Seven top novels featuring imposters among us

Allison Buccola is the author of The Ascent and Catch Her When She Falls.

She has a JD from the University of Chicago and lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and their two young children.

[Q&A with Allison Buccola; The Page 69 Test: Catch Her When She Falls; Writers Read: Allison Buccola; The Page 69 Test: The Ascent]

At CrimeReads Buccola tagged "seven books that play with identity in a variety of fun ways and feature some of the different types of imposters that appear in thrillers." One title on the list:

Trust Issues (Elizabeth McCullough Keenan and Greg Wands): The Black Widower.

One specific—and deeply troubling—type of con artist is the black widow or widower. In Elizabeth McCullough Kennan and Greg Wand’s Trust Issues, influencer Hazel and food photographer/party boy drug dealer Kagan Bailey were both counting on a sizable inheritance when their mother died. They’re shocked to learn that she left them nothing but money for rehab, and the siblings begin to question whether their mother’s new husband is as harmless as he seems. The black widower often takes advantage of preexisting tensions in the family—and dysfunctional family dynamics abound here, with Succession-like tension between the siblings.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue