The likeness

Lara Engle

Tana French is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Again, she's written a mystery that is intriguing, but even more, she's written characters who seem real, making me think of them as friends. This makes it even more heartbreaking when it turns out that some of them have done unforgivable things. Her lyrical, poignant, sometimes melancholy moments will linger even when the details of the story have faded from memory.

Isabella

this was such a fun take on the mystery & dark academia genre! loved the writing, how each character had such distinct personalities, and how absorbed i was in both the mystery & the friend group! definitely could have shaved a hundred pages from the book, but it was an entertaining read nonetheless

Colleen

5 Stars 

*A meandering but captivating, mind-bending mystery*


I will readily admit that Tana French’s writing style will not appeal to everyone. Her stories are slow-burn, character-driven, and introspective. If you can’t get into the character’s mind, then these books will seem sluggish and tedious. But if you are able to sink into these stories, you will easily be captivated by the slow, suspenseful, and spellbinding writing.


  “Our footsteps rang and echoed till it sounded like the room was full of dancers, the house calling up all the people who had danced here across centuries of spring evenings, gallant girls seeing gallant boys off to war, old men and women straight-backed while outside their world disintegrated and the new one battered at their doors, all of them bruised and all of them laughing, welcoming us into their long lineage.”

I should mention that each book of the Dublin Murder Squad series is narrated by a different member of the team. It was an interesting and risky choice. Since they are told in first person from a new point of view each time, it almost felt like reading a parallel universe. One where many things are the same, but everything has a different slant given by the new narrator's viewpoint. But that also gives the series some added realism, because different people do view the same thing in different ways. I will also add that if you read In the Woods and are looking for closure to how that book ended (no spoilers!), you aren't going to get that closure here. The events of the first book are mentioned, but only in an oblique and often frustrating way.

The Likeness is narrated by Cassie Maddox. Cassie is bolted out of a rut in her life when a murder victim who looks exactly like her turns up – and she is carrying ID with the name of one of Cassie’s previous undercover roles. Suddenly, Cassie’s life takes an unexpected turn as life is consumed by this riveting case.


  “Now that's a concept that's always fascinated me: the real world. Only a very specific subset of people use the term, have you noticed? To me, it seems self-evident that everyone lives in the real world - we all breathe real oxygen, eat real food, the earth under our feet feels equally solid to all of us. But clearly these people have a far more tightly circumscribed definition of reality, one that I find deeply mysterious, and an almost pathologically intense need to bring others into line with that definition.”

The plot does require some suspense of belief, but I had no trouble going along with it. The story has notable The Secret History vibes only I enjoyed The Likeness so much more! (I never got on the bandwagon for that one, and it was only a three star read for me.) When I say that the atmosphere of this story was captivating, I mean that most literally. This story was one of those rare magnetic tales that sucks you out of your real life, and holds you in that breathless moment from page to page. I loved The Likeness even more than the first book!


   “That kind of friendship doesn't just materialize at the end of the rainbow one morning in a soft-focus Hollywood haze. For it to last this long, and at such close quarters, some serious work had gone into it. Ask any ice-skater or ballet dancer or show jumper, anyone who lives by beautiful moving things: nothing takes as much work as effortlessness.” 

The Likeness has that quality. That apparent effortlessness that pulls you in and belies the monumental genius of the web being woven around you.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 5 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 5 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 5 Stars
Level of Captivation: 5 Stars
Originality: 4 Stars

Tana French

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 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--From publisher description.

