Impostor

• Author: LJ Ross
• Genre: Mystery
• Publication Date: February 3, 2026 
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Series: Dr. Alex Gregory #1

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There’s a killer inside all of us…

After an elite criminal profiling unit is shut down amidst a storm of scandal and mismanagement, only one person emerges unscathed. Forensic psychologist Doctor Alexander Gregory has a reputation for being able to step inside the darkest minds to uncover whatever secrets lie hidden there and, soon enough, he finds himself drawn into the murky world of murder investigation.

In the beautiful hills of County Mayo, Ireland, a killer is on the loose. Panic has a stranglehold on its rural community and the Garda are running out of time. Gregory has sworn to follow a quiet life but, when the call comes, can he refuse to help their desperate search for justice?

Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst the spectacular Irish landscape.

Ross is an established author in the police procedural subgenre, yet this is my first foray into her work. It couldn’t have come at a better time, with this book kicking off a new series. I was really excited about this one, and couldn’t wait to get lost in the dark secrets among the green hills of Ireland. 

Dr. Alexander Gregory is a forensic psychologist who works with those deemed ‘criminally insane.’ It’s a much quieter existence than his previous work as part of an elite criminal profiling unit, but he was happy with quiet after barely escaping the tinge of scandal. Besides, he seems to have a knack for working with this population, and really finds meaning in his work. 

All that is upended, as he is called to help a small rural community that experienced a murder. Despite his vow to stay out of the spotlight, he doesn’t have it in him to refuse to help a community rocked by violence. Over the course of the story, we learn a little more about Alex, and I found it fascinating to read about his approach to people of all types, whether it is a child, a man, a woman, or an elder, but especially when he’s dealing with someone who has committed a crime due to mental illness.

 I admire that he hasn’t become jaded yet—working with the mentally ill can be both rewarding and draining, with an awareness of how people on the more severe spectrum of mental illness tend to be less compliant with treatment, and thereby mental health workers trying to help people make positive changes in their lives often work with someone without seeing measurable progress. That doesn’t mean they can’t make progress, it just means they aren’t making progress at the moment, and a different approach might help more. In my professional life, I worked as a mental health counselor to people who had severe mental health disorders, and have seen how hard it is to maintain hope. Yet Alex manages to remain hopeful that everyone can succeed, while guardedly managing his expectations and hopes.

Having a background in the mental health field, I appreciated that the author really chose to portray Alex as an intelligent, ethical, and knowledgeable practitioner. There was a lot of use of de-escalation techniques in the story, as he inevitably faces pushback from his own patients and the two law enforcement officers who live in the town and are sons of the town’s mayor. 

As for the story, Ross weaves a twisty, dark, and shocking thread into the fabric of Ballyfinny, Ireland. The crime itself is a jarring one, and it’s understandable how it impacts all of the town’s characters. Niall and Connor Byrne, the mayor’s sons and Garda officers, are convinced that no one in the town could have been the one behind this heinous crime. Alex isn’t so sure, with the meticulously staged crime scene and awareness with the family’s habits, and thinks it would have had to be someone who is a face so familiar that it hardly registers.

When it comes to the people of the town, anyone and everyone could be a suspect, and the town has come to a standstill on the investigation. They seek the assistance of Alex in developing a profile, and he grudgingly agrees to help. There’s also a reminder that there’s nothing to replace good old-fashioned detective work, and how even if the profile can give them a direction to search, they shouldn’t let themselves be blinded to other suspects that don’t quite fit the profile, which is intended solely as a guide. 

So many of the townspeople are potential suspects that it is no surprise that there are a bunch of red herrings convincingly woven through the story. I had made a lot of guesses about who the killer was, and literally none of them turned out to be correct. The story is fast-paced, but the ending picks up the pace significantly. There are short chapters that read quickly, and it was difficult to put this down. 

Overall, this is a fantastic start to a new series, and I already can’t wait to get my hands on the next book. As soon as it’s available, at least. In the meantime, I am planning to dive into Ross’s backlist. Fortunately, there is a good number of books to keep me busy until Dr. Gregory returns. I really liked how well talk therapy and mental illness are portrayed in the story, with Gregory always working to maintain the humanity and potential capacity for change that his patients have within them. Additionally, the atmospheric rural setting and occasional snippets from the POV of the killer had me glued to the pages and looking up how much it costs to vacation in Ireland, although hopefully no murders. The hidden depths of the main character give insight into how he is able to do what he does, and the cost it has for him. Despite his standing as a respected forensic psychologist and profiler, he continues to experience impostor syndrome. That plays into his own emotional response to the events in the Irish countryside and the subtly increasing tension throughout the story even when contrasted with a little dark humor. If you like authors like Helen Fields, Karin Slaughter, Joshua Moehling, and Patricia Cornwell, this is right up your alley.

Bottom line: This is an exciting and reflective start to a new police procedural, set in a small town full of secrets, featuring a cast of complex characters and an even more complex profiler.

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