My thanks to NetGalley and PanMacmillan - Mantle, for the ARC.

This book's storyline is rather unusual and intriguing, one has to keep reading just to see how it all pans-out. However, I'm sorry to say that it felt too long and drawn-out.

Chloe is a 29yr-old archivist for a newspaper in Peterborough, preparing her paper-based filing system for transfer to digital (I think we're talking about 2004 here). She lives with her Nan who is suffering from dementia and she is caring a patient to the point of ignoring Social Services' requests to get her a place in a nursing home. She and Nan can cope - but can she? having to leave her workplace at odd times to look after Nan she's on fragile ground with her employer.. Chloe likes nothing better than to immerse herself in the lives of other people - those she comes across in her archivist's role, and becomes obsessed with the story of a 4yr-old girl who went missing 25yrs ago in a local park - Angie Kyle, to the point where she copies all the articles in the archive and fantasises about finding clues to her whereabouts that the police have missed - after all, the parents have given interviews every year since her disappearance, telling the world how they still wait for her to return home. Caring parents - people who have been absent in Chloe's life.
Nan does move into a nursing home, Chloe does lose her job. Then - by happenstance? whilst resolved to merely "look" at the remote house in the Fens to which Angie's parents have moved, finds herself as their lodger, and things begin to take very sinister turns.

Albeit, in my opinion, this was long-drawn-out, it is intriguing. Told entirely from Chloe's point of view the reader begins to understand her motivations - her scarred childhood - her obsession in needing to "belong" - to be part of a family. The only other person in her life who understands her is her friend Hollie.

If you dream of something often enough - you're bound to make it come true - aren't you?

Worth a read if you need a book to immerse yourself in, rather than looking for clues or thrills. Basically a sad tale of a young woman who has been searching for a sense of belonging all her life.

Chloe works as a newspaper archivist in London, cutting up newspapers and filing stories away in filing cabinets. Chloe loves her job, but in a world that is fast digitising, it is only a matter of time before meticulously cutting out paper stories and filing them away in brown envelopes becomes obsolete. It really doesn’t help that Chloe keeps having to disappear from the office to look after her grandmother, who is suffering from dementia and who Chloe refuses to put in a home – her nan is her only family, and Chloe refuses to abandon her.

One day, though, Chloe’s nan disappears while they’re on an outing together. Chloe is beside herself with panic, and while she waits for news on her grandmother’s whereabouts from the police, she throws herself into her work (which also helps stop her boss breathing down her neck because of all the time she has taken off recently). While she works, Chloe finds another missing-persons case that draws her in: a young four-year-old girl named Angela Kyle disappeared from a playground 25 years previously and has not been seen or heard from since. Chloe begins to dig a bit deeper and believes that she can help the Kyles find their lost girl. So, when Chloe sees a notice that the Kyles are looking for a lodger, she believes this is a sign and she decides to investigate from the inside.

To start, I think I can say that there was an awful lot going on in this book. It has a lot of depth to it, and to summarise the main points of the story as I did above is not easy. Anna Wharton has crafted a truly intricate, complex plot that plays out across her debut novel. However, all this being said, I think that the plot suffered from tremendous pacing issues. Very little happened in this book for the first approximately 30% of the book; then things kicked off and started moving. Unfortunately, things stagnated again at around the 50% mark, and struggled to get going again until about the 85% mark. All in all, I think the premise of the plot was engaging, but the execution was lacking and needed tightening up.

While I am talking about the plot, I think it pertinent to mention that one of the twists (I suppose you’d call it a twist, although perhaps it was just a plot device) was painfully obvious to me from the first time it was introduced. The final twist, however, flew in completely the opposite direction, and was so ridiculously far-fetched that it ruined the denouement of the book for me. Honestly, the final twist felt as if it had been thought of in the final edit stage and crammed into the book without worrying about adjusting the rest of the story to fit. This was a disappointment, as I thought the book would have been a fairly okay read otherwise.

Honestly, I feel harsh giving this book only 2 stars when my main issues with it were the pacing and the ending. This is compounded by the fact that I don’t think the writing was bad, and I did find myself interested in seeing what happened and how the book came together. However, the reason for my rating is that as much as I wanted to know how the book came together, the thought of picking the book up filled me with lethargy more often than not. The thought of slogging through chapters where nothing seemed to happen, or where we were subjected to another scene of Chloe’s nan forgetting who she was and Chloe feeling emotionally fragile as a result (there were loads of these scenes peppered throughout the book – more than I think were necessary to get the point across), just made me tired, and I found myself glazing over in some chapters as I worked my way through the book.

On the whole, I think the book was, quite simply, okay. I have read psychological thrillers that far outrank this and which are much more engaging and enjoyable. I think Wharton has promise, and I would be interested to see what she writes in the future, but this book – much like Chloe’s newspapers – needed to be dissected and analysed more carefully to make it tighter, better-paced and more consistent overall.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mantle (of Pan Macmillan) for the ARC in exchange for a review.

