"The Likeness" by Tana French

"The Likeness" was written by Tana French and published in 2008 by Viking Adult Press. It is the second in the Dublin Murder Squad series. 

After reading "In the Woods", French's first book in the Murder Squad series, I had pretty high expectations for this second in the series. "The Likeness" is written in first-person point of view with Detective Cassie Maddox as the narrator. I listened to this story as an audio-book, narrated by Heather O'Neill, who did an excellent job. 

Cassie was introduced in "In the Woods" as a young, sprite-like-girl, not the kind of person who would be assumed to be a murder detective. In that story we learned that she had been stabbed working under cover before joining the murder squad. She was tough and the force of stability that kept Detective Ryan mentally and emotionally together to solve the murder case in "In the Woods". 

In "The Likeness" Cassie has been reassigned to work in Domestic Violence and is dating Sam, the other murder detective who worked on her case in "In the Woods." She is more focused on appearing normal to the world and her colleagues than anything else, and is still recovering from the emotional wounds of their previous murder investigation. Then she gets a call from her old undercover boss, who asks her to come to a crime scene. There, she learns that the murdered victim is essentially her doppelganger and has assumed her old undercover identity. When Cassie was first working undercover, she and Frank (her undercover boss) created the character of Lexie Madison, a college student in order to get involved in a drug ring. In the end, Cassie got the information she needed, but got stabbed in the process. Now, Lexie Madison has appeared again and Cassie is asked to go under cover as Lexie to find her killer.

The premise of this book was hard to accept. What are the chances of two people who look essentially identical, who have no genetic relationship, living in Dublin at the same time? In my opinion, the plot starts on shaky ground. As the plot progresses, Cassie/Lexie becomes obsessed with Lexie and her life. She moves into a house with Lexie's flatmates- 3 students, 2 men and a woman. She manages to fool all 3 of these people into believing that she is Lexie for weeks on end, until her boss pulls the plug on the operation. 

In the end Cassie does get some closure- learning about Lexie's past and why/how she was killed. But the frightening aspect of this story is how close she comes to loosing herself and her own identity. The action is more psychological than the detective work in "In the Woods," and in some ways more disturbing. French does get extremely descriptive in her explanations and discussions of Cassie's thoughts and emotions- perhaps overly wordy in some places. 

Like I said, I had high expectations for this book after reading"In the Woods", and I think that worked against my enjoyment of this book. It was still a interesting read and exciting story, but didn't have the level of excitement and intrigue I was expecting.

/5