The Likeness: A Novel | Tana French | Seductively safe atmosphere and delicately suspenseful...

The Likeness: A Novel | Tana French | Tana French's suspense of the year

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The Likeness: A Novel

	The Likeness: A Novel Tana French Viking Adult, 2008 - 480 pages average customer review:based on 43 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Seductively safe atmosphere and delicately suspenseful plot. This is an intelligent, enjoyable mystery. Highly recommended

A year after the events in In The Woods, Cassie Maddox has an unheard of opportunity: A recent murder victim is her exact double, and even used an undercover alias that Cassie created years ago. Now, she can become the victim, stepping into her life and her friendship with a close-knit group of four students, to try and crack the case from within. The Likeness is strongly atmospheric, with an almost magical setting, a closely interwoven cast of characters, and slow, delicate suspense. It isn't an attention-grabbing book, but it is an intriguing, strongly constructed mystery, and I loved it. Enthusiastically recommended.

I picked up The Likeness because I read In The Woods and loved it--it was a dark and visceral book which captured me and simply would not let go. The Likeness is a different style of book. It still has a strong atmosphere, but that atmosphere is quiet, romantic, and almost magical (even though there's no magic in the book), building into slow suspense. Cassie enters an extraordinary life: a close-knit friendship whose apparent safety and strength seduces both Cassie and the reader; an old refurbished home which cocoons the occupants in a small, private world. Yet Cassie is in the middle of a murder investigation, and she is always in danger of being discovered or attacked; despite the utopian setting, the suspense builds: slow, delicate, insidious. It's a careful balance and, though it isn't as attention-grabbing as In The Woods, it makes The Likeness an intriguing and compelling read.

Meanwhile, French spins an intelligent mystery. There are some unbelievable moments (not just the coincidence of the shared appearance and alias, but that an undercover investigation like this would ever occur), but the twist and turns are realistic while still surprising and the final reveal is entirely logical--but also tense and frightening. French's writing style is strong: Cassie has a unique narrative voice, the story is well-paced, and the setting and characters come to life (although some characters have unrealistically strong and simplified traits). I loved In The Woods so much that I was almost hesitant to read The Likeness, afraid that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. While I still prefer In The Woods, my fears were for naught. The Likeness is intelligent and subtly nuanced, seductive and suspenseful, and a pleasure to read. I highly recommend it--and, despite being an indirect sequel, The Likeness stands alone and interested readers not need read In The Woods first unless they want to.

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Tana French's suspense of the year

The Likeness is a follow-up to her first book, "In the Woods", and is very gripping and suspense during the whole read. The characters are real and you become part of the suspense that continues from every page turning. Recommend it very haighly and can't wait till her next book.

Filmmakers, take note.

I bought"The Likeness" before I was halfway through "In the Woods." I was arrested by French's characters and her poetic prose. I am also an actor and theatre director - and kept envisioning ways to film both novels! What casting possibilities! What suspense! What psychological game-playing!

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Escellent story and well told

Really enjoyed this book. Great story and interesting to read. Very well written.

An extraordinary book from a superb contemporary crime writer

This is the sort of book that will turn you inside out and continue to haunt you long after the last page. Before I had even finished it, I wanted to read it again. I'm usually not a huge fan of crime fiction, but In the Woods was engrossing enough to lead me straight into this one -- which I gave up sleep to read, and still can't get out of my head. Tana French is not your standard crime writer, and this extraordinary book goes far above and beyond anything I had ever expected from it. The characters are extraordinarily well developed and appealing, the plot is wholly original and fascinating; on the whole, this is a nearly flawless book. I can't wait to see what else French has up her sleeve.

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