The Likeness

I picked up this book after reading its description browsing through a book store and it didn't disappoint. Detective Cassie Maddox goes undercover as Lexie Madison taking on her life and her friends. There are many twists in this story and the more you get into the book the better it gets. This is a touching tale of a cast of misfits never looking back on the past ( some for different reasons than others). I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a great mystery story. Being the first Tana French book I've read, I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.

Book 2 in the Cassie Maddox series

How long can someone assume different identities and keep it up? Seems Ms French protagonist is being given nine lives sending Cassie once more undercover. Like her first novel, the story is set in Dublin and the mystery entails an investigation into a homicide.

After being stabbed during her last undercover assignment Cassie had been assigned to the Domestic Violence (DV) division. The suspense starts when Cassie is summoned to the scene of a homicide. There, she and others are startled by the fact that the victim is the mirror image of Cassie; also the victim's ID is Lexie Madison, one of Cassie's previous undercover names.

The suspense grows when it is decided to hide the events from the media and have Cassie once again go undercover and infiltrate the dead girl's world. Unfortunately the plot drags when much of the novel is centered on the day to day lifestyle of victim's strange roommates. Even with some twists and turns the main problem is extreme slowness (boredom), it gets bogged down with too many descriptions of domestic life, leaving us with a mystery that is straightforward with few surprises. I found the plot bland and the characters missing development.

After reading the first novel "In the Woods" which I enjoyed, this was a disappointment

"The Likeness" takes places six months after Tana French's first novel, "In the Woods". Detective Cassie Maddox has been through a lot of trauma and she wants nothing to do with murder cases and has transferred out of that unit. One day, a young woman is stabbed to death and Cassie is called in to help solve the murder. Things start to get creepy when it turns out that the girl looks exactly like Cassie and her ID mysteriously reads Lexie Madison, an alias that Cassie had used years earlier. By lying to those who knew the woman, a plan is hatched to have Cassie go undercover as Lexie and find out who killed her. Things become complicated when Cassie begins to develop genuine feelings for Lexie's roommates and gets too personally involved with the potential suspects.

"The Likeness" drew me in right from the start and I became immersed in Cassie's world of deception, danger and drama. While I usually appreciate an author's vivid descriptions of his or her characters, Tana French outdoes herself by painting such elaborate portraits of each character, along with their nuances, quirks and thought patterns. I could easily envision the tight-knit group of friends and Cassie slowly letting her guard down and becoming close to them. Most mystery books tend to focus a great deal on the plot but this one builds up momentum slowly and French never neglects the characters' development.

I don't know if this book will be made into a movie, but I can easily envision it all on screen perfectly. I found myself becoming really attached to the characters, especially to Cassie, and I was really sad when the book finished. I hope there will be more books about Detective Cassie in the future!

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