The likeness, while on its face is mostly implausble, was a clever and fascinating mystery.  I adore Detective Cassie Maddox and was glad to spend more time with her.  I was enamored with In the Woods and I honestly thought there was no way I would enjoy this book as much. I was wrong, and now I"m obsessed with these novels and I can't wait to dive into the next one.  Each character is developed so earnestly and then elegantly decostructed. By the end of the novel the reader knows that character so well they would recognize them in the dark.  Really brilliant, interesting and unique.

I've read a good bit of Tana French, largely out of order, and this was definitely the slowest and most cerebral of the ones I've encountered. The plot plods along, only picking up any real pace about two-thirds through the whole story. And while French's novels are always very protagonist-focused, it was disappointing to see so much of the book focus on Cassie's introspection. We spend so much time around four other characters but never get beyond some surface-level description and some throw-away dialogue. <spolier> The ending was a bit disappointing too. The people you suspect did it are in fact the ones that did it all along. No grand twist, no huge reveal, no big moment of shock. It didn't come as a surprise as much as a slow realization, like waking up out of a dream.  </spolier> The quality of the writing carried the story. But I don't think I would've finished this book if it wasn't such a fan of French's oeuvre. If you're looking for a tightly-paced detective story, try Broken Harbor instead. 

 The Likeness was my first book by Tana French, even though it is actually the second in a series. It opens with Detective Cassandra Maddox (I confess a fondness for the name - had my mother had her way it would have been mine) being called to a murder scene where the victim looks exactly like her, and bears the name of Lexie Madison, an entirely fictional alias Cassie once used on an undercover assignment. To take advantage of this somewhat unbelievable coincidence Cassie is persuaded to go undercover once more and, claiming to have been only injured, take up Lexie’s life in an effort to discover exactly who killed her and who she really was.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the eerie atmosphere - the almost gothic vibes from the house, compounded by the attacks against it, and the claustrophobic closeness of Lexie‘s friends, all very idiosyncratic PhD students sharing an isolated run down mansion one of them had inherited.

I also appreciated some of the issues which were raised, if not necessarily covered in great depth - the continuing resentment against the British colonialism in Ireland, material vs spiritual wealth, art, the factors that make a good life, class, and the rural-urban divide.

I had mixed feelings about Cassie. While I loved the badass side of her personality, and the nature of her relationship with her former boss Frank, her deliberately violating protocol and taking unnecessary risks irked me. Why put yourself in danger for no good reason? Possibly if I had read the first book in the series I might have had more insight into what drove Cassie’s behaviour.

I did find this book a little on the long side but it mostly held my interest. While I enjoyed the reading experience it wasn’t enough to convince me to join the Tara French fan club. 

If you like a slow burn mystery, this is the book for you. Satisfying ending, good characters.

First I just wanna say that the audiobook was fantastic, Heather O’Neill is an amazing narrator. Probably one of the best I’ve heard so far. 

The Likeness is a thriller, but instead of the exciting fast-paced climax and resolutions I’m used to, it was more akin to a train slowly chugging along quietly enveloping you in the story. And despite it being a murder mystery and knowing the housemates are suspects, the more I read about them the more that enveloping feeling became a sense of sadness because I really felt how much they cared about each other through it all and the hope that they were innocent even though I knew it was very unlikely. This dichotomy of feelings is something I really appreciated, and I kinda love when books are able to make me feel this way. 

I also really liked how Tana French didn’t try to outsmart readers and make the mystery too difficult to solve. I think I picked up on who the culprits were, or at least suspected, early on, a bit through picking up clues but mostly because I’ve read Donna Tart before. So this is maybe less about my intelligence and more about my experience lmao. 

it is interesting how i have read both the first and second book and dislike the main character the most - probably because i can see how stupid they are being and when it is a crime novel, its A BIG DEAL hahaha. but overall, a good crime novel, super interesting and engaging. i liked the concept of a look-a-like and i actually liked that not perfectly wrapped up ending 

Much better than the first book, and better than The Secret History (they have similar tropes/stories), but still fell a bit short for me. The unrealistic premise didn’t bother me, but I felt a bit cheated in the end finding out the full story of what happened to Lexie, as I guessed the gist of it from the beginning. Also, the back cover made the book sound much more of a psychological thriller than it was. I really liked the intense and complicated relationships between all the characters but overall it’s not something I’d highly recommend to someone.