The Likeness

Dublin Murder Squad, Book 2

By: Tana French

Narrated by: Grainne Gillis

Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's Summary

The inspiration for the major new BBC drama series Dublin Murders.

Still traumatised by her brush with a psychopath, Detective Cassie Maddox transfers out of the murder squad and starts a relationship with fellow detective Sam O'Neill. When he calls her to the scene of his new case, she is shocked to find that the murdered girl is her double. What's more, her ID shows she is Lexie Madison - the identity Cassie used years ago as an undercover detective. 

With no leads, no suspects and no clues to Lexie's real identity, Cassie's old boss spots the opportunity of a lifetime: send Cassie undercover in her place, to tempt the killer out of hiding to finish the job. 

©2008 Tana French (P)2016 Hodder & Stoughton

Good Story. Wo Sind De Anderen Bücher?

What did you love best about The Likeness?

Didn't enjoy it as much as In The Woods but it's engrossing and exciting. This one required the listener to suspend disbelief a little further.

Any additional comments?

Since it's part of a series, I'd like to hear them all. It drives me nuts that Audible only has some of the series and not the whole thing. Not even in order either. Unless you're prepared to learn German, good luck ever moving on to book 3. Or 4. If you don't care about continuity though you can listen to book 5.

Story gets better at the 2nd half

I took me a while to get into the story. Only half a way of the book the story trapped me and I got into the whole murder and the investigation. Happy I didn't give up. Cassie still an interesting character and I will give a chance to the third part. Performance: confusing initially, really like after few hours.

Fantastic!

The story was great - interesting, intriguing, suspenseful, with a good peppering of humour throughout. Cassie was a fantastic main character and French really makes details and atmospheres come alive. She uses vivid imagery, e dialogue sounds natural, and I was spellbound.

Grainne Gillis is one of my favourite narrators so far (I’ve listened to over 150 of these). Her accents are great, the voices of the different characters are distinct, and easily distinguishable. Her reading matches the words and atmosphere completely - it’s impeccable. I’m going to look for other books she’s performed.

It’s not necessary to read the book that came before this, but it does give some interesting context to Cassie, especially at the beginning of this novel.

I highly recommend this book - Enjoy!

Mediocre performance. Above average writing. Story lacks credibility.

Although I like Tana French's poetic writing style, I struggle with the extraneous detail and sentimentality. This is my second, and last book of hers I'll read/listen to. (I did both)

Performance was mediocre at best. Terrible singing, terrible high pitch voices. Poor accents. Didn't make we want more.

The Likeness

This narrator’s fake accent is so irritating I only managed the first chapter - I’d rather go and buy the actual book - the plot sounds interesting but that accent?!?

If you're looking for gold, this is it!!@

This is a wonderful story that peers into the hearts and relationships of 4 lost souls and a young policewoman trying to regain her soul.
The narration had just the right touch.

too ling

the author didnt know how to finish the book.... the last few chapters are futile and tiring

Not as good as Book 1

After listening to Book 1, I couldn't wait to read the next book in the series but was disappointed. First, it was a different narrator, with a completely different accent, which made it very hard to connect with the Cassie in the second book. She sounded completely different and it felt like it was a different character.
Second, the character of Cassie was not consistent with her personality established in the first book. Third, there was little continuity between the two books. Finally, the story bogged down in the middle and the "detective" aspect of the series seemed to be forgotten. It seemed to take forever to get back to the original premise. I did finish the book, but it was a difficult slog. I would be hesitant to read book 3.

Wtf did I just read??

