As someone who enjoys psychological thrillers and complex narratives, I was initially drawn to "Imposter Syndrome" by Joseph Knox. The premise—an embattled con artist named Lynch who finds himself tangled in the web of a missing person’s mystery after a chance encounter with an heiress—promised suspense and intrigue. However, what started as an exciting buildup ultimately left me grappling with confusion and a sense of disconnect from the characters.
Lynch’s plight as a burned-out con artist fleeing from his past immediately caught my attention. Arriving in London, he unintentionally becomes a pawn in a much larger game when Bobbie, the rehab-bound heiress, mistakes him for her long-missing brother, Heydon. This chance encounter spirals into a wild adventure when Bobbie’s mother, the formidable Miranda, recruits Lynch to impersonate her son to flush out his presumed killer. Honestly, this setup had me riveted—at first.
However, as I delved deeper into the narrative, I found myself struggling to connect with Lynch and the other characters. While Lynch's situation was compelling, I often sensed that his motivations and emotions weren’t fully fleshed out. The book shifts into a labyrinth of family secrets, lies, and dark forces lurking just beneath the surface, which ultimately made it feel overly complex for my taste. I found myself lost amidst the intricate dialogue and the convoluted web of character identities. It felt like I was trying to follow a plot that was intent on subverting my expectations at every turn, and not always in a rewarding way.
The book's pacing was another point of contention for me. After an engaging start, the story began to meander. There were several moments filled with exposition that distracted me from the main plot, such as extensive discussions about cryptocurrency that felt unnecessary and added to my frustration. While I appreciate a good mystery that challenges the reader, this one seemed to lose its way, and I found myself wishing for a tighter narrative that would highlight the key elements without extraneous detail.
Despite my struggles, I will say that Knox’s writing is solid, and his ability to weave tension into the later chapters was commendable. The last third of the book reeled me back in, culminating in an unpredictable ending that I genuinely didn’t see coming. There’s a cleverness in the title, “Imposter Syndrome,” that resonates throughout the narrative as the characters continually wear various masks, adding an intriguing layer of depth—if only I could have felt more invested in their journeys.
Overall, "Imposter Syndrome" had the potential to be a gripping psychological thriller, and though it delivered some unexpected thrills along the way, I ultimately felt more detached than engaged. For readers who revel in intricate plots filled with twists, this might be a rewarding read, but for someone seeking a more straightforward narrative or a connection to its characters, it may leave you feeling a bit lost, as I did. Sadly, it was not for me.

Action Fuelled..
Fast paced, action fuelled thriller. What happens when a conman goes rogue? This is dark, complex and thoroughly entertaining with a cleverly crafted plot, an array of eclectic and well penned characters and a pacy narrative. Twists and turns are plentiful throughout and are often unexpected and sometimes surprising. Shades of Highsmith.

A wild twisty ride. Burned out con artist Lynch escapes Paris for London, only to discover he's the doppelganger of a missing rich boy after literally running into his sister Bobbie. Lynch can't help get himself embroiled deeper and deeper in Bobbie's family's shenanigans. But who can Lynch really trust and are his instincts, finely honed from years of becoming other people, correct? And what is he running away from?

Joseph Knox has such a way of building this gnawing, growing, slow burn tension. Unfortunately I had to read this in small starts and stops as I think my mood was up for less tense tales. That said, this book is gripping and I couldnt help but root for Lynch, a very compelling character. Knox has such a way of creating anti-heroes. When we discover the real reason for his fleeing? Very human. Underneath it all this is a story about men and their lack of dealing with their emotions and who they are.

Thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers | Doubleday and NetGalley.

Devious and dark. When conman Lynch arrives in London on the run from events in Paris, he's penniless with only the cheap suit he's wearing. Bumping into wealthy Bobbie at Heathrow and being mistaken for her brother who disappeared 5 years ago involves Lynch in a never ending nightmare of events. A really good read. #netgalley #impostersyndrome

Thank you Net galley for the opportunity to read this book.

I did enjoy this book, the plot and interesting but yet confusing at the same time but I guess that’s a good sign of a thriller the unknown.

