The staff book club has selected Tana French’s The Likeness for April. In The Likeness Detective Cassie Maddox goes undercover as a graduate student at Trinity College in Dublin. Her cover, a murder victim who looks just like her. Even her new housemates think she’s the victim. The novel is more psychological thriller than police procedural. It’s the relationships and tensions between the characters that drive the book. Kate Ward of EW is impressed with “the author’s ability to convey the distinct eccentricities of Lexie’s literature-loving roommates, particularly Rafe, a messy, musically inclined, heavy-drinking rageaholic calmed only by a good joke.” NPR likes French’s “snappy dialogue and crisp prose.”
Although The Likeness is the second in French’s murder squad mystery series, don’t worry if you haven’t read the first, In the Woods. Despite what the New York Times says, each title in the series works as a stand-alone. The Likeness was the first one I read and I was blissfully unaware it was a sequel. Each book in the series focuses on a different member of the squad so you don’t need to read them in order.
The book club will meet on April 25 at 12pm in the Library Boardroom. You can also participate online by rating or reviewing the book, attendance is not required.
Want to check it out? The library has copies of the book on the library’s Kindles and a print copy is on order. You can also borrow it from the St. Mary’s County Library.
–Pamela Mann
