Long Bright River: A Novel

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, PARADE, REAL SIMPLE, and BUZZFEED
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK
[Moore's] careful balance of the hard-bitten with the heartfelt is what elevates Long Bright River from entertaining page-turner to a book that makes you want to call someone you love." - The New York Times Book Review
This is police procedural and a thriller par excellence, one in which the city of Philadelphia itself is a character (think Boston and Mystic River). But it's also a literary tale narrated by a strong woman with a richly drawn personal life - powerful and genre-defying." - People
A thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel... I absolutely loved it.
--Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
Two sisters travel the same streets, though their lives couldn't be more different. Then one of them goes missing.
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.
Alternating its present-day mystery with the story of the sisters' childhood and adolescence, Long Bright River is at once heart-pounding and heart-wrenching: a gripping suspense novel that is also a moving story of sisters, addiction, and the formidable ties that persist between place, family, and fate.
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Community Reviews
Long Bright River by Liz Moore
480 pages
What’s it about?
Mickey and Kacey are sisters who grew up in a working class Philadelphia neighborhood. Although they were once close, they now no longer speak. Kacey is an addict living on the streets of the old neighborhood, and Mickey is a patrol officer in that same neighborhood. Then a string of murders hit the neighborhood and Kacey goes missing.....
What did it make me think about?
The title of the book refers to the long bright river of departed souls from the opioid crisis. This book made me think about addiction, gentrifying neighborhoods, the way we police those neighborhoods, and of course- family.
Should I read it?
This was a great book! One of my favorites so far this year. This was a family drama wrapped up in a mystery. It also gave me a glimpse into a world I do not live in.
Quote-
"In a moment of clarity, once, Kacey told me that time spent in addiction feels looped. Each morning brings with it the possibility of change, each evening the shame of failure."
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The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
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