The Likeness

Raphaëlle

Arianna M

The Likeness is a claustrophobic, intense, thrilling book, with carefully crafted characters luring you in - I have, for a few days of reading this book, wished hard for a chance to live with them, touch them affectionately, embroider with Abby and feel Daniel's warm, large hand on my head or neck.
When I say it is claustrophobic and intense, I mean that, at times, I had difficulty breathing from how enthralled I was in the story, and that when I turned the last page, sitting on a metro train, I was holding my breath.
As others have said, there are many similarities with The Secret History by Donna Tartt, yes: the group of young, academia-focused students: the large, intelligent, imposing one and the girl, the gay one and the fair one (view spoiler)[who sometimes uses him (hide spoiler)]. Then the outsider, of course, entering this magical tight-knit group of people who don’t open up to anybody else except each other. And, of course, the murder. For all the similarities, this is a very different book, one that takes a completely different point of view (as much as Cassie, like Richard Papen, often wants to melt inside the group and belong there), and a book that is interested in vastly different things than The Secret History is; I will only say that, looking at the parallels, outside of the obvious Henry Winter-Daniel March one, I might love Abby Stone more than Camilla Macaulay - not for any fault of Camilla’s, whom we can only ever see through Richard’s unreliable, male eyes.
Recommended to anybody who loves thrillers, and can be read without having read the first one (In the Woods), although it helps when Cassie references her backstory with Rob.

Jacob Mishook

The solid writing is still there, but about 75 pages too long and the main plot device is too implausible. Still, French's characterization is better than 90% of other crime writers.

Zoey Mikalatos

I thought that I couldn't enjoy a mystery novel more than In the Woods, but I was wrong. While Tana French's first novel kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole plot, this one was even more nerve-wracking. Somehow the danger seemed to surround the characters throughout the entire book, and I found that I couldn't put the book down. I started reading The Likeness as soon as I finished In the Woods, around eleven at night, and I fell asleep around three in the morning, still reading it. 

"This girl, she bent reality around her like a lens bending light, she pleated it into so many flickering layers that you could never tell which one you were looking at, the longer you stared the dizzier you got."

macy

TANA FRENCH I AM IN UR WALLS, HALLS, DOORS AND WINDOWS.

Fraser Simons

Getting what you want fucks you up. It’s a problem most of humanity has, and a disconcerting one at that. Most of us has one of two problems: We don’t feel we deserve the things that nourish us; or else, we have no idea what is actually good for us. So, it’s an enticing idea to slip into another skin. Ostensibly the same; different in the imagined right ways. 

This book follows Maddox’s disastrous previous case in the first book, with our boy Rob at the helm. This time it’s Cassie, pulled from the rubble, so to speak, offered an opportunity to go undercover as Lexie—an undercover identity she cooked up with her then superior, Frank—who has just been murdered. Only no one knows this. There’s a chance she can enter this person’s fake life, living off of the very borrowed ID Cassie created. They look much alike and she could, potentially, expose and catch the killer. It’s also an opportunity to find a way back to herself, or so she thinks. As she’s been a ghost of herself traversing the fallout of the last book.

What follows is a story I can’t help but compare to The Secret History. Sure, we don’t know the killer. But it’s actually not hard to guess. It really is a why done it. And what’s more is the house mates, closer than any normal friend group - living in a defunct, stately manor house that needs restoring, all too often make me think of the same group dynamics in TSH. As Lexie—I mean Cassie—becomes her character once again. She pines for the now infiltrated life. Full of mostly easy love and moments, beautiful and otherwise, that will no doubt haunt her life forever. Especially as she’s conning them into a future where this group is shattered completely and irrevocably. 

She is the glue holding them together, and she hasn’t got much choice but to aim and take fire both throughout. On both physical and the emotional front. Once again French proves she is methodical and cares little for traditional genre conventions and pacing, and can completely deliver the reader into a satisfying and immensely thought provoking experience (at least, for my part). Quite smartly, she also has a little carrot dangling for those who have read the previous book. The phone conversation between Cassie and Rob near the end has itched me since reading. Is there an answer to what Rob thought?

While the prose here aren’t as lyrical and gripping, it does fit Cassie far more so. Another noir subversion probably wouldn’t have fit. Cassie’s voice, at first was a bit disappointing but it came into its own very well. And the ending was everything I had hoped for. I think French is very astute in her perception of people, without being judgemental while holding them to account. Same with the way her fiction functions at a fundamental level. And her similar respect of trauma is also fresh and propulsive in of itself. The experience of this was a joy, even when it kicks you in the gut. 

