THE LIKENESS
Tana French
Penguin
Mystery
Hardcover: 9780670018864
Paperback: 9780143115625
In her award-winning debut novel, IN THE WOODS, Tana French demonstrated that she has an uncanny ability to draw disparate elements from her characters' past into the present --- elements that have quietly festered for years until they suddenly and dramatically affect the present. THE LIKENESS continues this theme, though in a totally different manner.
Dublin, Ireland detective Cassie Maddox, who had a secondary but important role in the events of the first book, returns, not broken by the events of that novel but badly if quietly bent. She has transferred from the Murder Squad to Domestic Violence investigations; her relationship with Rob Ryan, her former colleague and best friend, has been rent asunder, apparently irrevocably; and she is still cautiously feeling her way through a romantic relationship with fellow officer Sam O'Neill. It is O'Neill who initially draws Maddox into the event that forms the crux of THE LIKENESS, that being the discovery of a body in a small working class subdivision on Dublin's outskirts.
The murder victim is a young woman, a college student who shares an estate house with four others. What draws Maddox into the investigation, however, is that she bears an almost identical likeness to Maddox and is going by the name of Alexandra Madison, which Maddox herself used some years before when she was assigned to undercover duty. Frank Mackey, Maddox's former supervisor on the undercover squad, concocts a plan that is half-mad and half-brilliant: spread the word that Madison was grievously wounded, but not murdered, and send Maddox back into Madison's life with the intent of seeing what, and who, turns up. O'Neill vehemently opposes this tactic, and Maddox herself is extremely reluctant to become a part of it. Yet there is much about Madison that attracts and repels her, ultimately giving way to an incessant curiosity about this woman who has come to such an unfortunate end, who has her face, and who, by way of and for reasons unknown, has taken her (undercover) identity.
Maddox accordingly immerses herself in the details of Madison's life, then jumps into it, moving into her home, interacting with her roommates and attending her college classes. While there is the occasional rough spot --- laid off to the trauma of Madison's injuries --- Maddox is able to do an entirely plausible job of assuming the dead woman's identity. It seems that Maddox is not wrapped all that tightly, and the roots of her emotional chaos were set long before the trauma of IN THE WOODS. She focuses not only on the "who" of the murder but how Madison came to take over Maddox's former undercover identity, where she came from, and who she was. It is the latter that is arguably the biggest draw for Maddox.
Madison's four roommates shared an almost communal relationship with her, one that Maddox, following in Madison's shoeprints, is able to slip into almost too well, in effect temporarily losing herself in the dead woman's identity to the extent that Maddox's loyalties to her job and her roommates become both blurred and divided. Whoever killed Madison, meanwhile, may be waiting to finish the job. But what Maddox is not aware of is that someone knows she is not who she claims to be and is playing a game of cat and mouse --- or should that be mice? --- with her, seeking to protect the murderer and return matters to the way they were before Maddox met her untimely end. THE LIKENESS concludes with a new spin --- yes, at this late date --- upon the classic drawing room denouement, one that is not only memorable but also brilliant in its execution.
Tana French's grasp of her material belies the fact that THE LIKENESS is only her sophomore effort. The subject matter that she explores is dense and deep, and only a few authors --- John le Carre comes to mind most readily --- feel confident enough to tread into it. It is not something one can phone in or fake; French, as she demonstrates here, is the real deal. Combining elements of police procedurals, dark psychology and classic mystery, THE LIKENESS is a keeper.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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