Long Bright River by Liz Moore

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

Review: Mickey is a police officer in Philadelphia. Along with her younger sister, she was raised by her grandmother. Now, she is a single mother of a young son and is deeply private, with few to lean on or confide in. Her younger sister Kacey meanwhile has succumbed to addiction and Mickey is always on the lookout for her while on patrol. When a series of murders take place, Mickey becomes obsessed with tracking down the killer and her sister before Kacey becomes the next victim. 

This story has a lot of tension, as the crime and suspense over the killings build as the novel progresses. Mickey is a very compelling lead character. She is hard to know and trusts very few people. But she is fiercely loyal to her son and clearly cares deeply and feels a deep sense of responsibility for the younger sister that she had to help raise after their mother's death. There is a sense of increasingly recklessness in her behavior as the novel progresses, as Mickey becomes increasingly worried and desperate to find and help her sister. 

This reminded me a lot of the show Mare of Easttown, as both are gritty crime dramas that follow female police force officers. I ultimately felt more drawn into the family drama in this book and the relationship between the two sisters. There were several reveals about their relationship that surprised me much more and held my attention greater than the true crime plotline. The murder storyline seemed very much in the background in the last quarter of this book and the conclusion felt very rushed and sort of brushed over. 

Probably an unpopular opinion but, while admittedly far less atmospheric, I enjoyed this one more than The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. 

Stars: 4

Related Title: 

• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore