Will I love The Likeness?

There are some books that totally immerse you, and this is one of them. Cassie loses herself in her undercover role, and I was happily lost along with her. The life of the group of university friends is so well drawn, and so idyllic, that you wish you were part of it too - except that one of them probably murdered another one. That tension is always singing in the background like a struck glass, even as Cassie becomes ever more comfortable in her adopted life. It's a long book, but it never felt over-long. I wanted to know whodunnit… show more.

I love all of Tana French’s taut, riveting detective novels, but this book is my favorite.

When Cassie Maddox goes undercover to investigate a murder, she finds herself enmeshed with the dead girl’s quirky group of housemates. As she’s drawn into their lives, she is increasingly emotionally involved with them in ways that charge the atmosphere with exquisite tension and regret.

I loved the way this novel drew me into the exuberant household so that, like Cassie, I fell in love with everyone, wishing fervently for things to turn out okay and knowing there was no way they could. 

When former undercover cop Cassie Maddox is asked by her old boss, Frank Mackey, to take on a case, she says absolutely not. Then she learns that a body turned up that looks just like her, and she has to go undercover as her doppelganger in order to solve the murder. It’s trippy.

I adore Tana French’s Emerald Noir, and Frank Mackey is the best at being kind of the worst. Detective Lindy in Pretty Girls Get Away with Murder was inspired by Cassie Maddox. This book is a great character study because the novel shows Cassie’s vulnerability.

Character-driven novels are like deep, rich, organic 80% dark chocolate to me. When I want to delve headlong into a character and pull them on like a second skin, I pull out a Tana French novel. I was so deep into Cassie Maddox that I didn’t see the clues, didn’t pick up on the cues from the bad guy, and found myself on the same inevitable path as Cassie.

This book threw me into rural Ireland, back into the graduate student lifestyle, and into the insular little group that had enveloped Cassie during her investigation. I felt equally terrified at… show more.

We first meet Cassie Maddox in Tana French’s debut book, In the Woods, but in her second showing, she really shows her mettle. Recovering from the betrayal she undergoes in the investigation of a brutal child’s murder in the first book, Cassie is recruited for an undercover assignment to solve another murder – but this time, it’s the death of a young woman who she eerily resembles. Cassie must pretend to be the dead woman and gain the trust and confidence of the group of charismatic oddballs who were the closest friends of the victim. I loved Donna Tartt’s… show more.