That being said Imposter Syndrome is also brilliantly clever – I had no idea where it was headed at any given moment and the characters were interesting, complex and very unpredictable

First book i have read from this author and looking forward to reading more

A taut, intriguing thriller from Joseph Knox's talented pen. Lynch has fled Paris, apparently from a con gone wrong. On arriving in London Heathrow, he bumps into a stranger and is swept into a new assignment and a major mystery to solve, with very real danger to himself. We find him moving in the secretive world of the super-rich, trying to discover what is true while staying alive

This is a wonderful, compelling read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

As a huge fan of the authors previous book True Crime Story, I couldn’t wait to get started on this.

Lynch is running away from something, we’re not sure what at the beginning, he bumps into a girl who’s brother went missing 5 years earlier to whom he bears a striking resemblance, he gets himself involved in a very complex web of deceit.

I found this book was very hard going, it felt very long and drawn out. I wasn’t invested in any of the characters so it didn’t really draw me in.

Although this wasn’t one of the best I’ve read this year, does it stop me wanting to read any future publications from Joseph Knox, absolutely not!

Lynch is a worn out con-artist who arrives back in London from misadventures in France. He happens to look like someone who has been missing presumed dead for several years,. This could prove useful, or so it seems at first. But sometimes first impressions count.
Clever and well paced thriller from Joseph Knox.

Con-artist Lynch takes a job impersonating someone who went missing five years ago, to help his family find out the truth about what really happened.

Imposter Syndrome is an outstanding novel and without a doubt one of my top books for 2024.

The more books I read, the more I find myself searching for something different or something new that turns a genre upside down. This story hit the mark perfectly. I've never read anything like it and I found it so unpredictable that it became an incredibly addictive read.

I loved that the story was told from Lynch's perspective and seeing his reactions as he was pulled further and further into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance. It was really nerve-wracking to follow because he had clearly become involved in a situation that was far more dangerous than he anticipated.

I would recommend Imposter Syndrome to absolutely everyone – you will love the brilliant writing and the twists and turns that the plot takes.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House UK for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

This was a pretty good thriller, but not at all what I expected. I liked our main character and thought the plot was quite interesting, but I got very confused at the end. It felt like a lot came at the end, which I know is the nature of these types of books, but it seemed a bit chaotic.

I read some of this via the ebook and listened to the rest on audio. The author narrates the audiobook and does an excellent job.

Overall, it was a decent read but not one I'd reread anytime soon.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC and Libro FM for the ALC

Joseph Knox book Imposter Syndrome had me really intrigued when I read the blurb. I really liked the storyline and was excited to read the book but unfortunately I don’t think this book was for me.

It starts off with a con artist Lynch escaping Paris and arriving in to the U.K. where he is approached by a heiress Bobbie in a case of mistaken identity. Turns out Lynch has a doppelgänger who is Bobbie’s brother Heydon who has been missing for 5 years and presumed dead.

After spending a night together, Bobbie tries to convince Lynch to go to her wealthy family home to fool her mother Miranda, At first Lynch thinks this is a crazy idea and it plays on his conscience but when he wakes up the next morning with a tattoo on his face, he has no choice but to go.

Miranda ends up hiring him to play Heydon to flush out Heydon’s killer. He seems interested in finding out what happened to Heydon and ends up getting so invested that he ends up facing life and death situations. What really happened to Heydon?

The book is written well but I struggled wrong relate to the characters and didn’t find them very likeable. I also struggled a little bit to keep up with what was happening. Maybe the book was a little too complex for me.

If you've ever read anything by Joseph Knox before, you'll know that one of the joys of reading his work is that there's no point trying to anticipate where the story is going to go. Every avenue you go down will open metaphorical doors to places you never knew existed, link to plot lines that will send you in entirely new directions, and uncover hidden layers where you thought there were solid floors. A clumsy metaphor as a way of trying to explain the head-spinning feeling of reading one of the most plot-twistingly devious books I've read in a long old while.

What do we know for sure?

