Sam Poole's Reviews > The Likeness

This is the best mystery I've ever read. There's something about French's prose that is both propulsive and atmospheric, and "The Likeness" is a master class in psychologically captivating fiction. Cassie Maddox takes up the identity of a slain grad student who has somehow come into the name and identity "Lexie Madison", which was Cassie's former undercover ID. Furthering the coincidence is that the young "Lexie" is a dead ringer for Cassie. She is convinced by the difficult but endearing Frank, her former UCD partner & boss, to go undercover as Lexie to try and get to the bottom of the murder that has left almost no evidence.

As the story progresses, there are not a huge amount of surprises. Similar to "In the Woods", the ending is somewhat predictable. The journey there and especialy the falling action after its startling apex, though, are incredible. French raises the standard questions about innocence, guilt and finding where the line between doing the right thing for the right reasons and doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons is. The complexity of the book is in Cassie, an astonishingly competent and powerful emotional force. Her loss of her parents at a young age, her separation from Rob and the drama of Operation Vestal make her eager for both a total change of surroundings and acceptance from those around her. She and Lexie become, to her, intertwined as one being,even if Lexie is just a name with a constantly changing definition.

Cassie's journey into Lexie, and especially into the Victorian homestead where she lives with four other grad students, is the real story here. French's character study is not about what makes a murderer or what drives crime or anything like that. "The Likeness" is about the romantic, frightening cost of becoming your own person. The final chapters shows Cassie's reflection on who Lexie really was, but it shows more of who Cassie really is. Do any of us really know what things define us? What in identity is performance, and what is authentic? Or is the claim of authenticity just another farce? Cassie spirals in two directions in every facet of her life: to stay in DV or UCD, to stay with Sam or fall deeper into Lexie; to allow herself to abandon everything she has worked for a greater sense of self, or to stay as by the book as possible in a bizarre situation. "The Likeness" is more than the second murder mystery in a murder mystery series. It is a voyage into the mind of a someone caught in an identity crisis, attempting to live on their own terms and truths as they are forced into the life of another.