The Likeness

Cassie Maddox is sucked back into undercover work by the freakish coincidence of a murder victim that looks just like her. Most of the book is Cassie impersonating the victim to her housemates. There is lots of interesting characterization of Cassie, the housemates, and the victim.

While "Into the woods" kindof sucker-punched me with the ending, this was less traumatic. The ending of this book is a bit more conventional (even using some police procedural trope, slightly twisted).

You should definitely read "Into the woods first", this book references it quite often. It does switch points of view a bit startlingly compared to the previous book.

As an identical twin I found the premise hilarious but if you ignore that basic issue it's a good whodunnit and beautifully written

Once again, a Tana French mystery kept me up late, stole my attention, and had me clinging to every word. She writes pleasingly, and creates such realistic people and relationships that I still think about them for weeks after the pages have run out.

The plot of The Likeness was as rich as the characters. There is so much to think about, I don't know where to begin--except to recommend that you begin. A murder, an interesting victim, some unusual friends, the zany murder squad, the strange locals, and a most unusual undercover operation await you.

This story is haunting and thought-provoking. I recommend it, in case that's not clear.

Second of the books in the Dublin Murder Squad series, this one taking a detective undercover into a house where a group of university students have formed themselves into a tight family. It's brilliantly written and utterly implausible - depending on the idea that the detective is identical to a murdered woman who took her previous undercover identity (which almost works by playing with the whole idea of assuming and discarding identities). Less important but even more implausible was the idea that she could step into a graduate student position, teach classes, and that all of the gang would be able to work on dissertations and teach without it interfering with their lifestyle. At least, I've never met a grad student as relaxed as this lot.

Tana French outdoes herself here. In The Woods was excellently written, but had a few narrative flaws that marred the gem. The basic premise of The Likeness may require a slight suspension of disbelief, but once you're past that it unfolds as a careful, patient, and exquisite mystery as only Strong can tell it.

Not as good as the first by quite a ways.

Good (murder mysteries/cop procedurals are still not my cup of tea), but not as good as In The Woods. I think it's because In The Woods had an eerie/supernatural undercurrent to it because of Ryan's missing friends. This seemed, from the description, to have the same sense of something-isn't-right that keeps the reader off balance, but Tana French squashed that in the beginning. The rest, while still good, didn't have that off-putting charge to it and was just a police story.

Still, will probably read her next book, Faithful Place.