The Likeness

The Dublin Murder Squad books by Tana French always highlight a different protagonist from the Murder Squad, and this time it's Cassie Maddox, who I really liked in the first book In the Woods. I liked her far less in this book with the weirdest of premises. A dead woman is found, and she's basically a total lookalike for Cassie. Cassie then goes undercover to live with her housemates, to find out who murdered her. The housemates live in a fancy mansion, all attend university, and are all weirdly attached to each other. Cassie manages to blend in, and falls in love with the manor and kinda the housemates too.

I got such bad vibes from the housemates, and I don't know why anyone would solve a murder like this. Regardless, Tana French knows how to beautifully write, and despite not loving the story, I turned page after page.

Cassie Maddox is sucked back into undercover work by the freakish coincidence of a murder victim that looks just like her. Most of the book is Cassie impersonating the victim to her housemates. There is lots of interesting characterization of Cassie, the housemates, and the victim.

While "Into the woods" kindof sucker-punched me with the ending, this was less traumatic. The ending of this book is a bit more conventional (even using some police procedural trope, slightly twisted).

You should definitely read "Into the woods first", this book references it quite often. It does switch points of view a bit startlingly compared to the previous book.

Somehow, this is better than In the Woods. Highly recommended.