| Publisher | Doubleday |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 11 July 2024 |
| ISBN-10 | 1529927455 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1529927450 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 384 |
| Price | £ 18.99 |
Imposter Syndrome
by
A conman on the run is drawn into a complicated conspiracy when his strong resemblance to a missing person is spotted at Heathrow.
Review
A young conman, Lynch, arrives at Heathrow, on the run from Paris where he has been involved in some undefined incident where blood was shed. He runs into Bobbie, a girl who recognizes Lynch’s uncanny resemblance to her missing brother Heydon.
Bobbie is on her way to rehab in Malibu but tells Lynch that Heydon has not been seen for five years, since his car was found, door ajar, on a Thames bridge. Lynch shares a hotel room with her but when he wakes in the morning she is gone, leaving him with a small tattoo under his eye.
Lynch is broke, and Bobbie has told him enough about her wealthy family, including security codes to their luxury house, to intrigue. He uses his last funds to visit the house and runs into several of the family and their thuggish security. The whole family is traumatized by Heydon’s loss, and they believe Heydon is responsible for the death of his younger brother in a poolside accident.
Most of the family are hostile to Lynch but Miranda, Heydon’s mother, offers him a substantial sum of money to meet a criminal from whom Heydon had borrowed £67,000 immediately prior to his disappearance, to repay the loan and recover an item Heydon had left as security.
Lynth accepts the offer, and spends his time gathering information about several shady characters Heydon was involved with in the period before he went missing. Their motives remain partially unclear until the end, but several are murdered along the way, frequently leaving Lynch at risk as the apparent perpetrator.
Imposter Syndrome has something of the air of a traditional private eye tale about it, while being wholly up to the moment with communications and cultural events in the background. The story is told in the present tense, with slick action and dialogue. The plot was so complex that at times I lost track of who did what, but I didn’t catch the author out in any obvious lapses in a fast-moving narrative that had plenty of unexpected twists and turns and succeeded in maintaining confusion until the final pages.
Bobbie is on her way to rehab in Malibu but tells Lynch that Heydon has not been seen for five years, since his car was found, door ajar, on a Thames bridge. Lynch shares a hotel room with her but when he wakes in the morning she is gone, leaving him with a small tattoo under his eye.
Lynch is broke, and Bobbie has told him enough about her wealthy family, including security codes to their luxury house, to intrigue. He uses his last funds to visit the house and runs into several of the family and their thuggish security. The whole family is traumatized by Heydon’s loss, and they believe Heydon is responsible for the death of his younger brother in a poolside accident.
Most of the family are hostile to Lynch but Miranda, Heydon’s mother, offers him a substantial sum of money to meet a criminal from whom Heydon had borrowed £67,000 immediately prior to his disappearance, to repay the loan and recover an item Heydon had left as security.
Lynth accepts the offer, and spends his time gathering information about several shady characters Heydon was involved with in the period before he went missing. Their motives remain partially unclear until the end, but several are murdered along the way, frequently leaving Lynch at risk as the apparent perpetrator.
Imposter Syndrome has something of the air of a traditional private eye tale about it, while being wholly up to the moment with communications and cultural events in the background. The story is told in the present tense, with slick action and dialogue. The plot was so complex that at times I lost track of who did what, but I didn’t catch the author out in any obvious lapses in a fast-moving narrative that had plenty of unexpected twists and turns and succeeded in maintaining confusion until the final pages.
Reviewed 09 September 2024 by Chris Roberts
