The Likeness: A Novel

The story we are supposed to believe here (SPOILER) is that a woman can take the place of a nearly identical victim and fool her close friends and housemates of a few years. Even if Cassie were Lexie's biological identical twin (she's not) how would she fool Lexi's friends? My bigger problem with the book is the author's flowery prose style. French really needs to edit her work and eliminate the 'bits that readers skip.' Her style seems unsuited to the crime genre, which generally favors terse writing with a lot of action. You'll find neither here. I've read the first two books in the series, and I've had it with the author. Not my cup of tea.

This book started out as maybe a two-star read if I were feeling generous, but as I kept turning the pages, it kept moving up the scale and, by the time I reached the denouement, I was finding it hard to put it down even for a minute or two.My first problem with the book was that its premise is just so unbelievable. It strays from the thriller concept straight into the fantastical world of science fiction.But as I got further and further into the plot, that ceased to bother me. The characters were so interesting that they moved the story along and built suspense until it finally reached the breaking point.That unbelievable premise, briefly, is this: Cassie Maddox, one of the detectives on the Dublin Murder Squad that we met in Into the Woods, has now moved on to Domestic Violence after the debacle of the Woods case. Her beloved but now estranged partner, Rob Ryan, was moved into a desk job.Even before she worked on the Murder Squad, Cassie had worked in the Undercover division. While there, she and her boss has created a persona for her called Alexandra (Lexie) Madison and she had worked undercover using that name.Now, Cassie is called to the scene of a murder in the countryside outside of Dublin where she finds Detective Sam O'Neill, another of her former colleagues on the Murder Squad and now her lover, and Frank Mackey from Undercover, the person who created Lexie Madison all those years ago.When Cassie is shown the dead body, she is shocked to see a woman who looks very much like her. The murder victim's name, according to her ID, is Alexandra (Lexie) Madison.It develops that this Lexie Madison was a Ph.D. candidate at the local university and she lived in a house in the countryside, near where she died, with four other Ph.D. candidates. She had lived with them for four years and they were all close friends, functioning very much as a family.Now Lexie is dead and the police have no clues as to the identity of her murderer.But Cassie looks SO much like Lexie that Frank Mackey, the undercover guy who has a streak of sadism, says why don't we keep her death a secret - just say she was injured - and then put Cassie in her place to play Lexie once again and flush out the murderer?And Cassie agrees to this!And all the four friends back at the big house, the friends who have known her for four years and know all of her quirks and habits accept her! They believe she is Lexie!Can you see why a reader might have a problem with this?This is a very strange and self-contained group of people who live in a very strange house and provide all of each other's needs for love and friendship and family. The group is not liked or accepted by their neighbors in the village. In fact, they are actively hated and are the victims of vandalism, graffiti, and intimidation. It's very much an us-against-them situation.Their group provides a feeling of belonging for these outsiders and outcasts. Even Cassie/Lexie finds herself seduced by the warmth of the group. There's nothing that really transcends that feeling, and as the story progresses, we see that that is what it is really about: Paradise found and, eventually, paradise lost.Tana French builds her story and the tension slowly and, up until late in the book, I was still very much in a quandary as to who killed Lexie. And, maybe even more importantly, who was Lexie?In the end, all - well, most anyway - is revealed and we are left wondering what Tana French is going to titillate us with next.

