Art Kavanagh

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Tana French, The Likeness review

This is the first book of Tana French’s that I read, though it’s the second in her loosely-connected series. (I still haven’t read In the Woods [Update: an omission since remedied several times over].) I was attracted by the irresistible, knock-out premise. Cassie used to be an undercover cop but, although she’s still young, the constant deceit and danger took their toll and she has transferred to other duties. When a young woman is found murdered, however, Cassie is dragged back in. Not only does the victim look just like her but her name and other details of her identity previously belonged to Cassie when she worked undercover. Cassie agrees, under pressure, to assume the identity once more, to pretend that “Lexie” survived the attack and try to establish how her doppelganger lived and died.

She goes to live, as Lexie had, in a large isolated house occupied by a group of Trinity students. Can she persuade them that she is the woman they knew but she didn’t — and stay safe long enough to find the truth?

Obviously, this setup is highly contrived — that’s a given. But there’s something very compelling about it — stories of doppelgangers almost always are, and I love the idea of a discarded identities floating around, attaching themselves to other people — or being deliberately taken up by someone who has something to hide. (I’ve just talked myself into rereading this — I wonder what happened to my copy.)

Originally posted on Goodreads, 28-Dec-2015.