Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox
I would like to thank Doubleday and Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Doubleday
Published – Out Now
Price – £18.99 hardback £9.99 Kindle ebook
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.
I’ve a soft spot for a good con. Usually, crimes are to be frowned upon but there is something of the trickster in a con-artist telling lives that people fall over themselves to believe. Be it the good guys of Leverage or the more greyish ones in the Sting a con-artist can be a sort of hero. In Josph Knox’s excellent modern noir thriller Imposter Syndrome a con artist with nothing left to lose is plunged into a world of the rich and powerful using their skills to try to find the man he is impersonating. A glorious winding road of surprises awaits.
Lynch is in trouble. They’re left Paris in a hurry with no money, tickets and not even wearing their own clothes. But an airport he meets the troubled Bobbie who notices his resemblance to her brother Haydon who vanished five years ago. Bobbie persuades Lynch to impersonate Haydon to try and get some cash but that falls flat but he does enough of a job to persuade the family matriarch Miranda to hire Lynch to try to get in touch with the man selling Haydon’s property. That sets up a trail of death, deceit and a con-artist may find the truth the hardest thing to get a grip on.
This is a deliciously good dark propulsive thriller that never lets the pace down. Lynch our narrator as well as main character is fascinating. Internally affable, dry sense of humour and yet also a driven and skilled liar who can appear to change accent, mannerisms and even body posture to fit a situation. We also get the feeling he did something bad back in France. We want to like him, but can we entirely trust him? He’s a fresh version of the noir anti-hero more criminal than detective yet the one who must visit people, answer questions and get into scrapes and danger. He’s very capable, knows many criminal acts and yet isn’t super-powered he can mess up and then we get the way he recovers from a setback He is infiltrating all these hidden levels of power in London and may not win every scene but holds his own. The case as well as a financial incentive is intriguing to him. He is impersonating the man that he is trying to hunt down and for a man now without a past or future for Lynch himself that is a fascinating angle for a lead character.
The mystery is wonderfully layered. We have a wealthy family of mobile stars, industry men, mysterious private security agents, drug users and dealers and slowly we see all in some ways use cons to hide their true actions. Their money makes them allowed to do it though with little fear of the consequences. Lynch is indeed a good fit for our central character running into these characters and working out their various deceits. Layers of betrayals and acts of revenge make up this mystery and Lynch finds himself in a danger and also getting pointing fingers at him being a suspect too.
What makes this work is the pace, the dark humour and the constant sense of shifting characters and worlds. Lynch fits in well but everyone has secrets and hidden agendas which makes the reader work hard to get a sense of what is going on and exactly what is Lynh going to do too? Are they in it just for money, a getaway or even a sense of connection? It’s a great fusion of the classic noir world of big business, not so shining knights and damsels either in distress or ready to scheme and yet feels very much our own dark 21st century London of the ich and powerful playing in their walled streets and skyscrapers around us.
I thoroughly enjoyed Imposter Syndrome with a compelling mystery, wonderfully captivating and yet mildly disconcerting main character and the mystery is a really great one to unpick. Those looking for a great ride of thrillers this summer should run and pick this up. Highly recommended!
