The Likeness: Dublin Murder Squad: 2 Paperback – 28 May 2009

I've been working my way pretty compulsively through Tana French, Irish literary crime fiction writer's books, since coming to her fourth book Broken Harbour, on the strength of two book reviewers blogs.Having just finished The Likeness, her second book, I'm reeling, punch drunk, from the emotional journey of this, which for sure must take part of its inspiration from Donna Tartt's first explosive novel, The Secret History, but is nonetheless in no way derivative, and is all imbued with French's own intelligence, style, and intricate character and plotting.Cassie Maddox, the central detective of her gripping first novel, In The Woods, is still feeling the after-shocks of the crime she investigated. No longer in the Murder Squad, she has relocated to the quieter shores of the Domestic Violence Unit, and has begun a relationship with one of the detectives from the murder squad.The Likeness does read as a stand-alone, for anyone who has not read In The Woods, and anything which the reader needs to know as background does get dripped into the story of this, as Cassie herself continues to come to terms with the events of In The Woods.We learn something about her professional back-story, too - unfortunately, this is a major spoiler which I think the publishers chose to reveal, and it represents my major criticism of this book (not French's fault) Cassie worked for a time a few years ago in Undercover Ops, infiltrating a drug ring. Her invented identity was that of a woman called Alexandra (Lexie) Madison. And then a body is found, in a derelict cottage, clearly a very recent murder victim. The wallet on the body shows the victim is called Lexie Madison. Running the identity through the police computer brings in the big gun of Undercover ops, Frank Mackey, who ran Cassie as Lexie. The shock is that this Lexie Madison is a double for the very much alive Cassie Maddox.The dead Lexie was part of an elite group of 5 post-graduate students, close friends, living in a beautiful, decaying mansion, Whitethorn House, on the outskirts of Glenskehy, a small backwater in the Wicklow Mountains. Inevitably police interest centres initially on the others in the group, but their stories all stack up, and the group are united in their grief that one of theirs is dead. And there are other suspects, which link in to Ireland's deep history going back through generations, and the tensions arising out of class and nationality - the working class and the peasantry of old Ireland, and the wealthy Anglo Irish landowners.Irish history is firmly woven into all French's novels.So, an audacious plan is set in place (and I'm afraid it is the spoiler of the blurb itself) Cassie could go undercover again as Lexie. The pathology report shows that the woman in the derelict cottage died from a single stab wound which did not happen in the cottage itself, the woman had run from someone to the cottage, and bled to death there. Had she been discovered earlier, she might have survived.The group (including the dead Lexie) were very much the golden, charismatic, bound together elite (and odd, skeletons in their backgrounds) of The Secret History. French adds something else into this however - there is very much a sense of the yearning, soulmate romance of deep friendship, above and beyond sexuality, the kind of friendship that arises in youth, and at the time seems as if it could last a lifetime. Even whilst within that place there is a kind of looking back to it, a `Lost Domaine/Grand Meaulnes' quality. Cassie herself and Cassie taking on this second `Lexie Madison' identity, and the 4 others is someone who longs for the powerful sense of belonging, of friendships as a more powerful bond than bloodkin, and a more powerful bond than the one-to-one of sexual partnership."In the sitting room the piano is open, wood glowing chestnut and almost too bright to look at in the bars of sun, the breeze stirring the yellowed sheet music like a finger. The table is laid ready for us, five settings - the bone-china plates and the long-stemmed wineglasses, fresh-cut honeysuckles trailing from a crystal bowl - but the silverware has gone dim with tarnish and the heavy damask napkins are frilled with dust......Somewhere in the house, faint as a fingernail-flick at the edge of my hearing, there are sounds: a scuffle, whispers. It almost stops my heart. The others aren't gone, I got it all wrong, somehow. They're only hiding; they're still here, for ever and ever"And that quote is as powerful a paean to memory, and the sense of our pasts almost within reach, as any I've readThis is indeed a long book (she shares that too, with Tartt!) - at nearly 700 pages, but the unravelling of the story, the careful and believable psychology of all the major characters, the tangles and twists of all the relationships, and, for Cassie herself, the weirdness of being herself-and-not-herself, the whole question of identity, arising when anyone is leading any kind of double life, is superlative. And there is also the fascination of the police procedural itself, and how individual police can marry their work functions, with who each of them is, individually.Most of all - it is the wonderful, seductive quality of French's writing, and a first person narrator who grabs the reader and makes them as desperate to want the golden lads and lasses to be real, and unsullied as Cassie would like, because of her own yearning for lifelong soulmates, whilst at the same time, making us as needy of her fierce professional desire to solve that crime as she is. She (and we) know that there are two drives going on here, which may not be compatible

Very good book. A bit lengthy for me but enjoyed the plot , characters and twists throughout. Certainly a recommended read.

