"This book was not for me, admittedly. The book seemed promising with its setting in post-apartheid South Africa and the main character, Deidre, confronting her family's past. However, this doesn't really happen, nor does the subplot with her brother truly get brought up until you're about 68% into the book. Her brother's involvement in a pro-apartheid group was superficial at best and poorly handled (even if you try to throw in the topic of generational trauma, which also was superficial in this book). Nothing felt profound, especially because Deidre and almost everyone in this story are horribly unlikeable and unbearable, and the plot goes seemingly nowhere. There are also no consequences, so at a point, even our own character asks what the point of everything was.

Another issue I had with this book is the overt racism. Even taking into account the setting, story, characters, and more, it still feels so mishandled and problematic. It's even worse when you find out some of the characters helping Deidre (including her child) are black. While I will refrain from including quotes, I'm disappointed in the story."

"A con-artist, an heiress and a missing doppelgänger!

Con artist Lynch leaves Paris in a hurry. We’re not party to the reason he left in such a hurry - well not yet anyway. He arrives in London completely broke, no idea what he’s going to do, and then he gets talking to Bobbie. Heiress Bobbie is from a very wealthy family and has addiction issues. Her brother Heydon also had problems and went missing 5 years previously.

Bobbie can’t believe Lynch’s resemblance to Heydon, it’s uncanny how much he looks like him. She’s about to fly to the States for rehab, but she puts a curious idea to Lynch, and although it may seem lucrative for him, especially in his current situation, it will lead him into some very dark places and into a life and death situation.

This is a well written story and I wouldn’t expect anything less from Joseph Knox, however, I struggled to maintain interest in the plot which was very complex, and sadly I didn’t really care about any of the characters either. Will it put me off any of his future offerings? Absolutely not as I normally love his books.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest unbiased review *"

"The best fictional rendering on the page of Queensland's not so distant criminal past that I have read (admittedly, there is not a huge amount of competition, but, still). Very Strong on vibe, perhaps slightly less so on plot, but a great noir read nonetheless. Thoroughly recommended."