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Jun 21, 2010

karen rated it:

okay, i enjoyed this tana french book much more than the first one. and against all odds; the premise of this book is so staggeringly unbelievable.check it out: so there's a murrrrrder, and the body is that of a young woman who looks just like detective cassie maddox! awesome! so why doesn't she just pretend to be the murdered girl, slip unnoticed into her life, and take it from there? because, dummy, her "life" is made up solely of a group of four other insular postgrad nerds who resi More...

92 comments like (45 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Tatiana rated it:

As seen on The Readventurer

Impressive. Very impressive. I think now, after reading two of Tana French's novels, I finally know what a good psychological thriller is. It is something that goes beyond simple figuring out whodunit, something that delves into the minds investigators, victims and killers, something that focuses on exploring the motives and states of mind rather than logistics of the crimes.

It is the psychological part of The Likeness that won me over, because, le More...

20 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2010

Brooke rated it:

And I thought In the Woods was good...I sucked down this nearly-500 page sequel in two days and then couldn't believe I'd been apprehensive about In the Woods even needing a sequel.

Detective Cassie Maddox goes undercover, with a twist - she's taking the place of a murder victim who looks just like her, and who had taken up residence in a cover identity that Cassie had created years before. She has to slip effortlessly into the role and find out if any of the four best friends that " More...

4 comments like (27 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2011

Megan rated it:

It is amazingly difficult to articulate my feelings and write a decent review for The Likeness. The second installment of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series follows the story of Detective Cassie Maddox as she becomes immersed in a new case. I know it’s not fair to compare this to In the Woods, but how can I not? In the Woods was a gripping, fast paced, roller coaster ride of a murder mystery. The Likeness is a much slower paced, psychological thriller. Did I enjoy it? Immensely. Was it as More...

31 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2010

Mallory rated it:

After loving In The Woods, I was so excited to run out and get this sequel by Tana French, who I found to be a thrilling writer. I was disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high after her glorious debut, but I found this book dull. I loved Cassie Maddox in the first book, but found her unsympathetic in the sequel; the only motivation and justifications I could find for her actions stemmed from actions in the first book, and didn't tell much more about her character. There were moments More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Aug 06, 2008

Leslie rated it:

Despite all the nasty reviews on Amazon, In the Woods was quite a debut, and Tana French is an excellent author. The Likeness just builds upon that foundation. Similarities to Tartt's The Secret History may put some readers off, but this may well be the book Tartt wishes she'd written.

In the Woods was good, but this was better, and French's gift for description creates some haunting images. Her characters have enough flaws to make them human - and to set up plot issues - but not e More...

4 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 25, 2011

Jeanette rated it:

Utterly implausible and thoroughly delectable! I loved getting inside that insular little world the "misfits" of Whitethorn House created for themselves. I love the way Tana French lets you get to know the characters---*really* know them---with all their neuroses and peccadilloes and habitual reactions. And her dialogue is just plain fun to read. Of course, nobody we know in real life can sit around popping off all those perfect ripostes, but it makes for entertaining reading. And More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2010

Matt rated it:

Funny how I read French's first book immediately after reading THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and now I'm reading her second book immediately after reading THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE.

I really sort of hated the ending of INTO THE WOODS (see my review), but many people said this book was BETTER and more focused without all of the "Rob" drama, so here I am.

So far, I'm enjoying the prose, yet bamboozled by the plot-- an "exact duplicate" of the main More...

9 comments like (7 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2010

Lori rated it:

I'm still debating whether to give this 3 or 4 stars - I just checked what I gave In the Woods, and see I had the same problem with that one! I gave that one 3 stars not knowing how much it would stay with me. I'm a fairly tough rater - 3 stars is quite a good rating for me.

Same thing as with In the Woods - not sure how much will stick with me after a few months, BUT just like that one, I pretty much was glued to The Likeness. When I woke up in the middle of the night, I was so drive More...

8 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 05, 2008

Karen rated it:

This is French's second novel/mystery thriller and I'm very glad to have discovered her. I couldn't put "In the Woods" down when I read it last year and I felt the same about this one. Her books are not light reads, they are dense with details and characterizations. The Likeness contains some of the secondary characters from "In the Woods", Detective Cassie Maddox is placed in an undercover assignment when a young woman ends up murder--and the girl could be Cassie's twin, t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Debra rated it:

Wow! This 2nd book in the series was even better than the 1st one, and I gave that one a 5! I really cared about the characters who were well-developed. French's prose is amazing. The only problem I had was suspending belief that a) 2 people could so closely resemble each other and b) that one person could so seamlessly walk into her "twin's" life. But, somehow French makes it all work. A very suspenseful and nerve-wracking ride!

6 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2009

Sherry rated it:

cassie maddox is still reeling from "operation vestal" (from french's debut novel, in the woods) when she's asked to return to undercover when a woman who happens to look just like her is murdered. not only does she look like her, she happens to have been using an alias that cassie used before on another undercover job. french tells a gripping story that kept me turning the pages as fast as i could.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2009

Karyn rated it:

I *love* this book -- the kind for which you break engagements and go home early just so you can get in bed and read it; the kind that makes you look forward to getting out of bed and going to work in the morning because you'll get to read it on the subway on the way there.

"The Likeness" is a sequel to Tana French's "In the Woods", which I also highly recommend, and even though the plots do not depend on each other, I also recommend reading them in order because y More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 29, 2009

mark rated it:

I read her 1st novel, really liked it - this one, too. The same character, a female detective, gets drwn into an undercover operation to find out who killed a young woman who looks just like her, and who "stole" her fake name when she was undercover before. I thought the novel was about 100 pages too long. Far too many references to how strange and weird the detective's bodily sensations would inform her ... of nothing, actually; and the creepiness of the surroundings. Also, the " More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2009

Theresa rated it:

I read this book to see if it resolved some plot points from the author's first book which left several threads unresolved. It did not resolve anything from the first book.