After reading French's first novel, 'In The Woods', and loving it, I had high hopes and expectations for the second. I was not disappointed! She managed to pull off some daring and ingenious stunts in the first book, and carries on that tradition in the next. In a way, even more daring, for this time, the central premise on which the story is based - although bold, original and intriguing - is unfeasible to the point of preposterous - resting, for instance, on an extremely unlikely coincidence. Yet somehow, this matters not one jot. Such is French's skill in the construction of character, and her insight into the workings of the human heart, that the suspension of disbelief is made absolutely effortless. Normally, (and outside of the realm of the fantasy or scf-fi genres) the unlikelihood of the premise would be enough to undermine my enjoyment of a novel, however well-written it was. Not this time, though! Very early into the story, French had me believing every word.I was very happy to be re-acquainted with one of the main characters from 'In The Woods', Cassie Maddox. This time the action revolves around her; in the first book, the first-person narrator was her (by now, ex-) professional partner and friend, to whom Cassie refers now and then. This is very gratifying: a sign of the novelist's art, I grew very attached to the first set of characters and it was good to see Cassie re-appear in this book...and to know that Ryan, the main protagonist in the first one, is at least still around, somewhere.Once again, the tension grows and grows; wit and dark humour bringing touches of relief. The inner workings of the Gardai's Undercover Unit was fascinating: even though the particular situation in which they're operating in the novel might be highly unlikely, the practical, emotional and psychological dilemmas Cassie encounters are nonetheless portrayed in a compelling and utterly convincing manner. There are elements of the set-up which reminded me of Donna Tartt's 'The Secret History', but I have to say that French's depiction of a group of aloof young academic misfits is far superior to Tartt's, not least because French manages to make an unappealing bunch of characters earn our concern and compassion, if not our affection: in contrast, Tartt's depiction of a similar gang left me distinctly cold, bored and irritated. In short, French made me care about a group of characters I didn't like - quite an achievement!As in her first book, French has a great way of creating a spooky, sinister atmosphere, especially outdoors on dark, rural nights.I approached the ending with a mounting sense of dread, and I can honestly say that up until the last moment of the climax I really couldn't guess what the outcome would be. Excellent, gripping stuff.More loose ends were tied up at the end of this novel, than at the end of the first, but not so tightly or so neatly that it didn't ring true. Once again, it was a compelling, un-putdownable read, elegantly crafted, with memorable characters,with emotional intelligence and a dark, warm and passionate heart.

I loved 'In the Woods', the first in the Dublin Murder Squad series, particularly the close relationship between detectives Cassie Maddox and Rob Ryan. Sadly, the latter doesn't return in this sequel (nor in any of the other books in the series as far as I can tell). But although the 'likeness' itself is ridiculously improbable, and the close-knit group of friends at Whitethorn House almost embarrasingly evocative of the main characters in Donna Tartt's The Secret History (shades of which appeared in the first novel as well, along with Dennis Lehane's Mystic River - unsurprisingly two of the author's favourite novels), French can still write a good yarn and create a spooky atmosphere and ratchet up the tension. Despite being too long-winded and implausible, and I can imagine the lavish style of writing not being everyone's cup of tea, I still found it quite compelling.

It took me weeks to finish this novel. As a student of English and a high school English teacher of 35 years I appreciate the importance of the establishment of character, context and plot but in the novel it covered the first third of the book which I found tedious.The standard of writing, especially the description and dialogue, was excellent, as was the idea behind the book, but it took such a long time to resolve. The Times called it mesmerising but it wasn’t that. Unfortunately I thought it was a hundred pages too long, like many modern novels. In the end I was determined to finish it.

I am still so impressed at the prose of Tana French. The metaphors on nature, beauty, life, the environment are just so subtle, and real, and peaceful and yes, all this into a story of a murder. This is a book that I just couldn't put down, not only from wanting to understand and see the mystery solved, but mainly from the characters' personalities and development, joys, fears and their surroundings, specially those in nature. Tana French's work has been a true and cherished discovery this year and I am happy that there are still so many of her books to enjoy.

If you've bought the first book of the Dublin Murder Series, you're going to buy the second, and the third, and the fourth.... What's not to like about this book, or others in the series. Brilliant writing, sharply-etched characters with complex relations. A strong plot. A narrative that is well-paced.I confess: I'm addicted to this series!

This book was unusual. The book took place in Ireland. There was a murder. The perpetrator was unknown. No suspects. That's all pretty normal but the twist here is that the corpse looks like a (female) detective who once worked under-cover and is coerced into working undercover again to find the murderer of her double.The dead girl was in fact also 'under cover' leading a life with 4 post-grad students in a somewhat dilapidated house under a false name. One of them, the chief detective reasoned, must be the murderer and so the story of Detective Cassie Maddox becoming the reincarnated Lexie begins. The book kept me up at night, reading - and the finale was really quite unexpected. Well worth reading!

A really enjoyable mystery novel with Gothic elements, also a great portrayal of the idyllic but brief world of friendships and loves in the already special world of Trinity College Dublin combined with the more sombre panorama of post-crisis Ireland. The psychology of characters is very well drawn. Although the plot requires active suspension of disbelief, the relations of the characters in Whitethorn House make the novel really interesting. Daniel March and his friends reminds me of aspects of Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte in Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited.

Difficile de trouver un défaut à ce livre... Allez si, peut-être: pas de temps mort. Par moment, j'aurais aimé que l'auteur prenne un peu plus son temps et développe certaines idées. Mais après tout, c'est un polar, l'absence de respiration fait partie du genre!