_The Likeness_ is French's second "Dublin Murder Squad" book ( In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, Book 1) ). Unlike most books in a series, you can read them out of order (I accidentally read the fifth book first), as French focuses on a different protagonist from within the squad for each story; while there are interrelationships and connections between characters, this isn't crucial to the plot of the book._The Likeness_ was, in a word, tremendous. The story begins with the discovery of a body. (Typical mystery fare, that.) What makes this murder unique - and what sets the story in motion, is that the corpse issuing the alias a former undercover cop (and former member of the Dublin Murder Squad member) used on a long-concluded investigation. The name was entirely made up. What is even more unsettling, is body itself is identical to the undercover cop herself. Hence the title. In order to solve the murder, the former undercover, Casssandra Maddox, goes undercover again - as the dead woman.While the story was a bit slow to start as French laid the foundation of the story, it gradually builds a head of steam as Cassandra slips into the life she originally created (and which was usurped by the unknown victim), literally working the investigation from the inside-out. The details of Cassandra's double (triple?) life were riveting, the suspects, motives and interactions between characters enthralling. French is a very talented writer. And while I congratulated myself on discovering the meaning of some of the clues, French still managed to trick me with the meaning behind the clues. I really enjoy it when an author outsmarts me, and French has done so twice. I can't wait to read her next work. For fans of mysteries or thrillers, this writer and this series will not disappoint.

I really did not enjoy this book at all. I found myself flicking through pages and being easily distracted as the plot meandered and became less creditable with every heavily-laden page.The characters were overblown and mostly unattractive and stodgy.I found Into the Woods more compelling in spite of it's most disappointing and very unsatisfactory ending.The writing is full of it's own importance and overly and unnecessarily heavy-duty. This book needed a really competent editor who could and would strip back and curtail, by means fair or foul, the verbiage in the undergrowth and the pretentiousness in the prose.An extremely disappointing, overlong and self-indulgent book, sad to say.

This book can be read as a stand-alone but follows very nicely on from In the Woods, the first novel of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The author’s voice remains the same and this is another tale told in the first person, only this time it is from the point of view of Detective Cassie Maddox.A man walking his dog finds a body and calls the police. The victim looks very much like Detective Cassie Maddox and she is persuaded to work undercover to find the killer.I liked the tension of this novel and what psychological effects working undercover had on Cassie. I liked the dynamics of Cassie living alongside the suspects and how she grew to like them, making you wonder about the Stockholm syndrome.As the story progressed I wondered who the killer was and if Cassie had been sent on a wild goose chase. I liked how the other detectives interviewed people and the games they played to wear suspects down. There were some nice rivalries explored between urban and rural people. The importance of having close friends and a secure home was given centre stage with a lot of philosophy to back this up.I liked the writing style of this novel, it was exactly the same as with In the Woods. Reading The Likeness straight after the first novel was very cosy for me. The change of central detective made no difference to me and I still felt part of the team. I found this novel very engaging and the story was great to run along with. For a crime novel, this was at the character driven end of the scale. Solving the case was not by specialist technical police work but by building strong relationships between people to understand what makes them tick.I got a lot of pleasure from reading The Likeness and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me. I think it would make a great television drama.

I loved the first book in this series so I was really excited to read The Likeness.I love the depth Tana French provides of her characters, particularly the protagonist of each book. I like the fact that whilst In the Woods focused on Rob and his past, The Likeness concentrated on Cassie and her past. Although the plot seemed to be quite slow, the tension gradually increased to an almighty climax at the end. The concluding chapter was particularly useful in that it explained who Lexie Madison actually was.I would recommend this novel, and its predecessor to those who enjoy slow crime thrillers that have an explosive ending. I will definitely be reading the next book in this series.

I loved Tana French's debut (In the Woods) but I felt this second book was a little self-indulgent in comparison. Both the premise and the prose were excellent, but the main character - Cassie - acted in unrealistic ways, especially compared with how French her painted in the previous book. Cassie's illogical actions drive the plot, so the reader is required to suspend their disbelief on a regular basis.

I found my second Tana French utterly immersive. The premise of the double is literally impossible but once that is batted out of the way by the assurance of the writing, I was hooked. Lost in the dangerous slippage between the dead victim's identity and the undercover detective who needs the opportunity to become someone else more than anyone knows..especially herself. Definitely more than a lurking hint of Donna Tarrt, but this works brilliantly on its own too. Sometimes needs override all detachment and sense and the detective Cassie finds herself by losing herself, realising everyone hides somewhere and even in someone. Unsettling, humane and I loved the final scene at the 'big' house. Excellent!