The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad)

by Tana French

Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to deal with the events of In the Woods. She is out of the Murder Squad and has started a relationship with fellow detective Sam O'Neill but is too badly shaken to commit to Sam or to her career. Then Sam is allocated a new case, that of a young woman stabbed to death just outside Dublin. He calls Cassie to the murder scene and she finds the victim is strangely familiar. In fact, she is Cassie's double. Not only that, but her ID says she is Lexie Madison the identity Cassie used, years ago, as an undercover detective. With no leads, no suspects and no clues, Cassie's old undercover boss spots the opportunity of a lifetime: to send Cassie undercover in the dead girl's place. She could pick up information the police would never hear and tempt the killer to finish the job. So Cassie moves into Whitethorn House, poses as a post-grad student, and prepares to enter Lexie's world.

• ISBN10: 1436228298
• ISBN13: 9781436228299
• Publish Date: 17 July 2008 (first published 12 June 2008)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Viking Books
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 480
• Language: English

Reviews

This was my first Tana French book and I loved it. I was told I didn't need to start at book #1 in this series and they were right but now I want to go back and start at one and keep going. The characters were interesting and I thought the plot was original even though this would never happen in real life but it's fiction. I enjoy a good psychological thriller/murder mystery.

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

This book was wonderful. Every time I opened it I felt like I just fell right through the pages to stand next to the characters. I felt like I could hear the music, taste the wine, feel the sun and rain. The mystery was there but not overly present, if that makes sense. It drove the story but that wasn't the sole focus.

Go. Get it. Read it. Then come back and tell me thank you.

[sarahjay]

I don't really know how to describe this other than to say it was a tangible, breathtaking experience. You read it and the world grows up around you until you forget it's not actually happening to you. You feel every single thing that happens with your whole heart.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Cassie Maddox is back, and on the case of the murder of Lexie Madison a clone of Cassie herself. The Dublin Murder Squad is certain that it is one of Lexie's housemates, informing them that she was wounded not murdered, giving Cassie the chance to go undercover.

All of Lexie's roommates were creepy, Abby appeared to know more than she lets on almost acting like a know-it-all Donna Reed, keeping everything orderly, watching all her ps and qs. Justin, is a squirrely little thing, jumping at the slightest noise and willing to please. Raphael, really fades into the background, and sometimes I forgot he was there, popping back up like an aberration. And Daniel, the mastermind of them all and has a very disturbing quality about him, being calm as a cucumber under pressure.

Cassie does an outstanding job of cat and mouse until she literately eats an onion, and like the stench I detest her undercover goes downhill, with both Cassie's persona and her friends starting to unravel like a ball of yarn.

Like French's In the Woods, The likeness was a cool, clever, and thought out murder mystery. I really thought I had it figured-out from the beginning, as Daniel is eerie like Norman Bates, therefore it must be him. Wrong! Tana French is a mastermind for playing with your head and developing alarmingly dimensional characters.

Cassie Maddox was one of the things I liked best about In the Woods and was thrilled that she came back on her own. She is an outstanding female lead who can stand on her own and take care of herself, despite her "traumatic" past, in a sense she reminds me a little of Lisbeth Salander, a character who I bitterly cried over at the end of The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest knowing she would never be written about again. Therefore, I was tickled to have a second chance with Cassie, even if it was only for a little while.

[ibeforem]

When I first found out that The Likeness would feature Cassie as the main character, I admit I was a bit disappointed. "But I don’t care about Cassie!" I whined. "I want to know what happens with Rob!" It took no more than a chapter for me to realize how wrong I was.

The premise of the novel is unusual but intriguing. What are the chances that a girl will turn up dead that not only looks like she could be your sister, but is using an identity that you made up? Cassie is originally resistant to the idea that she take Lexie’s place and step into her life in order to find out who her killer was, but it doesn’t take much to convince her. She’s just been biding her time in Domestic Violence since the end of In the Woods, and the spice has been sucked from her life. The trick is, pretending to be someone who existed, someone with friends and responsibilities and a life, is a whole lot different than pretending to be someone entirely new.

When I think about it, I haven’t read many books that feature undercover work, and that’s a shame. I thought it was exhilarating, not only for Cassie but for the reader. It raises the suspense level like nothing else, because the most innocuous situation could become a disaster with just one wrong word. Her housemates are wonderfully written, almost maddening in their peculiarities, and you know right away that there is something beneath the surface that you’re not seeing. The only question is, how serious is it?

There are a lot of ghosts in this story. Lexie haunts not only Cassie, but her housemates, even though they think she’s still alive. There’s the ghost of the past haunting a village that’s trying to deal with the animosity it feels towards those that once lorded over them. And even Rob is a ghost. He’s not dead, but he might as well be as far as Cassie is concerned. The events of In the Woods continue to hang over her like a storm cloud. But I’d rather it be that way than for her to pretend like the previous events never occurred.

I do have to confess that at least some of my love for this book is due to the stellar audiobook production. Heather O’Neill’s narration could not be more perfect. Her gentle Irish brogue pulls you along like a song you can’t stop yourself from singing. She even made the distinction between country and city accents obvious to these untrained ears. I wish the next book wasn’t about Frank!

I’m pretty stingy with my 5-star ratings nowadays, but this deserves nothing less.

[Eve1972]

This book was just OK for me, admittedly, crime/thriller novels are not really one of my favorite genres, but I had heard a lot of praise for this author, so I thought I would give it a try! I found it a bit slow going in the beginning, but around page 150 it started to pick up and kept my interest for the rest of the book. The storyline on the whole was just so implausible and that really distracted me through the whole novel..I wanted more "WHY" and it just never came. I kept reading and reading and waiting for that moment when the sky becomes clear and the angels sing and you gasp and exclaim "aha! So that is why or what happened and ya, it never came. All that being said I did enjoy this author's "writhing" the dialogue was fast paced and witty and flowed beautifully making it a very enjoyable book to "read". I have the author's other book on my reserved list with the library so I will also give it a read and see if I enjoy it more. :)

[empressbrooke]

And I thought [b:In the Woods|9791|A Walk in the Woods|Bill Bryson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388189974s/9791.jpg|613469] was good...I sucked down this nearly-500 page sequel in two days and then couldn't believe I'd been apprehensive about In the Woods even needing a sequel.

Detective Cassie Maddox goes undercover, with a twist - she's taking the place of a murder victim who looks just like her, and who had taken up residence in a cover identity that Cassie had created years before. She has to slip effortlessly into the role and find out if any of the four best friends that "Lexie Madison" had shared a house with are suspects.

I found the whole story fascinating. I was on edge the whole time wondering if she could pull it off, if she would slip up, if someone inside the house had killed her or if it was someone from the victim's mysterious past. The whole thing requires a certain suspension of disbelief, but Tana French does a great job feeding the reader enough plausible bits to make it all palatable.

Although there are a handful of references to In the Woods sprinkled throughout the book, The Likeness is definitely its own self-contained story. Understanding her mental state being a direct result of the events of the first book, however, goes a long way towards explaining why she's so easily sucked into her undercover life.

Now I've reached that terrible place where I want to stay in the world that the author has created, but have to wait for her to write another book. I hope I don't have to wait too long.