE GIRL IN THE ICE

Abstract

This study analyses the selected chapters of Robert Bryndza’s crime thriller The Girl in the Ice (2016) in the forensic context of Andrea Douglass Brown’s murder from the perspective of Aubry and Caputo’s (1965; 1980) investigation strategies. Frequently used by police officers in the investigative interviews, these strategies include the sympathetic approach, leading questions, rapport building, and constant repetition of one theme. This critique highlights the cordial yet goal-oriented way of carrying out the investigative interviews that achieve their aim of finding out the truth; the interviewee is either innocent, or the actual culprit, or just a partner in the crime. Through qualitative content analysis, the study focuses on the case where Linda, during the investigative interview, conceals the information regarding the murder of her sister, Andrea, and thus, becomes partner in the crime. It is pertinent to underline the significance of suspects’ emotional state during the police investigations even if the suspects are the real culprits in the crime being investigated. Highlighting the manipulative linguistic practices of the police detective characters, previously limited to active violence, but now exercised in more indirect ways and with seemingly positive undertones, is the central concern of the study. We conclude that language as a tool of communication is exploited to feed the vested interests of the detective characters in the novel.