The Likeness cover art

The Likeness

Dublin Murder Squad, Book 2

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Likeness

By: Tana French
Narrated by: Grainne Gillis
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $33.99

Buy Now for $33.99

About this listen

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 Suspense Thriller & Suspense Fiction Mystery Murder Crime
All stars
Most relevant
I found it hard to buy into her whole integration into the house and friendships. But too unrealistic for me

A bit hard to believe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There's way too much coincidence and things that just happen to work out perfectly. The idea that someone could watch some tapes over a weekend and then whip out a perfect impersonation of someone so accurate that their closest friends and roommates wouldn't notice a difference is implausible at best. If you can get past that it's a decent story, but there's plenty of other moments that just perfectly work how the main character needs them to. The actresses performance was absolutely grating. She put on this awful screechy voice for the main character imitating the dead girl, which is like 90% of the novel, and it was truly painful. Also I find it truly surprising that an Irish voice actor seems to have never heard a British person before, and I think we're all thankful that the Australian character was only featured for a few minutes.

Not the strongest in the series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
the most implausible of French's books but her writing is sublime enough for me to hang in there. The narrator was wonderful.

conflicted

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Way too many inconsistencies in this book and frustrating procedural lapses. I just can’t take it seriously.

I can’t finish this book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the story but I thought the narrator didn't do English accent convincingly - too stilted. There were a lot of characters which also made it difficult for narrator to have a recogisable voice for each.

Will keep listening to the series

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’m a Tana French fan, however with this book I was feeling very irritated by the main character. I listen mostly at night, the whining, which was done very well by the narrator, put me off. The theme of the story was a good one, unfortunately it just didn’t quite make it.

Irritated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is by far the best book I have listened to on Audible in a year. Great story - intriguing. Well read - apart from the awful Australian accent for one of the characters! I really enjoyed it.

The very best Audible book I've listened to yet

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Tana French is a consummate storyteller and her dialogue-driven plots are a joy to follow. However, I think she has over-reached with this one. As a whodunnit the book is implausible but absorbing. But she strives to include a host of other ideas: how undercover detectives can go native, how people can knowingly or unwittingly manipulate others for their own ends, how misfits can be drawn into an appealing but ultimately poisonous environment, how a house can become a security blanket, how a traumatic event in someone's childhood can damage them for life, and, no doubt other themes I missed. The book started to outstay its welcome about three quarters of the way through. Still, French is a famous author so what do I know? Perhaps that was the attitude of the editor who really should have administered a surgical knife. Big Bouquet to Grainne Gillis for distinguishing all those different characters and accents (although the Australian one was a little iffy).

Cut!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the narrator’s ability to totally inhabit all the characters and create distinct and unique voices for them, male and female. Also loved the connection to a French’s first novel, In The Woods, and how she carries that plot into this one in a small, tight manner without the previous plot overwhelming the new plot and its character development. Reminded me a lot of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which I loved back in the previous century (yes, really!) highly recommended.

Brilliant narration, excellent plot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the first 4,5 hours there were three scenes which gave an idea of what the rest of the book would be like..,long…
I found it dragged on with superfluous information that wasn’t pertinent to the story. I loved the accents and the story was quite interesting.
I didn’t particularly like the main character and didn’t like that she wasn’t truthful to her colleagues. I don’t think she was a kind person and she was a bit on the selfish side.
I won’t be listening to any books from the same author only because it was too long. I liked the narrator.

Didn’t have to be this long

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.