The Imposter

The Imposter's blurb about deceit, secrets and family dysfunction caught my attention. It is a great premise and I could envision the author's intentions with her plot and characters, but the delivery of these ideas fell short.

This psychological thriller had a muddled, choppy feel with most of the cast (besides Sibley's husband) being exceptionally unlikable. I get the whole unreliable character thing, but it was overdone here with both main characters having so many demons that the reader isn't sure what exactly is going on. It didn't help to clarify matters when Deborah's POV is told in the third person and Sibley's in the first-person.

There are some decent twists, long-held secrets, and major family dysfunction, but some of the plot points felt far-fetched and others not explained well, adding to that convoluted feeling. I believe the author was going for a story about these two women reconnecting despite their rocky past, but I never got the feeling that either of them really wanted to mend any fences.

This isn't the thriller I was expecting. It is more of a slow-burn dysfunctional family drama with a bit of mystery that had a persistent, depressing shadow lingering over everything. The Imposter had good bones and a decent final twist, but with its unlikable cast and disjointed telling, I never felt like I was in the middle of the suspense, but merely hearing about it second-hand.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this title by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Marin Montgomery

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: eBook from publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer

First Published: March 9, 2021

Opening Lines: Six months ago: Getting the mail should 

be an easy feat, except in this case, it's minus five degrees, 

and the blustery cold unavoidably renders Deborah's limbs numb.

Book Description from GoodReads: From the outside looking in, Sibley Sawyer has a perfect life. As a successful attorney, she’s worked hard to get to the top of her game—but when her personal and professional lives implode, Sibley looks for a way to turn the page.

Unable to shake the tragic circumstances that caused her to flee her rural Midwestern hometown, Sibley wants nothing more than to reunite with her estranged mother, Deborah, and bury their past tensions.

But as she reenters the life she left behind, she realizes her mother isn’t the same person she remembers, and she’s not the same daughter either.

As both women struggle to piece together a tangled web of deceit and lies, and the shocking circumstances that caused Sibley to leave in the first place, it becomes clear there are secrets rooted deeper than either mother or daughter could ever have imagined.

Can you really deceive your past and those around you?