More than once I thought that it felt like sad, Irish tune mainstays, such as Leave Her, Johnny, Leave her. Suppose it’s no coincidence, then, that a particular character is whistling it when the narrative wrap up is about to arrive.

Amani Zaha

Man, does Tana French have a way with words. And her characters - Oh, boy.

French is amazingly skilled at writing people. We see it here and in every other book of the Dublin Murder Squad series: her characters are alive. They have complicated relationships that break and evolve and deepen; experiences, some of which we witness with the character, some of which they carry from their past; they have quirks, flaws, and feel emotions that make sense because of what we know about them.

It's like: we read this story and we witness how it affects these characters in major ways, but we're also merely getting glimpses into who they are. We follow Cassie, our protagonist, through this murder case, follow her as she changes throughout the course of the story, but we also understand that her character holds so much more than what we have seen. We get Rob Ryan, her former work partner, mentioned fleetingly but whose absence clearly weighs heavily in Cassie's current life; the stories about her previous work undercover, sprinkled throughout the story; operation Vestal. All of it plays a role in why she does the things she does in this case.

And it isn't just the main character who receives such care. Frank and Sam (detectives on the same case), the The Secret History-esque quartet of mysterious students, the murder victim (albeit she is central in this case) - even Rob, who's mentioned maybe three times very briefly, feels Real.

This was a reread, after first reading the book in 2016, and I wish I had remembered to note down some of my favourite quotes. French makes such astute observations about people, and several times, I stopped to reread a paragraph or sentence because it just resonated with me. Made Sense, in a very specific way, and made me wonder: How did she know?

Of course, the premise is absolutely crazy, and requires a good portion of Suspension-of-disbelief. Cassie is pulled into a murder case where the murder victim happens to look identical to her, and happens to have spent her last few years under Cassie's old undercover persona (is that the word?), Lexie Madison. What a coincidence!! And now, like a spectacular magic trick: Cassie is sent to live undercover as Lexie, telling her four housemates that Lexie did, in fact, survive, until she can find out who killed the girl.

It's ridiculous and unrealistic and creative, and this is fiction anyway. If the premise bothers you but you enjoy everything else about this book: hold out for the rest of the story. If, for instance, you think French's writing style is too wordy, too much purple prose: you're better off reading something else. As evident by the first sentence of this review, I adore the way she writes, but I've given the book a 4-star rating because the pacing is too slow at times. French is dedicated to fleshing out her characters, but sometimes this causes her to sacrifice action and plot for a couple of pages.

(Also, I wish French had made Cassie's feelings for Sam more believable; she seems quite flippant toward him a lot of the time, while he seems to care deeply for her throughout the story.)

Emma Jacqueline

This is the kind of book you have to meet where it lives. The plot is entirely implausible, but just treat it like the ludicrous action of a Fast & Furious movie and let it take you along for the wild ride. I love the fine line French always threads between thriller and literary. She writes a good mystery, but it's always more about characterization and unpacking past traumas (both personal and countrywide) and I think that's what makes her novels so lingering and rewarding even when she doesn't tie up all the loose ends. I, like Cassie, could have lived forever suspended in the lives of that house and relationships between Daniel, Justin, Rafe, Abby, and Lexie. Perhaps the closest a book has ever come to fulfilling my want for a second Secret History.

Liesa Hausen

I know that this book will be with me for a very long time.

I have loved every French novel I have read so far and The Likeness is no exception. 
What I love most about her writing is that all characters seem so real, they are so well-written that I can almost see them in front of me when I read. 
This group of people that the book is about: Even now (I finished reading the novel months ago), I can see them sitting in their living room in that house, doing research, drinking, listening to music, planning renovations. I can see them cooking, eating together, laughing together. 
Very few authors are able to catch group dynamics so realistically, so beautifully.

