Candi's Reviews > The Likeness

4.5 stars

"… Lexie Madison developed out of nothing like a Polaroid, she curled off the page and hung in the air like incense smoke, a girl with my face and a life from a half-forgotten dream."

Four years ago, Detective Cassie Maddox went undercover as Lexie Madison, an identity she concocted with Detective Frank Mackey. But that case is long over, and Lexie Madison should no longer exist… until she mysteriously appears once again as a dead body found in an old abandoned cottage. The fact that this dead woman carries the identity of Lexie Madison is perplexing enough, but what is terribly eerie is that she has an uncanny likeness to Detective Maddox. Now Frank Mackey is teaming up with Detective Sam O’Neill from the murder squad, much to Sam’s irritation, and proposes the perfect plan to crack the case. Not able to resist the thrill of an undercover assignment after serving a comparatively tedious assignment in Domestic Violence, Cassie rises to Frank’s challenge.

Gosh, Tana French really knows how to write! Of course, I immediately needed to find out how on earth the team was going to pull this one off?! It seemed a very risky scheme to me, and admittedly a bit farfetched. Well, implausibility be damned! I went along for the ride. The atmosphere is tense; the psychology of the characters is riveting. French gets right into the head of her narrator, Cassie, and allows the reader to totally grasp her every fear, desire, strength, weakness, and motivation. You’ll know her almost as well as you know yourself… maybe more. It made me crazy (in a good way) that Cassie could so easily slip into this role once again; to so seamlessly take on the identity of another person and to nearly become that person inside and out. I love the way she described what it’s like to work undercover.

"… the taste of undercover on my tongue again, the brush of it down the little hairs on my arms. I’d thought I remembered what it was like, every detail, but I’d been wrong: memories are nothing, soft as gauze against the ruthless razor-fineness of that edge, beautiful and lethal, one tiny slip and it’ll slice to the bone."

I loved Whitethorn House, the sinister little back lanes, and the scuttling of small animals that made me want to warn Cassie to stay alert! The inhabitants of Whitethorn House with their secrets, their constant companionship and mystifying intimacy intrigued me to say the least. Who are these people? Where is the killer? I really was on edge wondering if the perpetrator was still nearby and lurking in the darkness of the small, sullen community of Glenskehy. The folks of this place did not take kindly to strangers at all, and a death of one of their own in the distant past still inflamed many of the residents.

I won’t get into any more details; you have to read this book yourself! Not just an ordinary, psychological thriller, The Likeness has great literary merit as well. Tana French is a brilliant writer and is well attuned to all the subtleties of human behavior. I’ve read this and the first in the series and should note that it’s not completely necessary to read them in order. This would work completely fine as a stand-alone. It’s not a page-turner in the sense that there is action on every page, not even necessarily in every chapter. However, if you are like me and crave a story that really explores the depths of its characters and creates a feeling of such palpable tension and creeping suspense, then this book and this series is exactly what you need. I’m docking just half a star for the wee bit of implausibility regarding the premise of the plot, but don’t let that keep you from reading a fantastic book! As for me, I'm planning to read the entire series :)