Well, for a debut novel I am shook. Honestly this was a fast paced, electrifying novel that honestly left me second guessing everything!
I went into this book thinking it was going to be one thing and it definitely turned out to be something completely different and I really enjoyed this.

What did I like?
- First of all, Anna’s writing style is great and I was sucked in from the first chapter. She captured the characters very well and I honestly felt immersed in the storyline. I really liked how unreliable our protagonist is and how I equally wanted to shake her and like her all at the same time.
- I thought the mystery element was done well and there was a certain build up that really worked. I do wish maybe we got some flashback scenes or some scenes from Maureen or Patrick’s POV as I feel this would have fleshed the book out a lot more. I felt the story, however, was strong and the ending honestly had me screaming!
- I liked the pacing and thought the story flowed well. We got to see Chloe’s mind in lots of depth and I felt a weird understanding towards her character.

Overall, this is definitely a great debut from an author I’d definitely read from again!
I received this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Chloe is a 29-year-old newspaper archivist who becomes fascinated by the story of a 4-year-old girl who disappeared in a local park in the 1970s and was never found. The fascination becomes an obsession and Chloe starts to stalk the family involved.

I thought the premise of the book was good, but I kept getting hung up on details. How is the rural bus service in Cambridgeshire so frequent and reliable? Chloe doesn’t ever seem to be worried about money, why not? Why does everyone drink so much tea (but never coffee)?

A quick and easy read with some flaws, but otherwise enjoyable. Three stars from me.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing a review copy in exchange for honest feedback.

I don’t usually give out half star ratings for books but I think The Imposter fell squarely within a 3.5* for me. I had spent the majority time whilst reading the book thinking it would be a 3* review but the ending pulled it up for me.

I liked the premise of the plot and the missing person’s case reminded me a lot of Madeline McCann with a 4 year old child going missing and suspicions fired on the parents. There’s even reference to ‘Cloth Cat’ in the book which is a mirror of ‘Cuddle Cat’ in the Madeline investigation. Bringing in a character like Chloe who wanted to get close to the family and solve the mystery was a really interesting idea.

The book fell down in a few areas for me and the first was pacing. The first half is incredibly slow, the first 100 pages are exposition and set up which could have easily been edited down by almost half. Exposition in this way works well for an epic fantasy where the world building in essential but there is nothing too important or complex in this story to warrant it. The set-up is actually only there to reinforce the impact of the twist ending but the payoff is way too late in this case and it loses the reader’s interest right from the start. Chloe only meets the Kyles and moves in around the 50% mark which is a long way into the book, especially as at over 400 pages it’s quite a lengthy read.

Another problem was Chloe as a main character. I love the idea of an unreliable narrator or someone not necessarily nice or good but in this instance it didn’t sit well. Chloe doesn’t seem to have any redeemable features – she’s confusing and makes a lot of really stupid decisions which I spent a lot of time yelling at my Kindle about. This gives the reader no-one to empathise with, particularly as the only other characters are Hollie, who Chloe dislikes, Nan who lives in the past and the Kyles who have plenty of mystery of their own. I know that when using unreliable narrators it’s very hard to prevent it from just becoming frustrating for the reader – you want to tread the line between mysterious but with enough intrigue that they keep picking up the book to find out more. The Imposter unfortunately felt more frustrating than intriguing and we knew that there was a wider angle at play but were prevented from learning more about it until the twist reveal at the end. I did like the twist though and this is what pulled up the star rating for me although it did leave me with more questions than it answered.

Overall, The Imposter was a frustrating read which needed some ruthless editing to make it a snappier and punchier story. Thank you to NetGalley & Pan MacMillan – Mantle Books for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is quite difficult to review; there are certain parts that I liked and parts I really didn't! I found the beginning very slow and repetitive and there were certain parts that were completely unbelievable. I did enjoy the twist at the end and it explained a lot of Chloe's behaviour, I definitely didn't see it coming and I thought I had it all figured out part way through.

I started this book a couple of times before I bit the bullet and read it in it's entirety. This is not a comfortable read. I found it tense and anxiety provoking. Quite a few times I wanted to walk away as I felt so concerned about Chloe and what she was doing, the choices she made and the risks along the way.. (I should add here that I have been known to leave a cinema mid-film when I couldn't cope with the stress!) I am glad I persevered however and that I saw it through to the end. It was well written and achieved what was promised. I think there will definitely be an audience for this clever book - it was probably not written for someone like lily-livered me though.
Thank you to Anna Wharton, her publishers and #Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of #TheImposter I happily give it a good 4 stars.

Chloe is twenty nine and works for a newspaper archive, whilst also.looking after her Gran who has dementia....that is until she gets sacked for timekeeping and taking a file home with her.
Whilst she is going through the cuttings for the archive she becomes obsessed with one particular story about a young girl who went missing and would now be the same age as Chloe - this is the file she takes home.
Chloe decides she wants to solve the case and find out what happened to Angie all those years ago, is she still alive somewhere or is she dead?

