Book Review: Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox
By Doreen Sheridan
February 3, 2025
The con artist known as Lynch is almost at the end of his rope when he literally stumbles into a young woman in the lobby of a London airport hotel. The black-clad heiress stares at him with a horror incommensurate with their collision. Turns out that Lynch, to the surprise of them both, is the spitting image of Bobbie Pierce’s missing older brother Heydon.
For a split second, Lynch is tempted to go with it, but something about her sheer level of emotional investment warns him off of attempting the con. Bobbie, being an underemployed young socialite about to be exiled to rehab in California, is persistent in seeking out his company though. Even after he convinces her that he’s not Heydon, she insists on spending time with him, telling him all about Heydon’s disappearance five years ago. One thing leads to another and the next thing Lynch knows, he’s waking up in a hotel room with a small but noticeable tattoo: the exact same broken heart at the corner of his eye that Bobbie had once given to Heydon.
Naturally, he’s furious. Life as a con artist is difficult enough without such an obvious distinguishing characteristic. A contrite Bobbie, already on the way to the US, tells him to break into her wealthy family’s home to grab some cash out of their safe in recompense. She even gives him the passcodes and tells him where to find the key. This, of course, seems far too much like easy money. If Lynch weren’t so hard up, he might steer clear of the entire setup. Desperation drives him to visit the family manor anyway.
He’s thus not terribly surprised to be discovered by the Pierces’ private security services after having roamed the empty mansion for a bit. What does surprise him is the proposition that the family matriarch subsequently makes him. Legendary actress Miranda Pierce is willing to pay him a very generous sum to keep impersonating Heydon, in hopes that it will help the family find her vanished son:
[“]All conventional means at my disposal have brought me bitter disappointment. You might be the one person in this world who can help.”
She says this with dignity, while looking me in the eye, but it’s clear how much it costs her to ask. That, more than anything else, convinces me that this really is some kind of last resort.
“Miranda,” Reagan says, turning to her mother and talking quietly. “Perhaps we should discuss this…”
“This is a bad guy, with a capital buh,” Mike goes on, becoming exasperated. “In the cold light of day–”
Miranda snaps. “I’ve come to the conclusion that the kinds of people we’re dealing with aren’t afraid of the daylight, Mr. Arnold. If they were, then perhaps you’d have had some success.”
Wary but motivated, Lynch takes on the role and readies himself to meet with one of the people last known to have seen Heydon before his disappearance. As Lynch does so, however, he finds himself becoming strangely invested in what happened to the other man. Prior to vanishing, Heydon had talked about being constantly followed and watched, which everyone around him had put down to a paranoia related to his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. But what if someone really had been out to get him? Could that someone decide now that Lynch ought to disappear too?
Twisty and almost hallucinatory, Imposter Syndrome is a tightly wound ball of mysteries all tangled up in one another. Joseph Knox smoothly unravels his plot threads as the book plays out, expertly weaving in modern technology and dilemmas with age-old motivations and secrets. Frankly, his choice to write a detective noir with a con artist protagonist is inspired. Lynch is a terrific creation, knowing but wounded, and going through a crisis of his own when his path crosses with the Pierces’:
Walk into someone’s life with the right energy, a convincing enough smile, and you might leave with something. But, if you want to get away with it, you’ll be on your own. In the end, you’re supposed to be.
If you steal from people, you spend your whole life watching them, looking for patterns and missteps. You can get so hung up on their failures that you don’t even notice yours. I think that’s what I like about it. That’s why Clare had to go. She saw things she shouldn’t have. And things in me I didn’t see in myself.
While the setting is entirely contemporary, the mood is a perfect fit for the broody noir subgenre, with a dogged, enigmatic narrator who can’t seem to pull himself away from the Pierces or from this quixotic quest for the truth. Perhaps he’s only doing it to run away from his own problems. Regardless, it’s deeply satisfying to solve the book’s many mysteries alongside him.