The Likeness

Character-driven novels are like deep, rich, organic 80% dark chocolate to me. When I want to delve headlong into a character and pull them on like a second skin, I pull out a Tana French novel. I was so deep into Cassie Maddox that I didn’t see the clues, didn’t pick up on the cues from the bad guy, and found myself on the same inevitable path as Cassie.

This book threw me into rural Ireland, back into the graduate student lifestyle, and into the insular little group that had enveloped Cassie during her investigation. I felt equally terrified at… show more.

We first meet Cassie Maddox in Tana French’s debut book, In the Woods, but in her second showing, she really shows her mettle. Recovering from the betrayal she undergoes in the investigation of a brutal child’s murder in the first book, Cassie is recruited for an undercover assignment to solve another murder – but this time, it’s the death of a young woman who she eerily resembles. Cassie must pretend to be the dead woman and gain the trust and confidence of the group of charismatic oddballs who were the closest friends of the victim. I loved Donna Tartt’s… show more.