Because of a favorable and intriguing review in the New Yorker. "Try to Remember: Tana French's off, intimate crime fiction" by Laura Miller (October 3, 2016), and because we had recently been in Ireland, where French's books are set, I bought and read the first of her Dublin Murder Squad series, In the Woods (Miller was reviewing the sixth, but I decided it was best to start at the beginning). I enjoyed reading that long, intense book and ordered the second one, The Likeness, which I have just finished reading. I intend to go on and read the rest, but not immediately. Hers are books that are hard to put down, and one doesn't always want to be swept away by that kind of energy.
The Likeness is narrated by Cassie Maddox, a detective who was a major character in In the Woods. The premise of the book is entirely unlikely, but, because French is a convincing writer, I ignored the impossibility of the initial situation and plunged right in. But I can imagine a reader thinking, "Oh, go on," and setting the book aside.
This is how the plot is set in motion: a young woman is found stabbed to death in a rural area about an hour away from Dublin, and she looks so much like Cassie, that her boyfriend, a murder detective who has been called in to begin the investigation, is afraid that it's her. Strangely, though she is obviously not the victim, the young woman's name is Lexie Madison, which was the name Cassie had assumed when she was working undercover to catch drug dealers, in other words, not the name of a real person (though, if you do a web search for Lexie Madison, you will find that there actually are women with that name). And, coincidentally (obviously not coincidentally, since Tana French put in in the book), Cassie had been stabbed while working undercover.
Because there is almost no evidence, Cassie is sent undercover again, to impersonate the victim (the police pretend that she hadn't died, which they can do handily, because in any event they can't locate the victim's next of kin) and live with her housemates under a false identity, in hopes of discovering who stabbed "Lexie." At the same time, the police are trying to find out who the victim really was.
So, for nearly a month, Cassie is living with four young adults who knew Lexie intimately, trying to pass herself off as that person, whom she herself had never known. French presents her preparations for taking on the role very interestingly.
With the passage of time undercover, Cassie becomes obsessed with Lexie and envious of her freedom and courage: she dropped her entire life several times, moved from place to place, repeatedly took on new names and identities, and so attained freedom, which Cassie envies. This fluidity of identity suited "Lexie" perfectly to fit in with the four graduate students in English Literature at Trinity College, who are living together in a mansion inherited by one of them, and restoring the house bit by bit. They, too, on principle, refuse to bring up the past, the time in their lives before they met each other and banded together.
A lot of the novel's plot is not really a plot. It's about Cassie's state of mind and her relations with the two detectives who are in charge of the investigation, and in a sense the novel is about how easy and how hard it is to be someone else (and, by extension, to be oneself). Also, like any good mystery novel, French keeps us guessing about who the murderer actually was.
In the Woods, the first novel in what has turned out to be a series, was narrated by Rob Ryan, a detective who was Cassie's partner in the murder squad, and Tana French managed to project his voice successfully. Now Cassie is the narrator, and, again, Tana French has gotten deep into her invented character's soul. So, like an Elizabethan play within a play, we have impersonations within impersonations: someone (we only find out who at the end of the book) was impersonating Lexie Madison, whom Cassie once impersonated, then Cassie impersonates Lexie, and, of course, Tana French is impersonating an invented character (just as Lexie was invented).
French is very good at describing places and things, quite imaginative, and highly intelligent. Lexie's four room-mates are quirky, original characters, and French manages to make us believe in them (at least while we're reading the book). They have created a closed milieu for themselves, aloof from the other students at Trinity, distant from the villagers around the house where they live, and cut off from their families. Strikingly, the police department, as French depicts it, is a mirror image of this little group. Detectives, even in relatively peaceful Ireland, can't live normal lives because of their work: both the intense demands of solving crimes and the stress of dealing with crimes all the time. Like the student characters in The Likeness, the detectives live beyond the realm of ordinary civic life. Perhaps that's why Tana French chose to invent and explore their world.
As I said, I'm planning to read the rest of the books in the series, but I need some time to recover from this one. I just downloaded Barchester Towers.
The Likeness is narrated by Cassie Maddox, a detective who was a major character in In the Woods. The premise of the book is entirely unlikely, but, because French is a convincing writer, I ignored the impossibility of the initial situation and plunged right in. But I can imagine a reader thinking, "Oh, go on," and setting the book aside.
This is how the plot is set in motion: a young woman is found stabbed to death in a rural area about an hour away from Dublin, and she looks so much like Cassie, that her boyfriend, a murder detective who has been called in to begin the investigation, is afraid that it's her. Strangely, though she is obviously not the victim, the young woman's name is Lexie Madison, which was the name Cassie had assumed when she was working undercover to catch drug dealers, in other words, not the name of a real person (though, if you do a web search for Lexie Madison, you will find that there actually are women with that name). And, coincidentally (obviously not coincidentally, since Tana French put in in the book), Cassie had been stabbed while working undercover.
Because there is almost no evidence, Cassie is sent undercover again, to impersonate the victim (the police pretend that she hadn't died, which they can do handily, because in any event they can't locate the victim's next of kin) and live with her housemates under a false identity, in hopes of discovering who stabbed "Lexie." At the same time, the police are trying to find out who the victim really was.
So, for nearly a month, Cassie is living with four young adults who knew Lexie intimately, trying to pass herself off as that person, whom she herself had never known. French presents her preparations for taking on the role very interestingly.
With the passage of time undercover, Cassie becomes obsessed with Lexie and envious of her freedom and courage: she dropped her entire life several times, moved from place to place, repeatedly took on new names and identities, and so attained freedom, which Cassie envies. This fluidity of identity suited "Lexie" perfectly to fit in with the four graduate students in English Literature at Trinity College, who are living together in a mansion inherited by one of them, and restoring the house bit by bit. They, too, on principle, refuse to bring up the past, the time in their lives before they met each other and banded together.
A lot of the novel's plot is not really a plot. It's about Cassie's state of mind and her relations with the two detectives who are in charge of the investigation, and in a sense the novel is about how easy and how hard it is to be someone else (and, by extension, to be oneself). Also, like any good mystery novel, French keeps us guessing about who the murderer actually was.
In the Woods, the first novel in what has turned out to be a series, was narrated by Rob Ryan, a detective who was Cassie's partner in the murder squad, and Tana French managed to project his voice successfully. Now Cassie is the narrator, and, again, Tana French has gotten deep into her invented character's soul. So, like an Elizabethan play within a play, we have impersonations within impersonations: someone (we only find out who at the end of the book) was impersonating Lexie Madison, whom Cassie once impersonated, then Cassie impersonates Lexie, and, of course, Tana French is impersonating an invented character (just as Lexie was invented).
French is very good at describing places and things, quite imaginative, and highly intelligent. Lexie's four room-mates are quirky, original characters, and French manages to make us believe in them (at least while we're reading the book). They have created a closed milieu for themselves, aloof from the other students at Trinity, distant from the villagers around the house where they live, and cut off from their families. Strikingly, the police department, as French depicts it, is a mirror image of this little group. Detectives, even in relatively peaceful Ireland, can't live normal lives because of their work: both the intense demands of solving crimes and the stress of dealing with crimes all the time. Like the student characters in The Likeness, the detectives live beyond the realm of ordinary civic life. Perhaps that's why Tana French chose to invent and explore their world.
As I said, I'm planning to read the rest of the books in the series, but I need some time to recover from this one. I just downloaded Barchester Towers.
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