Mi Cassie, Su Cassie

THE LIKENESS, Tana French’s (right) follow-up to IN THE WOODS, is due out on March 6, and features a fairly bold ploy on behalf of the writer that suggests the novel will be doing exactly what it says on the tin. Quoth the Hodder & Stoughton blurb elves:

Detective Cassie Maddox is still trying to deal with the events of IN THE WOODS. She is out of the Murder Squad and has started a relationship with fellow detective Sam O’Neill but is too badly shaken to commit – to Sam or to her career. Then Sam is allocated a new case, that of a young woman stabbed to death just outside Dublin. He calls Cassie to the murder scene and she finds the victim is strangely familiar. In fact, she is Cassie’s double. Not only that, but her ID says she is Lexie Madison – the identity Cassie used, years ago, as an undercover detective. With no leads, no suspects and no clues, Cassie’s old undercover boss spots the opportunity of a lifetime: to send Cassie undercover in the dead girl’s place. She could pick up information the police would never hear and tempt the killer to finish the job. So Cassie moves into Whitethorn House, poses as a post-grad student, and prepares to enter Lexie’s world!

Oooh, spooky. Will Cassie wind up a dead ringer for her, y’know, dead ringer? Only time, that perennially doity rat, will tell …