Book review: The Likeness
The Likeness by Tana French
Picking up immediately after In the Woods, The Likeness focuses on Detective Cassie Maddox. Operation Vestal (the main murder case in In the Woods) left its own damaging marks on Cassie-so much so that she has decided to leave the Murder Squad and work in Domestic Violence instead. Her fragile peace is quickly upended, however, when her fellow detective and boyfriend Sam O’Neill summons her to an unusual case: a woman using her alias as an undercover agent (Cassie used to work in Undercover) has been found dead, with her four roommates suspected of murder. Her former boss in Undercover, Frank Mackey, offers an intriguing yet very dangerous assignment for her: pose as the dead woman, and find out from the inside which one of her roommates killed her. As Cassie becomes more and more involved in the case, she has to not only protect herself from being made by the killer (and fellow roommate), but also from losing herself in the dead woman’s identity forever.
The Likeness was such an absorbing, page-turning read that it gave me a book hangover. Seriously. I stayed up way later than I should have to finish it, and walked into work the next morning like a zombie. Unlike the typical sequel that follows the main character in the first book, I really liked reading from Cassie’s perspective on the fallout from Operation Vestal. In many ways, The Likeness is about her recovery from the damaging, toxic case the forced her to break not only with a job she loves-being a Murder Detective-but also with one of her closest friends. Tana French has a knack for developing rich, nuanced characters, and Cassie is no exception. Just as she becomes emotionally involved in the case-forming an intense bond with her housemates who at one point seem like a long lost family to her-so too do readers become involved in Cassie’s story, wanting her to find a bit of happiness that was denied in the previous book.
As for the mystery plot itself, I’ve skimmed a few other reviews that complained of how preposterous the premise is-of a detective posing as a dead woman-but I don’t think that’s the point of Tana French’s particular brand of mysteries/thrillers. While she does set up extraordinary situations, I think they are the suitable vehicles to enhance the intensely character-driven nature of her novels. The Likeness demands that readers slow down, and take time to get to know each roommate and the peculiar inner workings of Hawthorn House, where Cassie is staying. French completely immerses readers in Cassie’s character as well as the others, which made the domino-like chain of events at the end all the more thrilling.
Lucky for me, French is coming out with a third book this July, this time focusing on the brilliant (yet possibly crazy) Frank Mackey. Before I left my old job, I had to ask a favor from my friend who works in that imprint for an early copy…so hopefully I’ll get my hands on it soon!
Picking up immediately after In the Woods, The Likeness focuses on Detective Cassie Maddox. Operation Vestal (the main murder case in In the Woods) left its own damaging marks on Cassie-so much so that she has decided to leave the Murder Squad and work in Domestic Violence instead. Her fragile peace is quickly upended, however, when her fellow detective and boyfriend Sam O’Neill summons her to an unusual case: a woman using her alias as an undercover agent (Cassie used to work in Undercover) has been found dead, with her four roommates suspected of murder. Her former boss in Undercover, Frank Mackey, offers an intriguing yet very dangerous assignment for her: pose as the dead woman, and find out from the inside which one of her roommates killed her. As Cassie becomes more and more involved in the case, she has to not only protect herself from being made by the killer (and fellow roommate), but also from losing herself in the dead woman’s identity forever.
The Likeness was such an absorbing, page-turning read that it gave me a book hangover. Seriously. I stayed up way later than I should have to finish it, and walked into work the next morning like a zombie. Unlike the typical sequel that follows the main character in the first book, I really liked reading from Cassie’s perspective on the fallout from Operation Vestal. In many ways, The Likeness is about her recovery from the damaging, toxic case the forced her to break not only with a job she loves-being a Murder Detective-but also with one of her closest friends. Tana French has a knack for developing rich, nuanced characters, and Cassie is no exception. Just as she becomes emotionally involved in the case-forming an intense bond with her housemates who at one point seem like a long lost family to her-so too do readers become involved in Cassie’s story, wanting her to find a bit of happiness that was denied in the previous book.
As for the mystery plot itself, I’ve skimmed a few other reviews that complained of how preposterous the premise is-of a detective posing as a dead woman-but I don’t think that’s the point of Tana French’s particular brand of mysteries/thrillers. While she does set up extraordinary situations, I think they are the suitable vehicles to enhance the intensely character-driven nature of her novels. The Likeness demands that readers slow down, and take time to get to know each roommate and the peculiar inner workings of Hawthorn House, where Cassie is staying. French completely immerses readers in Cassie’s character as well as the others, which made the domino-like chain of events at the end all the more thrilling.
Lucky for me, French is coming out with a third book this July, this time focusing on the brilliant (yet possibly crazy) Frank Mackey. Before I left my old job, I had to ask a favor from my friend who works in that imprint for an early copy…so hopefully I’ll get my hands on it soon!