Anna Wharton's debut, The Imposter, is a spine-chilling thriller about obsession, loneliness and the lies we tell ourselves . . .
What if the life you wanted wasn't yours to take?
The lives of others have always fascinated newspaper archivist Chloe. And when she comes across a cutting of a little girl who went missing twenty-five years ago, Chloe is moved by the unwavering devotion of the child's parents and their unshakeable belief that their daughter will one day return. The more Chloe reads, the more she becomes seduced by the mystery surrounding little Angie Kyle's disappearance, especially when she realises that they would now be the same age. If Angie had been found, that is . . .
Meanwhile, news that her beloved Nan, the only family she has left, must move into a nursing home leaves Chloe distraught and soon to be homeless. So when the missing girl's parents advertise for a lodger, Chloe sees this as a sign – a new home and the perfect opportunity to unearth further details of the case. Yet as she quietly investigates the unsuspecting couple, it seems that the Kyles have more secrets than she anticipated. Will she use the lies of others to bind herself to the family she's always wanted or will the past refuse to stay buried forever?
Appealing to fans of Renee Knight and Emma Healey, The Imposter is an intelligent, fresh, unsettling psychological thriller with a unique twist. 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. The Imposter follows lonely newspaper archivist Chloe Hudson as she becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a little girl, and the family who never stopped missing her . . .
