The Likeness by Tana French
Published by Viking
Publication Date July 17, 2008
Source: Bought
Genres: Mystery
Goodreads
Six months after the events of In the Woods, an urgent telephone call beckons detective Cassie Maddox to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias Cassie once used. Suddenly, Cassie must discover not only who killed this girl, but, more importantly, who she is. A disturbing tale of shifting identities, The Likeness firmly establishes Tana French as an important voice in suspense fiction.
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 squirrelly 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 literally 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.
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