Caitlyn DeRouin

French has a way of writing mysterious characters that you just can't help but be intrigued by, and it's easy to find yourself as wrapped up in wanting to be part of their world as the other characters in her story are. I found myself having a very hard time putting this book down because I was just dying to know what was happening next. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the Dublin Murder Squad series.

Still traumatised by her brush with a psychopath, Detective Cassie Maddox transfers out of the Murder squad and starts a relationship with fellow detective Sam O'Neill. When he calls her to the scene of his new case, she is shocked to find that the murdered girl is her double. What's more, her ID shows she is Lexie Madison - the identity Cassie used, years ago, as an undercover detective. With no leads, no suspects and no clues to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old boss spots the opportunity of a lifetime: send Cassie undercover in her place, to tempt the killer out of hiding to finish the job.

Olivera Mitić

Tana Frenč je stvarno bila u fazonu: sad ću da bacim jedan Uno Reverse na Tajnu istoriju.

Kimberly

I enjoyed this more than the first one - In the Woods. The Likeness had more troupes I loved. It reminded me of The Secret History or I felt there were aspects of the story I could easily compare to with The Secret History. The only thing missing was the classical elements and the lyrical writing. 


Jan Talkington

An unbelievable premise and at times a little draggy, but I still enjoyed this book. Can't say I was totally surprised by who dun it, but stayed engaged with the story. Really a 3 1/2 star book but I’m feeling generous so will round up. 😀

Shreerag Plakazhi

Redemption was strong for this one. It is excruciatingly slow in the entirety of the middle. It's really not for those looking for a quick read. It does have a great finish in the end though, one that really boosted it's rating for me.

Laura

Sorry about the review gap again. Like I said, I was away, but I got a ton of reading done so there should be lots of reviews coming up soon. But this is the third Tana French book I've read and already, she's become one of my favorite authors. I have been looking for a good, dependable thriller writer for a long time now, and finally found one that probably will become an automatic buy for me. 


I was more or less intimidated going into this book, and if you're at all familiar with her writing you could see why. She's very verbose, especially with her descriptions. They're beautiful, sure, but don't exactly make for quick reads. And this book wasn't a quick read; it was slow, building up to the reveal of whodunnit. While the actual murder happens at the very beginning, that part of the book is mostly reserved for character development as we get to know who we're working with and why we should root for them. In this case, we got to know mostly Cassie Maddox, but also Frank Mackey, Sam O'Neil, and the inhabitants of Whitethorn House- Daniel, Justin, Rafe, and Abby. We also get to know the dead girl, Lexie, but most of what we do know of her is speculation. 



French's characters and character interactions are where she shines as a writer. Her characters are people, each with distinct personality traits. Characters are allowed to have different opinions as the main character and are not made into villains. No informed attributes here, either, if the characters say they are something, then they are. They don't even have to say anything- we get through their actions that Justin is squeamish, for instance, or that Abby is artsy. Mackey is different than Sam who was different from Ryan, and I think that if she had chosen to make this book multiple points of view, each would have been clearly distinguished from the others. I loved especially Cassie, the main character. I loved her passion for history, especially the Whitethorn House. I could relate, as someone who also finds delight in all things old, photographs and houses especially. I also loved Justin, who about broke my heart, along with Rafe (the obvious sexual tension between those two was great, and I wanted more of their story), and Frank and Sam and, honestly, just about everyone. I do miss Rob though, but I love how his absence was worked in. French doesn't just mention it a few times and dismiss it or only bring it up when it's convenient to her character, it's a recurring theme in the book that the events of In the Woods and especially losing Ryan hurt her deeply, and made her so desperately lonely that she fell even harder than she would have into this group of friends in the Whitethorn House. The way she dealt with that was brilliant. It wasn't like when Elliot left in SVU- you know, when Olivia just basically was sad for a day and then never mentioned him again, despite how close they were, until one day when it's convenient for the plot? Yeah, doesn't happen here. I also loved all the characters' senses of humor- while none were really laugh out loud funny, they all still made me giggle or at least snort.