After getting to the ending of this book you can't help feeling sorry for Maureen and Patrick and that Chloe is psychologically disturbed, obviously needing some form of specialist couselling/ therapy. But maybe you can pick your family after all!!

Many thanks to Net galley for sending me a copy of this in exchange for an honest revirw . I will definitely be recommending to friends and family.

Chloe is a 29 year old young woman struggling with managing both her job and looking after her grandmother who is suffering with dementia. As she works in the archive section of a local newspaper she becomes obsessed with the story of a young girl Angie who went missing over 20 years ago from a local playground when her father who had taken her there went to check he had locked the car door. Chloe then becomes totally embroiled in wanting to get to the bottom of the mystery putting her job at risk and not coping with her grandmother’s increasing deterioration.
This story turned out to be much more twisted than I expected, when I first started to read I found the book a little slow and wondered where it was going but as it progressed I found myself becoming more and more involved in the storyline and finished it in just over a day.
A book I enjoyed, the ending was a satisfying one, well crafted and unexpected and for me a good 3 star read.
My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan, Mantle for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The premise of this book was good, focused around dangerous obsessional behaviour, but I’m sorry to say that this one wasn’t for me.

The book moved very slowly, with characters that were neither likeable or believable. I found the main character. Chloe, irritating, content to live a grey bleak life as she became obsessed with a past news event. In the end I found myself ploughing through rather than enjoying the ride.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I quite enjoyed this book but felt there was nothing much to make it stand out from the psychological thriller crowd. My rating therefore reflects the fact that I would struggle to know who to recommend it to or how. I started off being quite interested in the premise but I quickly guessed what was going on with Chloe, as well as the misdirect related to the missing girl's family. The writing was competent but not amazing.

The Imposter gave me the chills! I started reading and quickly started feeling sorry for Chloe.. She's losing her Nan to dementia, having to sell Nan's house to pay for the care home, which will make her homeless, and she's sacked from her job! I thought I had it all worked out. By the finish I had Chloe down as crazy, all sympathy gone. The ending just floored me.
Thanks to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this book.

I am lucky enough to read so many good books and give them 5 stars and they all genuinely deserve them but every so often a book comes along that is just that little bit more, and this book is one of those. It’s hard to describe why I feel that way but sometimes that’s just the way it is. And this book just has that little something extra about it in the writing, in the characters and in the story. This is a truly brilliant psychological thriller, and an amazingly accomplished debut novel. It is a seriously all immersing book that pulls you in and once you join Chloe’s World you won’t be able to leave until the end. This story is about love, loss, obsession and loneliness, and will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. This book was like reading Before I go to Sleep and The Girl on The Train for the first time. I can’t sing it’s praises enough.

Don’t know what to say really, got 11% in and couldn’t continue. The writing style was not my cup of tea, just felt a bit uninspired.

This one wasn't for me, which isn't to say it isn't good or is badly written, just that it wasn't to my taste. I have to say, as she got more involved with the family there was definitely a sense of menace so will be enjoyed by others, I am sure.

I couldn't warm to the main character who seems to wallow in her routine and grey life. Whilst clues were given I didn't 'get' the obsession and ultimately would have preferred the end to be more open ended.

Thus said I finished it and do not regret reading it. It IS a great description of obsession but not for me.

I enjoyed this book
Thought the story was quite different and unusual
It has plenty of twists and turns and had no idea where it is going
Did not expect the ending - thought the twist was clever

Thank you netgalley, Anna Wharton and Pan McMillan for allowing me to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed this book! It was full of twists and turns and a very unpredictable ending! Unfortunately, I didn't warm to the MC, but that being said I still enjoyed this book! Would recommend!

I enjoyed this unusual tale of Chloe who, while working in a newspaper archive, becomes fixated with the unsolved case of a couple whose 4-year-old daughter, Angie, went missing 25 years ago. She becomes a lodger in their home with the intention of finding out what happened. Meanwhile, Chloe is losing her grandmother to dementia and the overriding emotion of Chloe and Angie's parents is grief.

I didn't warm to Chloe but she is an interesting character who makes some decisions which, frankly, made me squirm. However, this does not detract from the mystery she is trying to solve and the ending is unexpected and one I did not guess.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I will start with saying I loved this book so much a great start to 2021!

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this in exchange for an honest review. Chloe is a 29 year old woman living with her Nan who sadly has dementia. She is working in a newspaper archive when one day a story catches her eye and she has to know more resulting in her lodging with a middle aged couple who lost their 4 year old daughter over 25 years ago. As the story unfolded I was convinced I knew the outcome but boy was I wrong and not in a bad way, I loved seeing it play out the characters where great and such an easy read I finished in a couple of days! Highly recommend cant wait to see what the author writes next.