I liked in the woods and Cassie was my favorite character, so I was excited to see what this novel would bring. Someone wrote somewhere that Tana French doesn’t write bad novels... I DISAGREE. This book was TERRIBLE. I was expecting a detective novel, but all I got was 22 dull hours of excruciating dialogue between boring unrealistic characters who were pretentious and had NOTHING to say. This story could have been told in about 2 hours. It was much ado about nothing.
And can we take a moment to be baffled about the fact of how many man hours were put in an under cover operation for the murder of a single Jane Doe??? Why??? Why put anyone under cover?? There wasn’t a criminal organization, just a bunch of messed up people acting like over privileged teenagers who made Jack all of their lives. The characters were so vapid. I’d compare their friendship to a cult, but that would have been more interesting. This was just so dull. They were so tight, and yet they seemed to hate each other, and they couldn’t even figure out that one amongst them was an under cover cop. I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that someone can flawlessly mimic someone they have never met before for several weeks under the scrutiny of people who knew her better than anyone.
And what about Cassie? Who started off so honest and then suddenly started lying to everyone for NO GOOD REASON. Wtf was that all about. And het bizarre obsession with Lexie and the house? It felt so out of character. Nothing about this novel makes sense. I am gutted I already bought the next two books. I don’t know if I ever want to read any Tana French again. This was bordering on Twilight territory for me. It was just so nonsensical.

Convoluted and vrebose

Takes too long to set up the plot. To much musing by the detective. Wise-cracking gets tiresome. First surprise is given away in the book description, which is a pity.

Bad accents

This was ok, but the english and Australian accents were so bad they were off putting.

This is more than a murder and an investigation

Despite the very unlikely premise of this book I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I like the way French mixes fast pasted, exciting writing with slower, more measured literary writing. Between blood and guts you get some of what makes the characters tick, right down to their politics.
In this book, for example, the house is essentially a character and its importance to so many people is dealt with; time is spent on it so that as the reader we understand the multi-dimensional complexity of the situation. We have all the perspectives: historical, social, economic. political and personal.
I think this adds a richness to the story, a roundness I am thoroughly enjoying.

This is more than just a murder and an investigation - it is a submergence in the universe of the book.

Best of Tana French’s books I’ve read/listened to.

Really great story. Reader excellent. Twists and never dragging etc. best of the 3 books I’ve read. Other great too but this extra something.

Awesome

Could not put this audio book down. Fantastic narration and excellent characters. Can't wait for number three.

I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands

I rate this as one of Tana French’s best books, it can stand on its own because of mood and setup.

It is a better book than The Secret History by Donna Tartt and that was a good book, they share some of the setting, mood and some of the social concerns, but the Likeness comes on top because it is less laden with angst and more dynamic. Beautifully written with great characters that jump off the page and a small town that is like every small town, full of secret, full of perceived history and real history.

One of the things that impressed me most was that it felt like it all was happening suspended from shared time in its own universe, without losing credibility. The pace is perfect and the psychological pressure on Detective Cassie Maddox is presented with realism and feeling for her and her likeness.

If you like Tana French this is not a difficult decision, she always delivers more than a thriller, deeper than just a message book or a formula; this is real writing for our times.

Unable to listen to narration

Unfortunately did not enjoy the narration and stopped listening after 3.5 hours. Tried to get into it but just couldn’t. Unfortunate as I enjoy Tana French novels.

Flat characters and not enough of a mystery.

I found most of the characters rather one dimensional and the plot to be too implausible to truly care what happened. I couldn't bare Frank. The murder mystery is quite easy to figure out, and the sub-plot of the victims identity is a damp squib which felt like a missed opportunity.
I read Tana French's previous novel which was ok but had a disappointing ending. Thought I would give her another try but this novel has put me off any further forays into her work.

Verbose in the extreme

I bought the Dublin murder squad series after reading the Wych Elm - which was fantastic. The first book in the series was ok but this second one was drawn out and ridiculously verbose. Nothing seems to happen and the perpetrator of the crime seemed obvious. Was expecting a twist that never came. It’s now put me off reading the next few.

improbable but totally engrossing!

I loved it, entered the make believe world of Lexie with Cassie and was sorry to leave

Dreadful narrator

I was unable to finish this audiobook because of the absolutely dreadful narrator, who completely ruined it for me. I kept expecting her to offer me a cup of tea. Ah g’wan, g’wan, g’wan! Her style was completely inappropriate for the nature of the story.