The Imposter by Anna Wharton
A girl who went missing. A family who never gave up. A lonely young woman who only wanted to help . . .
Anna Wharton’s fiction debut, The Imposter, is a gripping story of obsession, loneliness and the lies we tell ourselves in order to live with ourselves . . .
Chloe lives a quiet life. Working as a newspaper archivist in the day and taking care of her Nan in the evening, she's happy simply to read about the lives of others as she files away the news clippings from the safety of her desk.
But there's one story that she can't stop thinking about. The case of Angie Kyle - a girl, Chloe's age, who went missing as a child. A girl whose parents never gave up hope.
When Chloe's Nan gets moved into a nursing home, leaving Chloe on the brink of homelessness, she takes a desperate step: answering an ad to be a lodger in the missing girl's family home. It could be the perfect opportunity to get closer to the story she's read so much about. But it's not long until she realizes this couple aren't all they seem from the outside . . .
But with everyone in the house hiding something, the question is – whose secrets are the most dangerous?
About the author.
ANNA WHARTON has been a print and broadcast journalist for more than twenty years, writing for newspapers including The Times, Guardian, Sunday Times Magazine, Grazia and Red. She was formally an executive editor at The Daily Mail. Anna has ghostwritten four memoirs including the Sunday Times bestseller Somebody I Used To Know and Orwell Prize longlisted CUT: One Woman’s Fight Against FGM in Britain Today. The Imposter is her first novel.
Review
When are you still thinking about a book and it’s character’s days after you have read it, you know it is a good one. ‘The Imposter’ is devilishly dark, completely entrancing and uncomfortable to read! Chloe has made me want to at times hug her, shake her and also want to run far away. The mental health aspects of this book have been brilliantly handled - it's clear the author has done her research.
Chloe works in the archives of her local paper, whilst also looking after her Nan who suffers from dementia. She is finding it hard to cope but although the social workers want to take Nan into care, Chloe is determined that she is going to stay at home. Chloe is also becoming slightly obsessed with a cold case she comes across in the archives. That of Angie Kyle, a five-year-old girl who went missing whilst at the swing park with her father. She gathers all the cuttings and even makes a ‘murder wall’ in the hopes that she can solve and return Angie to her parents. Bear in mind Angie went missing twenty years ago! When her Nan is finally taken into a nursing home and she ha faced with losing her home she finds serendipity has occurred. The Kyles, the parents of the missing girl, are looking for a lodger and Chloe decides to move in! What happens is spine-tingling uncomfortable the read at times!
Chloe as a character fascinates me. She exists in her own little world (disassociate disorder) and is desperately lonely. No one at her work pays her any attention, her mum has died, her Nan doesn't always recognise her and she seems to only have one friend. Having to cope with a relative who is ill is draining especially when it comes to dementia. Having someone you love who doesn't recognise you is harrowing and throws you out of kilter. You do become obsessed with distractions - for me, it was a boy, for Chloe it's the missing girl. The Kyles were also amazingly well-constructed characters. The parents who lost a child. One parent clinging to the past, the other wants to move on. Their reactions to the situation of having Chloe living with them were spot on. I couldn't not but have empathy for all of the characters in this book. They tug on your heartstrings. You feel all their pain and their hopes and desires.
This book is a brilliant psychological thriller that plays with your emotions. It's one that will stay with me for a long time!