Not a lot - our main man Lynch, a con artist, has arrived suddenly in London after fleeing Paris. He has nothing to his name but manages to befriend Bobbie, a rich heiress on her way to rehab. Bobbie mistakes Lynch for her long-lost brother Heydon, who hasn't been seen or heard for years. Heydon has a distinguishing feature of a broken heart tattooed on his face - and when Lynch wakes up in a hotel room, so does he. This sets him on a journey to find out what exactly is going on - a journey that will take us to some of the richest and most connected families in London, a number of businesses whose job is to keep people out of the limelight, some crypto-currency whizzkids and so much more besides.

This dark and devious crime thriller is such an engrossing ride, Lynch's ability to talk himself in and out of tricky situations is second to none, his skill at adopting new personas and new characteristics brings an additional layer of complexity (as if we needed more complexity!). I had no idea where the story was going to go, but trusted that Knox would bring it all together in his characteristic genius, with an ending that bamboozled me until the very last line.
Absolutely recommended -throw yourself into it and enjoy the rollercoaster.

Lynch is running from his past when a chance encounter at Heathrow brings him into contact with the Pierce family and the long lost son and brother Heydon.

The story rattles along but I was never quite sure what was going on as the plot became more convoluted, with bad guys around every corner and violence only a taxi ride away.

Knox’s work hasn’t yet reached the heights of the Aidan Waits trilogy but this is still an entertaining read.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for an ARC of #ImposterSyndrome.

An interesting mystery surrounding the disappearance of a man, the appearance of his doppelganger and a race for answers.

When reading g this book I would suggest taking notes, there are a lot of characters to keep track of, who is associated with who, and who is trying to kill who. I slightly lost interest about two thirds through as I wasn't following the 'tech' explanation and I was getting slightly confused with characters etc. However I'm glad I stuck it out and I enjoyed the ending.

Arriving in London from Paris with nothing, Lynch bumps into Bobbie at the airport. She mistakes him for her missing brother, Heydon, and gives him instructions on how to enter her wealthy parents home. This results in him impersonating Heydon in a bid to try and uncover what really happened when he disappeared.

There was quite a bit going on this book and a lot of stories & characters to follow. The writing style makes it easy to read but there are parts that were a little boring that I felt dragged a bit. I loved the main character, despite him having questionable morals. I was rooting for things to work out well for him.

I also enjoyed that you have to read till the very end for things to come together properly. Knox keeps you guessing up until the last page!

I enjoyed true crime story by this author and I loved thus especially after listening to him talk about the book at a book festival. He's a very interesting and funny man!

It starts in an interesting way with a con man accidentally getting into a situation with a wealthy heiress! There is plenty of intrigue, family secrets and lies. I thought it became rather complex, with lots of detail/dialogue about things couldnt follow (cypto currency) but the last third of the book got back on track. There was no way to predict the ending.

There were a lot of characters to keep track of and I wouldn't call it an easy read- it makes you think, but the title is really clever and everyone in the book appears to be an imposter of some kind!

A suspenseful action packed book that has so many twists and turns.
Reading it late at night was not the best for me as I found it harder to follow the various developments when I was tired. It was certainly not a predictable read and each new event led the main character deeper and deeper into the investigation of what happened twenty years ago and introduce him to some rather unsavoury characters. Who should he trust? - nobody!

A great read from the excellent Joseph Knox. Fast-paced, gripping and intriguing from the start. When a conman meets an heiress whose brother has been missing for years, he sees an opportunity for rich pickings. The rich panoply of characters can sometimes be a little baffling but the story keeps you hooked until the denouement.

Having read the premise of the book I was really looking forward to reading something a bit different from the norm and was excited to give it a go.

The start of the book had me hooked but I soon found myself lost in the story and found too many changes in the direction of story and the identity of the characters.

I was half way through by which point I had given up trying to figure what the hell was going on and even less interested in seeing it through.

Unfortunately I have really struggled to feel engaged but kept going to the end. Sadly it was a swing and a miss for me.

Disappointed in this after the excellent True Crime Story. Found the plot far-fetched and not very compelling. I hope Knox writes something else with an ‘oral history’ approach in future.