Thriller set mainly in County Mayo

11th February 2020

Impostor by L J Ross, thriller set mainly in County Mayo.

Meet L J Ross’s new protagonist, Dr Alexander Gregory, who is a forensic psychologist working in South London. This is the start of a new series featuring the good doctor and make a change in scenery and character from the author’s hugely popular DCI Ryan series set around the North East (but expect more DCI Ryan in the coming months, he has not gone AWOL!).

Dr Gregory is in his London office, working in the unit with a woman who has killed 2 of her 3 children and he spends time with her, trying to unravel her psyche and reasoning. The call comes in for him to attend a murder investigation in County Mayo, where Claire Kelly, a young mother, has been murdered by a stab wound straight to the heart. She has then been laid out in her young daughter’s bed, cuddling a toy. Dr Gregory has been invited in but he not only has to work out the MO of the perpetrator but also has to carefully negotiate hostility amongst the locals, as of course he is an incomer. Two stepbrothers are the police offers running the case. What are the chances of that? But the questions remains, what can he possibly do that they cannot do themselves? He is a skilled and experienced profiler, that’s what.

Claire Kelly’s funeral comes and goes and as he makes his way around the locality we get a peek at this slightly tortured man who, it seems, suffers from impostor syndrome. Is he good enough, really, to be called in as an expert in the case, when those around him have failed? Nightmares and torments plague him but these all build up the flawed, (and needless to say, good looking, with green eyes) character who is quietly being introduced to his readers. He is “a healer first and foremost… not a red blooded man like any other”.

He returns from his first stint in fictional Ballyfilly, only to be notified of a second killing and it is more than clear that he has a serial killer on his hands. He now has to work against time as he just knows that another murder is likely to happen soon.

This is a nicely plotted thriller that smoothly transports the reader through to the concluding scenes.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

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