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| The Likeness | 
 enlarge | Author: Tana French
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Category: Book
Buy Used: $39.53
Used (4) from $39.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 1647652
Format: Import
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 560
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0340924772
EAN: 9780340924778
ASIN: 0340924772
Publication Date: August 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 The hawthorn as extended metaphor July 22, 2008
47 out of 49 found this review helpful
There will be no spoilers in this review.
As in her first novel, In the Woods, Tana French has created another sensuous, lyrical, haunting, suspenseful story. Although it is considered a mystery, it is much much more than that. It is a story of identity in all its literal and metaphorical forms. It is a social commentary (but never sententious) and it is also about fear and flight and love.
Casie Maddox and Sam O'Neill are detectives from In the Woods. Although Operation Vestal (from In the Woods) is mentioned several times, these books can be read in any sequence without ruining it for the reader. The setting is again Dublin, Ireland.
Cassie is the star attraction of this story as she goes undercover to live with four liberal arts doctoral candidates whose housemate, Lexie Maddox, is found dead from a stabbing in an abandoned cottage. Lexie Maddox looks exactly like Cassie, and the name is her last undercover alias, which adds to the mystery. The housemates will be told that she survived the stabbing.
It isn't necessary to give too many plot details. What is more important is the response from reading. This is a generous, gorgeous, thoughtful, poetic story. The tone is almost elegiac at times, especially during her descriptive paragraphs, and the author's use of the extended metaphor is prolific and often profound. At the end of the novel, I looked up hawthorn (the tree, flower, bush) on Wikipedia and had a chill run up and down my spine. Her descriptions, turns of phrase, elegant passages and graceful unfolding keep me fastened and fascinated. What I love about Tana French is that her novels are both character-driven AND plot-driven. She does not sacrifice one for the other. With most mysteries, I only read them once. But The Likeness can be read again just for the aesthetics. Also, there is no deus ex machina here. The story is excellently paced with a well-timed delivery of its climax.
Tana French is no lightweight, but she makes the story accessible to anyone who enjoys reading. She has that gift to appeal to a variety of readers-- even readers who look for largely escape mysteries. But this is not escape reading; it is the kind of reading that makes you ponder. It is philosophical and it echoes. It has shadows, swirls, hollows, heart,humanity, tension, suspense, whispers, hawthorn, hawthorn, hawthorn...
I look forward to the third book that Tana French is working on, with Frank Mackey (from The Likeness) as the main protagonist.
 Cassie Maddox meets her doppleganger July 17, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
It a common belief that every one has a double, but it's a rare that anyone actually encounters his or her mirror image. It is this conceit that drives The Likeness, as Detective Cassie Maddox (heroine of French's memorable debut novel, the Edgar-winning In the Woods), is called in to consult on a murder case with an improbable victim, a woman who not only looks like her, but who has hijacked an identity Maddox created for herself when she was part of an undercover unit some years prior. Seeing a rare opportunity, her former superior cajoles her into once again assuming the identity of Lexie Madison, inserting herself into the victim's life to uncover the identity of her slayer.
An implausible scenario, you say? Well, French makes it work, addressing reader's skepticism through that displayed by her heroine, answering each logical objection in turn until achieving her audience's buy in. Once that hurdle is overcome, French delivers an intense, well-constructed novel of suspense, as Cassie once again steps into the shoes of her fictional construct. She finds that she likes the life "Lexie" has built for herself, and the friends she has made, even though one or all of them may be responsible for her death. Through Carrie's first person narration, French allows readers to experience the tension and duplicity first hand, first making them complicit in Cassie's deception, then making them feel the intensity of her emotions as she grows to admire, and even to love, her new friends and suspects, whose trust she may have to betray.
another Edgar to come for Tana French? July 19, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
The extraordinary follow-up to Tana French's Edgar-winning "In the Woods," "The Likeness" beautifully combines the narrative and the lyrical, interspersing moments of transcendent illumination with leisurely confident story-telling that doesn't let you go for a moment. The language is wonderful, the characterizations are complex and believable, and the suspense builds to a climax that surely will soon be incorporated into "a major motion picture." French credits her readers with intelligence and taste, letting this book be read on many levels, from dramatic mystery to speculation on subjects like the guts and work that being loved take; the thought that in life you take what you want and then pay for it (though you don't know in advance what the price will be); the changing nature of social subversion (which used to be expressed through discontent and now takes the form of contentment); what happens to people and societies when group memory is lost. A wonderful mystery, but not just a mystery. Highly recommended.
 Interesting sequel from In the Woods author August 3, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Despite the farfetched premise of the story, it is well written and interesting. I wish the set-up wasn't quite so hokey but after I got around it I enjoyed the book, even though it is rather slow paced. Ms French has talent and her Irish settings are entertaining and colorful. I liked the description of the house and area in the story but found neither especially creepy which could have made it more of a thriller.
The Must-Have Read for Summer July 24, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
It is safe to say that is the best book that I have read since completing French's "In the Woods" last summer.
A thriller that picks up some time after where "In the Woods" left off, the story follows the mysterious murder of Detective Cassie Maddox's doppleganger.
While the plot is sometimes totally incredulous, the quality of French's writing ropes the reader back in everytime reality threatens to destroy enjoyment of the novel. French strikes a tone that is intellectual (there are several long-winded monologues made by one of the characters Maddox encounters)- yet is at the same time accessible and easy to read. Something of a "The Secret History" style characters meets the cultural/class/society undertones of "Brideshead Revisited" makes this a totally engrossing read. Though the book reaches a much more concrete conclusion than that offered in French's previous offering, the novel still carries with it an air of mystery and unrest that is fascinating.
While I have seen several reviews that have said the book is a tad bit long-winded, I was not bothered by the length- to the contrary, I actually very much enjoyed spending all the time possible with French's clever characters (particularly the group of students that Maddox finds herself embedded among).
Am very much looking forward to Ms. French's next novel...
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