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The History Connection - The Likeness: A Novel
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List Price: $25.95
Our Price: $13.50
Your Save: $ 12.45 ( 48% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780670018864
ISBN: 0670018864
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2008-07-17
Publisher: Viking Adult
Studio: Viking Adult
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted and Powerful Story
Comment:
"The Likeness" takes places six months after Tana French's first novel, "In the Woods". Detective Cassie Maddox has been through a lot of trauma and she wants nothing to do with murder cases and has transferred out of that unit. One day, a young woman is stabbed to death and Cassie is called in to help solve the murder. Things start to get creepy when it turns out that the girl looks exactly like Cassie and her ID mysteriously reads Lexie Madison, an alias that Cassie had used years earlier. By lying to those who knew the woman, a plan is hatched to have Cassie go undercover as Lexie and find out who killed her. Things become complicated when Cassie begins to develop genuine feelings for Lexie's roommates and gets too personally involved with the potential suspects.
"The Likeness" drew me in right from the start and I became immersed in Cassie's world of deception, danger and drama. While I usually appreciate an author's vivid descriptions of his or her characters, Tana French outdoes herself by painting such elaborate portraits of each character, along with their nuances, quirks and thought patterns. I could easily envision the tight-knit group of friends and Cassie slowly letting her guard down and becoming close to them. Most mystery books tend to focus a great deal on the plot but this one builds up momentum slowly and French never neglects the characters' development.
I don't know if this book will be made into a movie, but I can easily envision it all on screen perfectly. I found myself becoming really attached to the characters, especially to Cassie, and I was really sad when the book finished. I hope there will be more books about Detective Cassie in the future!
http://bookopolis.blogspot.com
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wow, Great Page Turner!
Comment: I liked the first book Into The Woods. Loved the follow up The Likeness. The writer puts you in a small town in Ireland. Really interesting characters, you will want to live in "the house". You can read other reviews about the story i just wanted to give it a rave "cant put it down" review. This book entertains.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Languid
Comment: When I read an undercover detective story, I assume that there will be tense moments sprinkled throughout the book. After noting several missed opportunities in the first 100 pages, I adjusted my expectations and continued on, thinking instead that I could fill up on the rich descriptions, such as those that easily made me visualize the Whitehorn House and its inhabitants.
The problem is that this descriptiveness extended very little to the story itself. For example, "No Pasts" means we know little about the character's backgrounds. We never learn what the "huge, complicated, vicious fight" was that Cassie had with her former partner and best friend Rob, even though he pops into her mind any number of times during the story. At the end, the father of Lexie's baby is identified but we're told nothing of that relationship. We're left wondering how Lexie actually received the stab wound that led to her death.
The story's shortcomings, however, are deeper than just individual examples. There isn't one chapter where I honestly felt as though Cassie was in danger - except for some slight anxiety in the final pages. In fact, it's almost as though Cassie, who had experience in undercover murder investigations, was intimidated by the younger graduate students who generally behave as though they're freshmen in college.
"The Likeness" lacks that foreboding feeling of "Uh, oh, things are about to really blow up." And that's too bad because I had no problem, like some readers, accepting the premise that Cassie was investigating the death of someone who looked just like her. All of the ingredients to develop a unique storyline - having Cassie live with the deceased's roommates to flush out a murderer -- were there. Instead, the story wandered. Conversations go on and on, seemingly irrelevant at times, repeating in different words what was written two pages earlier. A more tightly-written book where the author better displayed how actual detective investigations worked, with their feints and edgy back-and-forth querying, would have added much-needed suspense.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I didn't want it to end...
Comment: Even better than "In the Woods". I can't wait for her next book. Tana French will always have a spot on my bookshelves!
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best mysteries of the year.
Comment: The writing is superb, and I love the characters. I really enjoyed In the Woods too, and will be watching for her next book.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The eagerly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestselling psychological thriller In the Woods
Six months after the events of In the Woods, Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. She’s transferred out of the murder squad and started a relationship with Detective Sam O’Neill, but she’s too badly shaken to make a commitment to him or to her career. Then Sam calls her to the scene of his new case: a young woman found stabbed to death in a small town outside Dublin. The dead girl’s ID says her name is Lexie Madison—the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective—and she looks exactly like Cassie.
With no leads, no suspects, and no clue to Lexie’s real identity, Cassie’s old undercover boss, Frank Mackey, spots the opportunity of a lifetime. They can say that the stab wound wasn’t fatal and send Cassie undercover in her place to find out information that the police never would and to tempt the killer out of hiding. At first Cassie thinks the idea is crazy, but she is seduced by the prospect of working on a murder investigation again and by the idea of assuming the victim’s identity as a graduate student with a cozy group of friends.
As she is drawn into Lexie’s world, Cassie realizes that the girl’s secrets run deeper than anyone imagined. Her friends are becoming suspicious, Sam has discovered a generations-old feud involving the old house the students live in, and Frank is starting to suspect that Cassie’s growing emotional involvement could put the whole investigation at risk. Another gripping psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist we’ve come to love, from an author who has proven that she can deliver.
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