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.
This is funny, but I remember reading In the woods (#1) and loving it, I remember parts of the plot, but I don't think it grabbed my guts and tore them as much as The likeness did.
Let me explain : the book starts with a bang, a detective whose doppelganger is found dead. Imagine looking at yourself, dead and bleeding on the floor. And the victim goes by Cassie's ancient alias, Lexie, one she used years ago undercover. Of course, she's bound to go undercover and find out what happened to that woman. (And of course, to fully immerse into the story, you have to put all possible disbelief aside and think doppelgangers do exist.)
It's also funny, well, strange at last, because I've never been a student, never lived with close friends, never experienced anything that goes on in this book, but I completely understood why at some point, Cassie wanted to be Lexie, join the suspects into renovating the house, living together, studying together, never mentioning the past, feeling warm and accepted. Except the murderer is possibly among those friends, literature lovers, who surround her.
"This case had been different from the first moment. (...) From the second I walked into that cottage, before I ever saw her face, this had been about her. For the first time ever, the murderer was the one I kept forgetting." "This time I knew them all by heart, their rhythms, their quirks, their inflexions, I knew how to fit in with every one ; this time I belonged."
Because that novel is mainly psychological, there are not many bangs and the pace is measured, but I felt deeply immerged in the plot, in that atmosphere, with those people, that I wanted the book to be longer than it is (hey, almost 700 pages) while at the same time dying to know what really happened.
I don't know how undercover agents can do their job, it's so very hard sometimes to think it as a job : Cassie wants to find a murderer and in order to do that, she has to blend in, to make friends, to get to know suspects, to live with them while all the time, she has to lie to them, and sometimes to herself. It's very hard to know what are the limits. She looks like Lexie, who has an unexpected past, she understands Lexie up to a certain point but she's not Lexie. She feels Lexie around her, her presence like a ghost, she knows how to react/act like her, intuition, understanding.
The pace is measured, I said, but as you progress, it picks up, different suspects, different (sometimes tempting) possibilities, then the situation explodes but not in the open air, yet it changes everything and leads to the final development. It's hard to talk about it and not spoil !
I finished this book yesterday and it stays with me, I think it's going to stay with me for some time. I'm still digesting everything, still processing how it could have gone differently. This is a book I'll definitely remember and possibly one of my favourites of 2020 - I know, still early, but I'm certain. I have the next one in the series on my shelf, A faithfull place, but I won't read it now, The likeness did a number on me and I'm still processing.
If I could give this book 6 stars, I would !
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