The Likeness (2008)

The Likeness: A Novel by Tana French


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't expect The Likeness to be connected to In the Woods, the author's debut mystery-thriller but, in fact, it continues the story of Cassie Maddox.

The premise is intriguing and with a bit of suspension of disbelief, the story delivers a beautifully written and suspenseful read. It was 2 AM when I turned the last page.

A young women is found murdered in an abandoned stone cottage in a small community near Dublin. What is shocking is that she looks exactly like Cassie and is carrying identification that Cassie used once in an undercover operation. Who is she and who killed her? To find out Cassie takes the dead woman's place living with four housemates leading a seemingly idyllic life as graduate students in a manor house they are restoring. The comraderie and the atmosphere is absolutely seductive.

There's a Gothic element to both these tales that bring to mind Donna Tartt and Carol Goodman. There is a elegiac element throughout that remains at the end.

Watch for her new books due out in July of 2010 called Faithful Place.

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