I probably read this too fast.

So, I liked it almost as much as her first book In the Woods, and I loved how some things were different about it. This is a great demonstration of an author with a strong voice writing from the point of view of two characters (Rob Ryan in the first, Cassie Maddox in the second) and you can feel where the tone is the author's and where it's the narrator's. (Rob is much funnier than Cassie, for example, and when I realized that, I was disappointed at first, but then impressed.)

It's not quite a criticism, but I found myself perplexed by the Secret History-ish feel of it. It was almost uncanny, I even thought of these characters by their corresponding Secret History names, most especially Henry for Daniel and Camilla for Abby.

The set-up for the mystery is especially good: a murdered girl is identified as Lexie Madison, an alias created for Cassie when she was working an undercover assignment prior to the events of In the Woods.

I think anything else I can say veers too much into spoilery territory. Hmmmm. I liked how the few references to the events of In the Woods felt realistic and made sense. I go back and forth on whether I buy the premise of the investigation - could someone do what Cassie did? It seems so unlikely, but then that could be what makes it work, because the people involved would never suspect it, because if that was you, and you did suspect something, you'd think "oh no, that's impossible." You wouldn't even really think it, you'd kind of process it automatically.

Overall, very good crime novel that shouldn't be lumped in with any kind of genre at all. Solid A. Recommended to people who like quality writing with their police procedurals, although I strongly suggest that In the Woods and The Likeness be read in order. ( )

This book really pulled me in-- the characters and the private world they were trying to build for themselves stayed with me long after I read the book. Although the premise wasn't very believable, the characters were fascinating, and you almost wanted Cassie to abandon her real life and slip permanently into Lexie's. ( )

Cassie Maddox is a police detective who is called to a crime scene where she is literally a dead ringer (sorry) for a murdered graduate student , Lexy Madison, who is found in an abandoned house in the Irish countryside. Lexy's four roomates/friends live together in an old mansion near the crime scene and Cassie goes undercover as Lexy to try to find the killer. What Cassie didn't count on was how much she would enjoy living with the others and stepping in to Lexy's life. As she gets closer to finding the killer, Cassie struggles with her objectivity as she finds she enjoys this newfound closeness with this family of grad student friends. This book was suspenseful and fast paced and a continuation of Tana French's first book, In the Woods. I wish I had read that one first as her experiences in the first novel were frequently referenced. However, this book was also good as a stand-alone novel. I had a difficult time putting it down and thought (and dreamt) about the characters! ( )

French's excellent follow-up to her debut In the Woods is a well-crafted and unique mystery. A look-alike of Dublin Detective Cassie Maddox is found dead, and it quickly becomes clear that the victim had stolen an identity created for Maddox in a previous undercover investigation. Cassie accepts an undercover assignment and slips into the dead girl's life in an attempt to solve the mystery, and begins to fall in love with the world that the victim had created for herself.
Aside from the recurring characters, this novel is not overly related to In the Woods, and I found the repeated references to the case in that book to be a little forced and annoying, but that's really the only complaint. This novel is tight, exciting, and fun to read. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.

[The Likeness] is Tana French's second mystery and involves one of the main characters of the first one. [In the Woods] was told from the point of view of the male partner of two cops and dealt a lot with the effect of a case on a trauma in his past. This second book is not a sequel of that one. The partners have broken up and the male cop doesn't really come into this book, although he is mentioned. It is told from the point of view of the female partner, Cassie, who has moved to the domestic violence unit, but now is pulled into an undercover assignment. She was previously in undercover before joining the murder squad. This undercover assignment is an unusual one, and most of the book shows her being drawn into the character that she is playing in the assignment.

While I liked [In the Woods] very much, I found [the Likeness] to be a stronger and more convincing work. I definitely recommend it. ( )