However, the main character of this book was a secondary character in the first book and there are references made to the first book but not any of consequence. Cassie Maddox transfers into the Domestic Violence unit of the Murder Squad in Ireland after the events of Into the Woods. She had done some undercover More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2009

Karen rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 29, 2008

Renee rated it:

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1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 18, 2008

Laura rated it:

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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Valerie rated it:

The Likeness is the sequel to In the Woods, and I'd recommend starting there if you're interested in reading it. It's possible that it could work as a stand-alone, but you'll miss a lot of subtle references that add depth to the sequel if you don't read them in order.

The LIkeness picks up soon after In the Woods left off, this time focusing on Cassie, the female detective who was partnered with Rob in ITW. She's left the murder squad (after the case chronicled in ITW) for the domesti More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 27, 2010

Ngaire rated it:

I'm being forced to read this between course readings, so I can't devote as much time as I would like to this, damnit, and it's killing me because it's so good. I also can't read it at night, because it makes me all jittery - French is like the master of building tension and suspense. So I'm stuck with reading it for an hour at lunchtimes and waiting for the weekend (when I'm not down in Macon for my stinky class).

Updated to add: Ok, finished it. Excellent, I think. I didn't l More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 22, 2011

Jenn rated it:

I loved her debut novel, In the Woods, which involves some of the same characters read here, and I had really high hopes for this book, too. In some ways, I wasn't disappointed -- the language is still lovely and the scenes beautifully rendered. But in other ways, I was disappointed -- the main character of this book, Cassie Maddox, was the second lead in the last book, and I expected, well, more of her. This book wanted to be a regular novel, not a mystery or crime book, and it's the mystery More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Amy rated it:

Tana French has become one of my new favorite authors - especially for suspense books. I don't read many suspense/mystery/crime novels. I'm not sure why I don't - when I do, I usually like them.

In this book, Cassie Maddox (from In the Woods) goes undercover to discover the murderer of a young woman. This young woman looks exactly like Cassie - and has assumed the made-up identity Cassie used in another undercover case.

I loved the way Cassie's character develops in the More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 28, 2009

erika rated it:

Another one that took me a while to get into, but well worth it. I was transported to the beautiful house with the beautiful friends and I really wanted Cassie/Lexie to be able to stay there forever. The ending was a bit of a letdown because of this. It was sad when the little fairytale had to end and everyone was brought back to reality. Tara French toned down all the excessive imagery and it was a swift, engaging read.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2008

Erin rated it:

This book was amazing! I think I actually liked it better than the author's first book (In the Woods).

This book is a mystery, but at the same time has a bit of a twist in that finding the killer isn't really the main conflict. The whodunnit part of the story is solved with a good chunk of the story left to tell, actually. There is more to the story than just who the killer is...like why they did it and what's going to happen next and how has this whole thing affected everyone. More...

5 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 19, 2011

Almeta rated it:

Another journey through relationships that we soooo want to work. This time friends know each other's vulnerabilities so well and can endlessly tease each other about them, yet trust each other to fiercely fight to protect one another from "outsiders".

Tana's characters are very diverse, yet all belieivable. I really, really didn't want anyone to get hurt.

Is there a name for that musical sound that comes at the end of an extrodinary feat? You know, the one th More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 27, 2010

Lina rated it:

I enjoy good mysteries, but this was surprisingly good - so much so that I wish I'd saved it until I read In the Woods.

The only reason this didn't get five stars is I've probably read about five million cheap mysteries where the protagonist is a female cop who happens to be tough as nails, a tomboy, and - naturally - smart and shapely, too. (Did I mention there's a rough around the edges male partner?) Tana French is too skilled a writer to make her main character such a caricature, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 20, 2010

Joyce rated it:

The Likeness[return]Tana French[return][return]In French s debut novel, In the Woods, she introduces the character of Detective Cassie Maddox, who started out in the Dublin police force as an undercover agent, then moved to the Murder Squad. Her involvement in Operation Vestal Virgin cause a permanent estrangement from her partner Rob Ryan, and scarred Cassie herself who, by the end of that book, transferred out of Murder and into Domestic Violence.[return][return]The Likeness is Cassie s sto More...

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Feb 08, 2009

Banafsheh rated it:

Detective Cassie Maddox is back, this time without Rob (her previous partner from Tana French's first book The Woods).

In this sequal a young woman is found murdered and Cassie's boyfriend Sam is called in to investigate. He arrives to find the victim is the spitting image of Cassie and what's even more strange, the victim's identity card identifies the victim as Lexie Maddox - Cassie's undercover name on an assignment years ago.

The victim shared an old house with four oth More...

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Feb 08, 2009

Alex rated it:

I finished this book a few days ago and haven't been able to get it out of my head since. The premise of the story is that a former undercover cop, Cassie Maddox, discovers a murdered woman who not only is her physical doppelganger, but also is using an undercover alias that Cassie used in an investigation years earlier. Cassie assumes the dead woman's identity and lives amongst the dead woman's close friends, four extremely tight-knit university students living together in an old house. I reall More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Heather rated it:

I intended to read "just a chapter" of this book but ended up spending an entire afternoon with it... and more of the next day. Very compelling! I've added her other book to my "to read" list.

It's atmospheric and ominous in a way that reminds me of Ruth Rendell back in the day (when she was good). The situation, with 5 young adults living together in a ramshackle country house, is similar to "A Fatal Inversion," and there is a similar set-up of needing More...

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