The Likeness by Tana French

If you are reading this from your email box, please click to go to the blog to read the entire review.  Thank you!  ~Rawles



Now THAT is more like it!!!!!!

I was not too impressed by French's The Witch Elm.  I didn't really like In the Woods, the first Dublin Murder Squad book that I read about 5 years ago.  But there must be something about French's writing that keeps me coming back, keeps me hopeful.

Persistence pays off, readers!!!!

I found this storyline the most interesting of all of her weird plots.  She stays more focused here than she did with The Witch Elm, but still very original.  We follow a secondary character from In the Woods, Cassie, a rough and tumble Irish cop, who had a hard time of it in the first book so she moves on, but is lured back to the Murder Squad for an "uncanny" reason - her new boyfriend who does work for Murder Squad calls her in a pure panic, and tells her to get down to the scene of a murder.  Why is he so freaked out?  Well, it seems the victim is a woman who was using one of Cassie's old undercover aliases that no one should know about.  And she looks EXACTLY LIKE CASSIE.

Cue the crazy idea that Cassie jump into the life of the woman to try to suss out the killer.  Turns out she is one of 6 young people living together in a family mansion in a tiny village community that has plenty of opinions about the young, entitled singles.  Cassie returns after the dead woman's housemates are told she did survive, and inserts herself into this tight knit circle of misfits that have formed a weird sort of family.  Yeah, ok, that would never work in real life - she is too changed, I know I know.  Bear with it.  The psychology of living with these people, getting to know them, starting to love them, all while planning to betray one (or more??) of them is fascinating.  It's the best kind of voyeurism.   Can she do her job?  Can she remain objective?  Can she maintain her own relationships while undercover?  What does she really want?  And WHO was the dead woman with the mysterious past???

I could not put it down.  And I will definitely read the next one.  Big fan of perseverance over here.