The Imposter by Anna Wharton Blog Tour

 Sometimes there is nothing better than reading a book that is surrounded in mystery, a real puzzle to solve. And that's exactly what I got when I was given the chance to join the blog tour for Anna Wharton's novel The Imposter.

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?

Now what's better than having a mystery to solve? Well having someone to solve it with of course. So for the purpose of reading this story, I asked the lovely Charlie to be my buddy and read it at the same time as me.

It made the book more exciting being able to discuss just what I was thinking as I turned the pages and gave me a different perspective on certain parts of the story.

The main protagonist is Chloe, who is a twenty nine year old woman, trying her best to keep her job as a newspaper archivist whilst also looking after her elderly Nan who unfortunately has dementia and her memory is continuing to decline.

My first thoughts were that Chloe seemed on the edge, as though she could snap at any moment due to the pressures she was feeling both from her occupation and the demands she was facing when returning home at the end of the day.

Things go from bad to worse when unfortunate events lead to her Nan being put in a home, resulting in the need for the family home to be sold to pay the upcoming fees.

You could understand why Chloe's emotions were all over the place.

Whilst this is going on, at work Chloe becomes rather fixated on an old police case of Angela Kyle, a four year old, missing since 1980. What starts as simply collating evidence turns into something much more obsessive. 

It's as though Chloe craves some sort of normality, like she missed out on a truly loving family when she was younger. Could this be what leads her to track down Angela's parents, Maureen and Patrick?

Now the book is called The Imposter, so in theory someone has to be the imposter don't they. The question is who? 

Charlie and I both thought it was obvious just where the storyline was taking us in the beginning. However Anna has managed to cleverly weave in plenty of mis-directions that kept us on our toes. All I can really say is that all is not as it seems.

There were many layers to The Imposter. Little side arcs running alongside the main story.

I will say, I didn't instantly connect with the characters but I feel like this was the authors intention because it made me think that each one was guilty, maybe not for the disappearance of Angela but perhaps accountable for events that came previously or followed on from that.

Manipulation, secrets and lies come together to make a spine-chilling and suspenseful novel.

And the ending, well it's worth reading just to reach that conclusion! I feel as though I need to re-read the book to look out for clues that I must have missed.

If you think The Imposter sounds like the book for you then you can purchase it here, if not please do follow the rest of the blog tour for more reviews and thoughts to tantalise you: