The Likeness

The Likeness
by Tana French

Genre:  Fiction
Published:  10/27/08 by Recorded Books
Length:  22 hours and 30 minutes
Format:  Audiobook

My rating:
3.5 out of 5 stars







The Likeness by Tana French is the second book in the Dublin Murder Squad Series.  It has been a while since I read the first book, In the Woods, which I really liked.  But I was pretty foggy on what happened in the first book (except I remember I didn't like the ending too much).  The two books are loosely connected with some of the same characters, but each one works as a stand alone story.  So it is not necessary to read In the Woods before reading The Likeness.

The Likeness features Detective Cassie Maddox, who is sent on an unusual undercover mission.  A woman's body is found, and the woman happens to look identically like Detective Maddox.  So Cassie pretends to live this woman's life, infiltrating her closest group of friends in an attempt to find the murderer.

If you are looking for a true to life crime story, this one doesn't quite fit the bill.  The idea of Cassie looking exactly like Lexie, the victim, is hard to believe, not to mention the idea of Cassie being able to act exactly like Lexie and convince all of Lexie's friends that she is actually Lexie.  You have to be willing to just accept this plot and go with it.  If you can do that, it is kind of a fun story, even it is far fetched.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and it took me a really long time to finish the whole 22 hour book.  I'm not sure if I would have felt this way if I was reading the book, but listening to it, I felt like it was just a little too long-winded at times.  

I found this to be an entertaining crime story with interesting characters.  I would definitely like to continue reading the books in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series, as I have read good reviews of her other books as well.