[Dublin Murder Squad 02] • The Likeness

New York Times bestselling author Tana French, author of The Witch Elm, is “the most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years” (The Washington Post) and “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker). “Required reading for anyone who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting.” —The New York TimesSoon to be a Starz series In the “compellingˮ (The Boston Globe) and “pitch perfectˮ (Entertainment Weekly) follow-up to Tana French’s runaway bestseller In the Woods,

itʼs six months later and Cassie Maddox has transferred out of the

Dublin Murder Squad with no plans to go back—until an urgent telephone

call summons her to a grisly crime scene. The victim looks exactly like

Cassie and carries ID identifying herself as Alexandra Madison, an alias

Cassie once used as an undercover cop. Cassie must discover not only

who killed this girl, but, more important, who was this girl?

**

From Booklist

Starred Review French’s debut novel, In the Woods (2007), introduced Dublin Murder Squad detective Cassie Maddox and earned unanimous critical praise. Cassie is back, and French has written another winner. The body of a young woman is found in the ruins of a old stone cottage in a dying village outside of Dublin, and the dead woman and Cassie are virtual twins. Lacking suspects or leads, the victim is reported by the police to be injured but alive, leaving Cassie to step into the dead woman’s life as a Trinity College graduate student and the housemate of four other students. Despite the tensions of being undercover, Cassie quickly learns to love her quirky, insular housemates and her new life in a once-grand house, even as the Murder Squad investigation yields little. Someone stabbed her doppelganger to death, and Cassie must find the killer. The Likeness has everything: memorable characters, crisp dialogue, shrewd psychological insight, mounting tension, a palpable sense of place, and wonderfully evocative, painterly prose. In the Woods was an Edgar Award finalist; this one just might go one step further. --Thomas Gaughan

Praise

“[Tana French] aces her second novel. The Likeness [is a] nearly pitch-perfect follow-up to her 2007 debut thriller, In the Woods.” —Entertainment Weekly**“Tana

French puts a clever twist on every lonely child’s fantasy of leading a

parallel life when she creates an alternate identity for her detective

in THE LIKENESS… Cassie is a character — the eternal lost child — you

can really care about.”—New York Times Book Review  “The writing is glorious, and the characters and drama so compelling” —The Boston Globe*   “Savor French’s turns of phrase and simmering suspense until the prospect of finishing shuts all distractions out.” —The Baltimore Sun 

“The verve of her writing illuminates the uncanny experience of

stepping into someone else’s life. [The Likeness is] a sophisticated

thriller.” —The Dallas Morning NewsPraise for Tana French “When

you read Ms. French — and she has become required reading for anyone

who appreciates tough, unflinching intelligence and ingenious plotting —

make only one assumption: All of your initial assumptions are wrong”—The New York Times“Tana French is the most interesting, most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years.”—The Washington Post“[Tana French] inspires cultic devotion in readers…most crime fiction is diverting; French’s is consuming.”—The New Yorker“To

say Tana French is one of the great thriller writers is really too

limiting. Rather she’s simply this: a truly great writer.”­ —Gillian Flynn “French is a poet of mood and a master builder of plots.” ­—The Washington Post “One of the most distinct and exciting new voices in crime writing.” —The Wall Street Journal “French

does something fresh with every novel, each one as powerful as the last

but in a very different manner. Perhaps she has superpowers of her own?

Whatever the source of her gift, it’s only growing more miraculous with

every book.” —Salon.com