Category: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Books
ISBN-13:9780670018864
Pub. Date: July 2008
Date Read: October 2008
“This is Lexie Madison’s story, not mine. I’d love to tell you one without getting into the other, but it doesn’t work that way. I used to think I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands, pulled the stitches tight and I could unpick them any time I wanted. Now I think it always ran deeper than that and farther, underground; out of sight and way beyond my control.”
In this intense sequel to In The Woods, detective Cassie Maddox gets to make a comeback after the disastrous results of the investigation she led with Detective Ryan. She transferred to Domestic Violence, has begun a quiet affair with Detective Sam O’Neill and seems to be coasting along until she gets a call that will pull her right back into the Murder Squad.
A young woman who bears a striking resemblance to Cassie has been found murdered. To complicate matters when she is identified, Cassie and her former boss, Frank Mackey realize that she is identified as a person they created when Cassie was working undercover. Lexie Madison was supposed to be an idea but here she is and so Mackey decides that they’ve just come across the investigation of their lifetimes. If Cassie can step into Lexie’s life the she can perhaps find out exactly what led to her murder and catch the killer.
At first Cassie seems reluctant to go back undercover but she can’t help but feel the pull of the case and being back in Murder. She accepts the assignment much to her boyfriend’s unease and works with Mackey to become Lexie but there lies a bit of a problem. Lexie was living with four other students in an old house in the country and led a hermetic existence. No one could really get into their group so how can Cassie become Lexie?
While the police officers tell the housemates that Lexie has survived but she’s undergoing treatment at the hospital, Cassie starts an intense study of Lexie. Learning her likes, her speech patterns, how much she smokes, everything because one false move and the undercover operation could come crashing.
Cassie becomes part of the group almost effortlessly, and almost to the point that she’s losing herself. In a couple of weeks she’s become part of the family that Daniel, Justin, Rafe, and Abby had created but she sees the cracks. She knows one of them tried to kill Lexie but who and why?
Author Tana French follows up with a fantastic sequel to In The Woods. She creates memorable characters and for those readers who weren’t quite satisfied with the ending in the first book, I think you’ll enjoy how she wraps up this novel.