This is the second [a:Tana French|138825|Tana French|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1277505771p2/138825.jpg] novel I've read in just over a week and I have to say I'm rapidly becoming a big fan. [b:The Likeness|1914973|The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad, #2)|Tana French|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255897334s/1914973.jpg|6504351] is an excellent story that is about psychology at least as much as (if not more than) it is about a murder mystery. Like [b:In The Woods|237209|In The Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1)|Tana French|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1283565569s/237209.jpg|3088141], the book's greatest weakness is also perhaps its greatest strength: the comprehensive portrait of the characters and their personalities.

French makes certain you know your narrator almost as well as you know yourself. Their habits, fears, background, influences and desires are gradually laid out before you as the story progresses. And despite some of the far-fetched plot elements, Cassie Maddox and her life seemed very real to me. But it's not just the main character who gets such treatment - French builds up a detailed personality for everyone she introduces to make them seem like not just an accessory to the plot, but a person with thoughts, feelings and a past. It's a technique carried out by a number of authors to varying degrees of success but French's novels are my personal favourite so far. It only becomes a weakness when the plot stalls so we can explore the characters and I'm longing to know where the mystery will go next.

The actual idea proposed by French here is rather ludicrous. A girl looking exactly like Detective Cassie Maddox turns up dead. And not only that, but the girl has assumed the fake identity which Cassie had played the part of a few years previously. Coincidences like this surely do not actually happen. Cassie then goes undercover as the girl - Lexie Madison - into the home she shares with four other students and attempts to find clues that will lead the police towards her killer. Somehow, however, it doesn't seem to matter that the idea is totally unbelievable, Cassie in herself is convincing enough to carry this story.

We are soon dragged into a [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327733397s/29044.jpg|221359]-type set-up where we are introduced to an isolated circle of intelligent and weird students. In my opinion, though, I found these characters and the story a lot more entertaining and realistic than those in [b:The Secret History|29044|The Secret History|Donna Tartt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327733397s/29044.jpg|221359]. Perhaps because their obsessions were with living simply and each other rather than a subject. It becomes clear straight away that something is not quite right in the house and that there are a number of secrets being kept. But does this mean one of them is the killer?

Again French shows the mental impact of an investigation on her characters. Cassie finds herself becoming increasingly involved on a very personal level and discovers just how hard it is to become someone without feeling a certain attachment to their life and friends. In the end, even Cassie's loyalties to the police force are tested - what if she could have what she's always wanted by being Lexie Madison? A family, people who love her, a sense of security... would she want to give that up and go back to the stresses of her job?

One last note: Sam. Look, you're adorable and everything and I really don't want to see you get hurt... but I'm holding out for Cassie and Rob. That's all I have to say to you. Please, Ms French?

Absolutely fantastic. This is the second book in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and like the first one, it was amazing. Our main character is Detective Cassie Maddox and she is sent on an undercover operation when a murder victim who looks exactly like her is discovered (hence the title of the book). We follow her as she goes undercover to infiltrate the victim's group of friends in order to try and find out what happened.

The story, the writing, the characters, everything was so good. The author's characters are broken and flawed, but she has a way of making you love them and as the story progresses you feel as though you know the characters so well- their desires, their way of thinking, their thought process. French's books are so much more than just murder mysteries. They're psychological explorations of people's inner thoughts and darkness. That being said, the mystery aspect of her stories are riveting and consuming. You can feel the intense and inevitable build-up in the story. There was one point toward the end of the book where all these secrets and revelations were exposed and I literally had to stop reading and just process what had happened.

This story reminded me a lot of The Secret History by Donna Tartt (which I also loved) and now I must go buy the rest of the series because they will also be amazing without a doubt.

found family but make it slightly dysfunctional and a tad sinister and i’ll eat it up any day of the week. i went into this blind (which i barely do for mysteries) and it was a great decision because it felt like i had been thrown into the deep end just like our female detective had and it was fun trying to piece together what happened during the night of the murder along with her. the insider perspective in the story was really good and it made me feel like i was a part of the fantastic four too.

essentially, this was a character study centered within a great plot albeit bogged down by intense long winded inner monologues. in my opinion it was way too long and unnecessarily so in a lot of parts and a good chunk of it could have been cut out with the same results.

i will most likely be continuing the series depending on how good the plot of the next one sounds because i won’t be going in blind for that one.

This was just okay for me. I feel like it was far too long....at least 100 pages could have been cut out. But, I was interested enough to finish the audiobook.

I hope Tana French is hard at work on another novel, because with this one I've read all of her novels. I love her character development and the thoughtfulness of her mysteries. And the Irish narrator on audible is awesome too.

The premise of the novel seems so ridiculous initially, which is the reason I'd held off from reading this one. The main character Cassie is a cop who used to work undercover. She is called to the scene by her boyfriend (another cop) and her old boss as a woman who looks just like her and has assumed her former undercover identity is murdered. The cops together hatch a plan to keep the murder under wraps, say the woman is in a coma in the hospital. Then Cassie works to learn everything about the woman's life and re-insert herself into her life to find out who murdered her.

The woman - Lexi - was a grad student living with 4 roommates in a big old house in the country. Each of the other students are so interesting and the "family" they've created for themselves was so unique. The house and the countryside were so much a part of the story as well. For a while there I wanted to move in with them, until you see the darker side and things start to unravel. Probably my favorite Tana French novel. I love that she doesn't go for the easy endings.