I also absolutely loved the Irish culture and history that was touched upon- a lot actually- in the text. I only know bits and pieces about Irish history, and the parts when French went in detail about the Anglo-Irish families and the resentment that still lingers amongst the Irish of them was fascinating. It made me want to know more about Ireland, and it made me want French to write a historical fiction novel. I will say this, though, the middle dragged on a bit- though the ending completely made up for it. Cassie's life in the Whitethorn House was getting a monotonous, though I suppose that's meant to showcase Cassie falling into this seemingly idyllic world of the House and its occupants, and I am starting to get a feel for the French Formula, if you will (sorry, I have a bit of an affinity for alliteration). Beginning sets up case, middle focuses mostly on the psychological effects the case has on the main character (some of the side characters, too), with a ton of red herrings thrown in with each given a detailed backstory and potential MO, and then the end, where the actual killer is revealed. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Mystery novels are, after all, the most formulaic books you can write, apart from romance novels, and most mystery authors have their own formula that works for them. This is great for me, because sometimes I want an author who I can rely on, whose books take on this comforting path and are still excellent. So let's talk about the ending.

(view spoiler)[ Honestly, I had Daniel pegged from the start as the man, or if not the actual killer than the ringleader. Honestly, I had the killer from In the Woods pegged from the start too, but in both cases I enjoyed watching it unfold and got really happy when it turned out my instincts were right. Like dancing around in my chair happy. Even though he was an absolutely fascinating character- shame it had the ending it did- his parts honestly kind of bored me. Like when he was going on and on to Cassie about why they had to kill Lexie and oh my God just shut up already. I get that a big part of his character was the fact he goes off on long rants, but still. I do wish his psyche/ thought process was explored a little bit more. I can't even consider the reveal of the killer(s) to be a twist, because it was so well done and obviously what the book was building up to. So many twists just feel so half-assed, or like the author thought that a twist was meant to blindside you completely and make no sense, when in reality there has to be little hints leading up to the Big Reveal. I also loved how each red herring had reasons to kill, as I mentioned before, and even has done things that I wouldn't personally approve of, but they are still not the killer. It's like in Twin Peaks, when both Leo and Ben are potential killers and they have the motive and everything and they're both horrible people, but they didn't do it. As much as we want them to have done it because it makes sense in our minds, it's still not them. I was absolutely glued to the pages during Justin, Rafe, and Abby's tale about what happened the night Lexie died (and really wanted to give Justin a hug). A few other, more minor spoilers to touch on, because really the whole ending was so. Freaking. Good. French made sure to wrap up the mystery of who Lexie really was, probably still feeling the public outcry over In the Woods' unsolved second mystery, which I liked but would have been fine never knowing. I also loved how Sam and Cassie stayed together. I was expecting Cassie to dump him in favor of going back on the Murder Squad, but she didn't! Yay, a couple I like stays together! It's nice that Cassie doesn't have to prove herself as a career-oriented woman by breaking up with Sam. It's nice to know that love doesn't always have to take a backseat, as corny as that sounds.  (hide spoiler)]

I needed Faithful Place like yesterday. The fact that it stars Frank Mackey makes me even more excited to get into it. While I loved this book personally, and love this series so far, I will say this. If you don't like verbose descriptions, slow-burning mystery novels, or police procedurals, I wouldn't read these books. These books are not Gillian Flynn thrillers, far from them actually. I, however, happen to love those things, which makes this series absolutely perfect for me.

Les Reynolds

Such a great story. Kept me enthralled all the way through.

Kay Sutherland

Tina

Claudia

Francine Corry

New York Times bestselling author Tana French, author of the forthcoming novel The Searcher, is “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post) and “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker). “Required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.” —The New York Times Now airing as a Starz series. In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods, Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the Dublin Murder Squad—until an urgent telephone call brings her back to an eerie crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Suddenly, Cassie is back undercover, to find out not only who killed this young woman, but, more importantly, who she was. The Likeness is a supremely suspenseful story exploring the nature of identity and belonging.

The likeness

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