Book Review #50 - The Likeness

Tana French follows her debut novel, In The Woods, with a similar, but better, thriller involving former homicide-now-working-domestic-violence-because-her-last-case-ended-so-badly detective, Cassie Maddox.

Maddox is contacted when the body of a woman is found murdered whose identity is none other than Lexie Madison, a former alias Maddox herself created when working as an undercover agent. That the woman also seems to be Maddox's unknown twin only intensifies Maddox's interest. Who was this girl? Why was she murdered? How did she find out about Lexie Madison?

To solve the murder, Maddox once again assumes the identity of Lexie Madison, who lives with four other Trinity graduate students who have been told by police that Lexie was only seriously injured when stabbed and now suffers from short-term memory loss.

While almost science-fiction in its unlikelihood, the story works because French convinces us it could. Just as she did with her first novel, French's focus isn't really who killed Lexie Madison, but more about Cassie and the results that come from her play acting.

While French does hint and dance around the plot of her first novel, to the point of being annoying vague, The Likeness really can stand on it own as an independent psychological thriller. I happen to think it helps having read its predecessor, if only to better understand Cassie Maddox, but as far as plot goes, reading In The Woods beforehand is not necessary.

Bad language aside, I enjoyed this fast-paced, complicated and interesting book.