Long Bright River

 

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Fiction

2020

Finished on June 14, 2026

Rating: 4.5/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

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.

Having read and enjoyed Liz Moore's recent mystery, The God of the Woods, I was excited to pick up Long Bright River. There is something about a great mystery that pulls you in from the opening lines. The pacing is taut, the dialogue engaging, and the pages flew, keeping me reading late into the night. Long Bright River is a few pages longer than my previous read (The House of Special Purpose), but it took half the time to finish reading. I looked forward to returning to Philadelphia, eager to find out what was going on with Kacey, as well as Mickey and her young son, Thomas. I've never been to Philadelphia, but Moore writes as if she knows every street and neighborhood, specifically that of Kensington. There are a few red herrings, and a twist that I never saw coming. As I read, I found myself thinking back to Dennis Lehane's excellent mystery, Small Mercies. Coincidentally, Lehane has blurbed Long Bright River. I concur!

"Long Bright River is a remarkable, profoundly moving novel about the ties that bind and the irrevocable wounds of childhood. A riveting mystery...I loved every page." —Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author 

Long Bright River is not simply a mystery, but also a story about what makes a family, as well as a harsh examination of the opioid crisis.

Highly recommend.