Review: The Likeness

 

Book: The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad 2)

Author: Tana French

This is a weaker follow up to the first book.  In part because it relies on a heavy suspension of disbelief – the ability to completely take over a person’s life when they are living in close proximity with four other people after watching snippets on cell phone.  And why that might be possible because everyone there is keeping secrets and no passes thing, it also doesn’t quite fully work with the solution of the mystery considering.

               But that still might be overcome if the characters actually work, and they really don’t.  The four people that Cassie is suppose be spying undercover on are pretty much interchangeable.  There really isn’t that much difference between Daniel, Justin, and Rafe (at least I think  that’s their names). The only one of the four who stands out is Abby, but she is the only woman out of the four. But the bigger problem is Cassie and the whole cruelty  of the plot.  Cassie seems to be a totally different character in many ways.  In part that is because it is told via Cassie, of course Cassie is going to be different.  But she also seems dumber and crueler.  And while she might have a reason to like the woman she is pretending to be  -the whole desire for the leaving – doesn’t seem to quite fly. 

               What is also strange is cruelty.  It’s true that the in the first book Rob was far from perfect and part of the horror was watching him make the wrong choices.  In some ways, maybe that is the theme of the series, but it doesn’t work here because Cassie is still hiding. And even this would work but there is no real sense of Cassie growing as a character or being aware of the choices she makes.  She also really doesn’t seem like a good detective in this book.  Am I suppose to see her yes at the end of the book as character development because, no, I’m sorry.  It is such a cliched story for a female detective – the only female detective in an all male squad (and I don’t buy the relationship at all, and I didn’t even buy the sexual element in the Cassie/Rob relationship either).