Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Long Bright River

by Liz Moore
Published: Penguin Group, 2020
Pages: 496
Genre: Mystery
Amazon, Goodreads

All of them children, all of them gone. People with promise, people dependent and depended upon, people loving and beloved, one after another, in line, in a river, no fount and no outlet, a long bright river of departed souls.

About the book

In a Philadelphia neighborhood rocked by the opioid crisis, two once-inseparable sisters find themselves at odds. One, Kacey, lives on the streets in the vise of addiction. The other, Mickey, walks those same blocks on her police beat. They don't speak anymore, but Mickey never stops worrying about her sibling.

Then Kacey disappears, suddenly, at the same time that a mysterious string of murders begins in Mickey's district, and Mickey becomes dangerously obsessed with finding the culprit — and her sister — before it's too late.

Review

Long Bright River is a raw, unforgiving story of the strained relationship between two sisters and the ultimate cost of opioid addiction.

Addiction is a monster that doesn't discriminate. From the disadvantaged poor to the privileged rich, opioid addiction is sweeping across the United States. It's even become a problem where I live in rural Illinois.

Novels like Long Bright River show readers who may not have been touched by addiction how this disease ruins families.

The story is told from the perspective of Mickey, a 33-year-old cop in Philadelphia whose sister is a drug addict. Though their relationship is at best strained, Mickey's sister is missing and while searching for her, Mickey reflects on her difficult childhood and struggle to raise her son. There's a string of murders occurring in the area, and Micky races to find her sister and the killer before the unthinkable happens.

Author Liz Moore has a unique voice perfect for this type of storytelling. It's very much a slow-burning suspense focused on character development, rather than a whodunnit mystery.

The writing is beautiful and the characters haunting in a way that sticks with you long after finishing the novel.

I highly recommend Long Bright River.

RATING (out of five puppies)