Review #82: The Likeness by Tana French

Title:

The Likeness

Author:

Tana French

Description from author's website:

Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She's transferred out of the murder squad and has started a relationship with Detective Sam O'Neill, but she's too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case; a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl's ID says her name is Lexie Madison- the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective- and she looks exactly like Cassie.

With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn't fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to fin information that the police never would and tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim's identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.

As she is drawn into Lexie's world, Cassie realizes that the girl's secrets run deeper than anyone imagined. Her friends are becoming suspicious, Sam has discovered a generations-old feud involving the house the students live in, and Frank is starting to suspect that Cassie's growing emotional involvement could put the hwole investigation at risk. 

My Review:

Yes, it's as good as it sounds.

To say that this was an eagerly anticipated follow-up to In the Woods, is an understatement. I thought In the Woods was riveting. The Likeness rocked my socks (as Juju says from Tales of Whimsy!). 

I am a fan of really well written gritty psychological thrillers. They can be in your face intense, like Still Missing by Chevy Stevens or subtle and pulsing, like Dismantled by Jennifer McMahon. The Likeness is both.  

In the Woods showed us the team of Ryan and Maddox. The Likeness is all Maddox and she does what she does very well.   The plot is unbelievably believable. Her former undercover identity has been taken over by another girl who just happens to look just like her and just happens to show up dead.

The best way to solve this crime? Send Cassie back in as her former identity, though now a completely different persona, and make it seem like she survived. Crazy? Well, yes and balls-to-the-wall gutsy...but she does it. And you go along for her ride through this girl's life. 

Lexie Madison, the undercover identity, is a  graduate student living with four other students; Abby, Daniel, Rafe and Justin. Living in Daniel's ancestral home, the five students are as tight as tight can be; finishing each other's sentences, eating, working, studying, traveling together always. No outsider has ever gotten in. And none of them has ever left.

Cassie, having taken the move from Murder to Domestic Abuse, is itching to get back to undercover. Diving full in, she is calmed by the life they lead; the safe isolation, the closeness of their relationships, and the feeling of family. Having lost her parents at a young age, Cassie didn't realize how much she craved that sense of family and home.

The whole book is so intense that I could not put it down. I couldn't believe what they were doing and I wanted to see how they could pull it off. I loved the location, a small town outside Dublin. I loved the big old house they lived in. I loved the tension between Cassie and Frank, the lead Undercover detective. I loved Cassie's relationship with Sam, the lead detective on the Murder side of things. I loved how odd and alluring the four friends were and the bizarre relationship they all had.

And Cassie just rocks. Messed up, a little unorthodox, a bit moody but wickedly honest and a smart detective. I look forward to reading more about her.

Rating: 6 stars/ 6 stars

Overall, this is one of the best books I've read all year. It was exactly my kind of book. It had the elitist college students, the gritty detectives, atmospheric Ireland, tough women and a messed up who-dunnit crime. I was scratching my head up until the end wondering how it would end. I LOVE that! 

Book Club Note:

YES! Tana French is such a good writer and you would find plenty to talk about. The characters, the locations, the impossible crimes, the politics of Dublin. 

Other Book Info:

ISBN: 978-0-670-01886-4

Pages: 466

Publisher: Viking

Author website: Tana French

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child