Imposter is my first book by Karen Fenech, it sure won't be my last.  Ms. Fenech has delivered a well-written book and loaded it with outstanding characters.  Eve is traveling with her business partner when he dies while driving.  As soon as the car comes to a stop a couple of CIA agents arrive and she is taken into custody.  John works for a special terrorism unit of the CIA and he believes Eve is involved in a terrorist plot.  John and Eve's story is loaded with drama, bits of humor, sexy bits, action and suspense.  I enjoyed reading Imposter and look forward to reading more from Karen Fenech in the near future.  Imposter is book 1 of The Protectors Series but can be read as a standalone.  This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

( was poring over my list and trying to figure out the discrepancies between here and goodreads.  One duplicate so far, and one that I managed to skip here it seems)

So who do I root for here - the h who comes across as somewhere between a total ditz and TSTL, or the H with what looks to be dodgy ethics?

And then there's the backstory which really is important but is mostly given in bits and pieces.

The h has an identical twin sister, you see. And this sister formed a relationship with the oldest son? of a prominent family, and got knocked up. Of course, the father to be got killed, and something caused her to decide someone was out to get her, so she ran. She called the h the day before the story began, asking her to come to this one-horse town. Then she bolted. The h showed up, got a panicky phone call from her, eventually telling her to go home. The H, meanwhile, has finally received a description of the missing person AKA the h's sister.

You know, if someone knocked on the door right after I'd received that phone call, I would not have answered the door. Cop or no cop (which the H is). But, the h answers, and proceeds to lie through her teeth, though not in any convincing way, and in such a manner as to make no sense whatsoever.

He requests she come to the station later. Instead of bolting, she does. Then he takes her car keys.

Eventually, he figures out she's not who she claims to be, storms in, and kicks the door down. (rental unit, btw).

Ok, this isn't a criminal here; it's a missing person. His constant demands for her to go in for questioning is...well, if she's missing in the first place, she must have a good reason. Why would a cop be confronting her like that? Especially if he thinks she's pregnant. And in any case, I don't think a missing persons report can be filed by just anyone, so what's the deal?

 

 

Who is Mike? is a short free mystery/thriller visual novel available for download here and on Steam. Gameplay is “choose your own adventure” style - you occasionally have the option of choosing between one of two responses. The Save slots are helpful, as is the “skip” feature.

You play as Mike. You wake up in your own home with an aching head and missing glasses. You’re confronted by someone who, once you find your glasses, turns out to be you. Or at least someone who looks exactly like you. Which one of you is the imposter and which one of you is the real Mike? What’s going on?

According to Steam I’ve played this for 1.3 hours. There are 9 endings and I’ve come across 7 of them. Even with the help of the official walkthroughs (which are really more advice than actual walkthroughs), I haven’t been able to get endings #7 and #8. I’m okay with that, though, and have decided to consider myself done with this visual novel. I at least managed to make it to the “good” (true?) ending.

Almost all of the endings are bad ones. You die, or Sarah, your girlfriend, kills the person who looks like you and you convince her that she’s done the right thing, or you manage to kill the other person but it’s not entirely clear whether you’ve made the right choice. Which ending you get depends largely on whether you opt to stay at the house or not and how often you tell Sarah the truth or lie to her during her efforts to figure out which of you is the real Mike. There are other things that come into play if you manage to make it to the route that has a chance of getting you to the one “good” ending.

I was able to easily achieve endings 4, 5, 6, and 9. These endings tell you almost nothing about what’s really going on, other than that it’s bad to leave the house. Sometimes you’re the real Mike, and sometimes you’re not. The thing that bugged me was how easily Mike managed to convince Sarah, a police officer, that they’d get past the events of the game and act like none of it ever happened. Even if Sarah was broken up about what she’d had to do and wasn't thinking straight at that particular moment, she’d used her gun, there was a body in the house that needed to be dealt with, and there were no explanations for why there had been two Mikes in the house. None of that stuff was just going to magically go away. Also, assuming that the facts presented in the “true” route applied to some of the other routes as well, even the best of the “you survive” endings would have turned out badly in a week or less.

I had to check the Steam discussions for hints on how to get to the story path that would take me to endings 1, 2, and 3. This was the path with actual info about what was going on. It was interesting, although a bit unsatisfying. Maybe the author was leaving room for a sequel? At any rate, I liked that the path to the “best” ending relied on both Sarah and Mike being observant and remembering details about each other.

The artwork was occasionally a bit sketchier than I prefer, but it worked okay for this. The music was okay and helped add to the mood. The sound effects could have used some work - the same sound was used whether Mike was hemorrhaging or suffering from a broken rib.

All in all, this freebie grabbed my attention enough for me to want to make it to the “best” ending, but the story was so-so overall and character reactions/responses didn’t always make sense. I didn’t have the willpower to try, one more time, to get endings 7 and 8, but I did resort to watching a Youtube playthrough of those endings, just to make sure I hadn’t missed out on any important details. Ending 7 provided a little extra info, while ending 8 was pretty worthless.

 

Rating Note:

 

I had a tough time rating this. I don't think it's a bad visual novel, and the fact that it's free is definitely a point in its favor. However, the overall package was a bit unsatisfying, and most of the endings didn't really add anything to the story. Although there were technically 9 endings, in terms of what they add to the game I feel like there were only really 4.

 

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) 

The Imposter by Judith Townsend Rocchiccioli is an impressive medical thriller of the highest quality. The author pulls out all the stops in this book #2 of her Alex Destephano series to create a grab-you-by-the-scruff-of-your-neck action thriller. The characters are brilliantly written to the extent they popped out of every page and the author used multiple POV to perfection never causing confusion.
Alex Destephano the hospital lawyer at Crescent City Medical Center once again has her hands full as a poorly run psych ward explodes into violence leaving the hospital at the mercy of massive law suits. Worse still, the staff are brutally attacked by a sexual predator of monstrous proportions. She and ace cop Jack Francoise must solve the attacks which escalate to murder before the hospital looses all credibility.
And as the hunt for the attacker proceeds so the psycho ups the ante and seems to be able to laugh in the face of his enemies. The descriptions of this monster are chilling in the extreme.
Again the author is superb at describing day to day hospital activities, police procedures and psychobabble and leaves this reader wanting more of the same. Thank goodness book #3 is available.
This FIVE STR medical thriller is an absolute must read and very highly recommended.

Judith Townsend Rocchiccioli’s book THE IMPOSTER takes place in New Orleans. As I got further into the story my vision of a happy party city changed to a murky and freighting one. There are horrible murders and attacks that leave the victims either unconscious by the way-side or they are left for dead. The Crescent City Medical Psychiatric Pavilion becomes the center of the investigations for a killer.

The heroine Alex Destephano is trying to uncover who is committing all those horrible crimes. The author seems to have either person experience in Clinical and administrative details or she has done extensive research about the Health Care Industry. She has developed a great group of very compelling characters and the plot moves easily and quickly. There is mystery, suspense and thrill in this story with many frightening moments as you move from page to page.

The author has done a great job in holding my attention from cover to cover. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves mystery, murder and thrill. Judith Townsend Rocchiccioli, Good job!!