Imposter Syndrome – Joseph Knox

Published By: Doubleday
Pages: 384
Released On: 11/07/2024

‘When you’re living a lie, you find it’s best to avoid close attachments…’

Lynch, a burned out con-artist, arrives, broke, in London, trying not to dwell on the mistakes that got him there. When he bumps into Bobbie, a rehab-bound heiress – and when she briefly mistakes him for her missing brother – Lynch senses the opportunity, as well as the danger…

Bobbie’s brother, Heydon, was a troubled young man. Five years ago, he walked out of the family home and never went back. His car was found parked on a bridge overlooking the Thames, in the early hours of the same morning. Unsettled by Bobbie’s story, and suffering from a rare attack of conscience, Lynch tries to back off.

But when Bobbie leaves for rehab the following day, he finds himself drawn to her luxurious family home, and into a meeting with her mother, the formidable Miranda. Seeing the same resemblance that her daughter did, Miranda proposes she hire Lynch to assume her son’s identity, in a last-ditch effort to try and flush out his killer.

As Lynch begins to impersonate him, dark forces are lured out of the shadows, and he realises too late that Heydon wasn’t paranoid at all. Someone was watching his every move, and they’ll kill to keep it a secret.

For the first time, Lynch is in a life or death situation he can’t lie his way out of.

*****

Thanks to Anne at Random Tours and Doubleday for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review and a spot on the book tour.

I have seen nothing but absolute praise for this book and was so excited to be part of the book tour. It’s my first Joseph Knox book, but we can be certain that it won’t be my last.

I’d got to the third chapter and knew already that it was going to be something special.

I’ve read loads of thrillers and it’s probably my most read genre, but I always worry that it’s going to get stale, because how can there possibly be so many story ides within the genre? But this was new again. I’ve not read anything like it.

There were a few moments, particularly at the beginning when they’re introducing characters, discussing what has already happened etc. where I got a little confused as it was a lot of information in a short space of time. It’s not for long, and I soon got to grips with it, but at first I did have to re-read a couple of areas to fully bring myself up to speed.

It is quite involved. Many people, and many crimes, which means it’s a little heavy, which took some getting used to, I admit. Was there maybe too much? The jury is out on that one. I never felt overwhelmed by it, but I can understand some people doing so. I personally felt Joseph had stopped just the right side of too much.

It isn’t a 100mph all-guns-blazing kind of thriller (which isn’t a complaint). Yes there’s thrills and spills – subterfuge, missing people, impersonation, murder, drug abuse etc. etc – but it gives it to you in a slower way. We get to know Lynch very well and we see the story pan out through him, and not many really fast things in fiction happen in real time. For me, it meant you could focus more on the subtle things, how Lynch acts etc. It creeps up on you, like someone’s watching you but they’re always just out of reach. I suppose what I mean is, there’s a whole lot of talking and not a lot of doing (again, not a negative, at least for me).

It is written in the first person which I’m not used to reading, but it really works here. It helps us with this real-time feeling I mentioned above. By having it all as “I”, then we are discovering things as Lynch does, we find things out, who we like and dislike, who we trust and distrust, as he does. If it was in the third person then I think it would have feel a bit distanced, and I think you need that connection in order to feel any sort of compassion with the protagonist.

I admit, I’m not sure of my opinions on the ending. I mean, it was satisfying in one way, but for me, I felt I had too many unanswered questions. Some people may enjoy that but…it’s hard to explain. You get some authors who deliberately don’t wrap things up and allow the reader to decide the ending. This isn’t that. This does have a conclusion, but I wasn’t able to fully grasp it in a way that I could explain to others how it ended…if that makes sense.

Overall, it was an enjoyable read. I read it in less than a day. It was thrilling, interesting, unique, engaging, curious; not what I was expecting but no less of a great read for that. It’s definitely given me the taste for Joseph’s other books.