Following a general introduction, the first six chapters follow the course of an interview, beginning with planning (Chapter 2), impression management (Chapter 3), developing rapport (Chapter 4), showing active listening (Chapter 5), eliciting a narrative (Chapter 6), and good questioning tactics (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 describes how to create cooperation between the interviewer and the subject, and what to do in instances where the subject is less than cooperative. Chapter 9 provides methods of assessing whether the subject's story is likely to be true. These chapters include exercises that may help the reader practice the strategies and tactics.

The subsequent chapters provide information on related topics: the characteristics of good interviewers (Chapter 10), why people confess (or not) (Chapter 11), how memory works (Chapter 12), and the likely impacts of personality (Chapter 13), mental health disorders (Chapter 14), and drugs and alcohol (Chapter 15) on interview outcomes. Chapter 16 provides a brief overview of the polygraph. Chapters 17 and 18 offer brief histories of interrogations in the U.S. and the U.K., respectively.