Review by Booklist Review
In The Resemblance (2022), Athens PD detective Marlitt Kaplan flaunted orders while hunting a killer in a powerful University of Georgia fraternity and then lost her job, damaged countless relationships, and suffered an arsonist's burns. Now, craving the rush of an investigation, Marlitt agrees to help her mother's colleague, German professor Dr. Verena Sobek, who has been accused of Title IX violations. Verena is said to have had an inappropriate relationship with her student, Ethan Haddock, that likely contributed to his recent death by suicide. True to form, Marlitt quickly abandons protocol, secretly poses as a college student, and rents Ethan's vacant room. When Marlitt learns surprising details from Oliver, her former nemesis at Athens P.D., she begins to suspect that Ethan was murdered. Marlitt's new roommates--increasingly unstable Sadie and control freak Spencer--hold the key to Ethan's final days, and she goes all in to earn her targets' trust. Marlitt Kaplan's second outing is every bit as compelling and well-crafted as her first, with a whopping final twist that heralds exciting series developments.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Former Athens, Ga., police detective Marlitt Kaplan is just beginning to recover from the case that cost her her job--and almost her life--when she gets sucked into another slippery investigation in Nossett's impressive sequel to 2020's The Resemblance. The new case hits close to home: Marlitt's old colleagues have teamed up with officials at the University of Georgia, where her mother teaches in the German department, to look into the apparent suicide of undergrad Ethan Haddock and the potential involvement of his German professor, Verena Sobek, who has been accused on social media of pursuing an improper relationship with Ethan. As a civilian asking questions (at her mother's behest, in hopes of uncovering evidence to clear Verena's name), Marlitt has no official standing--a fact she turns to her advantage when she sees a sign in Ethan's former apartment advertising a vacant room and opts to move in, disguised as an academic researcher. Nossett gradually rachets tension through the use of multiple narrators, primarily Marlitt and Verena, who's a vulnerable German-Turkish immigrant slowly crumbling under the pressures of academia (unsparingly rendered by Nossett, a former professor of German literature). Though a couple of climactic bombshells strain credibility, this is an emotionally resonant page-turner from a writer worth watching. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
When a promising student at the University of Georgia is found dead, a former detective searches for answers: Do all the fingers point at his professor, the start of a witch hunt, or the path to the truth? Marlitt Kaplan has been itching to solve a case. For months, she's been a pariah to the Athens PD after she refused to play by the rules while investigating a fraternity, resigned in disgrace, and damaged her relationship with her former partner and closest friend, Teddy. The whispers about her "assaulting a fraternity member" or having a "gender-coded psychotic break" only added fuel to the fire--literally: Someone broke into her house and set it ablaze. Now she's living with her parents and bored senseless. That is, until the Athens PD takes Professor Verena Sobek into the station for questioning. Verena's student Ethan Haddock was discovered dead from an apparent suicide, and rumors are flying that he and Verena had been sleeping together. Verena's facing a Title IX investigation, and Marlitt's mother, her colleague in the German Department, begs her daughter to prove Verena's innocence. Marlitt's unease about working on behalf of an accused professor is no match for her desire to investigate again, so she steps into Ethan's world. Soon, she discovers that her secret wish that the case had been a murder investigation may be coming true. Family secrets, rocky romances, a potentially rogue officer, and vindictive students teem in Nossett's sophomore novel. Despite a few opening chapters weighed down by exposition, the novel succeeds as a page-turning mystery full of potential suspects, exciting twists, and a few red herrings. Nossett adeptly uses narrative structure to play with readers' expectations and crafts a mystery that sits in that sweet spot: dropping just enough clues so readers can investigate alongside Marlitt, but not so many that the ending feels predictable. She handles the premise of a former detective trying to prove the innocence of an accused abuser with care. It is no small feat to transform a potentially problematic, black-and-white plot into a thoughtful investigation of the ways academic power structures (and those of law enforcement) fail individuals, but Nossett pulls it off. Come for the entertaining, well-crafted mystery, stay for the thoughtful critique of academia. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
