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Reader rating: 5 (1 review)
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The likeness /
Author: French, Tana |
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1 out of 1 readers would recommend this to a friend..
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| Review for similar item: The likeness / |
| Irish Doppelgangers and Murder | July 04, 2009 |
| By: jedikermit | Salt Lake County, Utah (US) | |
Detective Cassie Maddox, who we last read about in Tana French's In the Woods, runs into her own Doppelganger...but she's been murdered. And Cassie may have had something to do with it. I don't read many mysteries, but I loved 2007's In the Woods, and heard that this picked up where that novel left off. It does. Sort of. In the Woods was more about Detective Rob Ryan than Cassie--she was his partner, and she was the most fun part of that book, but it was very much Ryan's story. Six months later, they've split up and Cassie has switched from Dublin's Murder Squad to Domestic Violence. And she's bored. Lifeless. Until she gets called in by her boyfriend and another cop to check out a crime scene--where a girl with her own face has just been killed. To make matters worse, the girl has the ID of an old undercover alias that Cassie had created--Lexie Madison. This "Lexie" was living in a big old manor house with four friends, and the cops want Cassie to go into that house undercover, posing as the dead girl...to find out who killed her.
This is a long, complicated book, and French takes her time unfolding the mystery. There are red herrings all over the place, and yet when the whodunnit finally comes to a close 466 pages later, I felt thoroughly satisfied. Nothing comes out of left field, nothing rang untrue. The many characters, taken from different parts of Ireland and the U.K., all feel authentic.
From the moment Cassie enters the old house as Lexie, there's a tension that only comes in these undercover stories. She befriends the four other residents: Daniel, the leader of the house who is both magnanimous and arrogant; Abby, the only other girl, who shares secrets with Lexie and expects secrets in return; Justin, who comes across a little too much as a gay stereotype but is still a fun character; and Ralph, who's trying to break away from Daddy's money, and likes drinking and fighting a little too much. These five characters come together as a family, and are excited to have Lexie back. Cassie trips up a few times, but doesn't do anything to blow her cover with this crew.
There's a curious morbidity and an excitement having the cop play someone who's already dead, and once you get over the implausibility of them looking identical, the story sucks you in. French has some great character arcs here, and uses the Irish countryside and the history of fairies and the mystical to her advantage here. By the time you get to the end of Lexie's story, it's been a heart-pounding ride, one that would stand up against any mystery or crime thriller out there.
Again, I don't read many mysteries, but if French continues this as a series, I'll keep on reading them. There's more swearing than I generally like in my books, and the "F-bomb" flows like water here. It was too much for my wife in "In the Woods," but since I work in a junior high, I'm fairly immune to it. If that's a consideration for you, you'll probably want to skip it.
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