The Likeness

A massive implausibility lies at the heart of Tana French’s otherwise excellent crime novel The Likeness. The reader is asked to believe that a doppelganger of a murder victim can successfully impersonate the victim, fooling her four college roommates long enough that the police can solve the crime. French is still a master craftswoman when it comes to characters, dialogue, and procedural details, so the book is hardly without merit. But it’s the unlikely set-up that constantly gnaws at the reader.