About the Author
Leona Deakin draws inspiration for her writing from her own experiences having started her career as a psychologist with the West Yorkshire Police and her successful work in psychology since. Leona was part of a team responsible for designing methods of selection for recruiting and promoting officers from PC to Chief Superintendent.
Her role was to create realistic policing scenarios - from personnel issues to large scale incidents (plane crash, terrorist bomb etc) – that could be used to test leadership skills. To do this she spent a great deal of time interviewing and observing officers at various ranks and reviewing cases. This gave Leona an insight into the police culture that helps her to write authentic character interactions in her novels.
Leona is now an occupational psychologist and lives with her family in Leeds. She has written four novels in the acclaimed Dr Augusta Bloom series: Gone, Lost, Hunt and The Imposter. Follow https://twitter.com/LeonaDeakin1 on Twitter
The Imposter is the fourth gripping thriller by Leona Deakin with a truly brilliant, mind-bending twist! While each of Leona's thrillers can be read as a standalone, The Imposter delivers all the pace, plot and expert psychological insight that her devoted fan base have come to expect.
Dr Bloom is faced with her most challenging case yet as she races to catch a highly unpredictable murderer in London. He doesn't just want your identity. He wants your life... - No one sees him coming.
A stock-market trader is pushed from a high-rise balcony and falls to his death on the street below. The only clue the police can find is a box of matches. - No one survives for long. The decomposing body of a member of the Saudi Royal Family is discovered in a car. Evidence suggests the killer took the man's life, then stole his identity, wore his clothes and lived in his hotel room - before vanishing into thin air like smoke.
Nothing but matchsticks are left behind. - Dr Bloom realizes the only thing linking these murders is a trail of burnt matches and broken lives. Time is running out - and if she isn't careful, she might be the next to burn ...
This is the fourth book in the Dr Bloom series, and despite recurring characters and certain sub plots, they can be read as standalone novels. I think it makes the series a wee bit more enticing. You can read the rest of the series because they are good books, and you get the gist of the underlying tension and manipulation between Bloom and Seraphine, but you can equally discover and enjoy each book individually without thinking you are missing out on a part of the story.
In this book Bloom is brought in, not because there has been a sequence of peculiar deaths or alleged accidents that suggest a third party is enjoying a masquerade process before killing them. Bloom is there because Seraphine appears to be part of the bigger picture, and she knows exactly how she ticks.
Is it bad that I really enjoy Seraphine? Her character is written in a way that makes her pathology, her intelligence and the ability to stay ten steps ahead of everyone around her quite intriguing. The character you know is capable of anything without feeling an inch of remorse, and yet as a reader you're still quite invested in whatever dangerous mischief she may get up to.
It's also an interesting way to drive a double thread plot. You pay attention to one but are also looking over your shoulder for the variable that is at best manipulating the scenario and at her worst she is directly involved and has her wicked fingers in all the pies - just for the fun of it.
Buy The Imposter at Amazon UK. Publisher: pub date 24th November 2022 | Paperback Original | Penguin (Transworld) | £7.99 - Ebook available from 3rd November 2022. Buy at Amazon com.
