Long Bright River
an intense family thriller
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3.9 • 41 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
SELECTED BY BARACK OBAMA AS ONE OF HIS BEST BOOKS OF 2020
A New York Times bestseller and Guardian Book of the Month
'This flawless masterpiece deserves to be a bestseller.' DAILY EXPRESS
'Tough, tense and twisty - but tender, human and deeply affecting, too ... I don't have a sister, but when I finished the book I called my brother, just to hear his voice.' LEE CHILD
'An outstanding crime novel.' PAULA HAWKINS, author of The Girl on the Train
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Once inseparable, sisters Mickey and Kacey are on different paths, but they walk the same streets. Mickey on her police beat and Kacey in the shadows of the city's darkest corners where the drug addicts and sex workers preside. When a string of murders coincides with Kacey's disappearance, Mickey is terrified her sister could be next.
But in a community where death and murder is rife, will Mickey be able to save her sister before it's too late?
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'A remarkable, profoundly moving novel about the ties that bind and the irrevocable wounds of childhood. It's also a riveting mystery, perfectly paced. I loved every page of it.' DENNIS LEHANE
'It is by some considerable distance my crime novel of the year' IRISH TIMES
'Outstanding . . . an intense family thriller . . . The clever plot and involving characters set a high standard for this new year.' DAILY MAIL
'This is a thrilling and heartbreaking exploration of the strain the opioid crisis puts on families. A masterpiece.' DAILY MIRROR
'A dazzling, propulsive, humane work that not only bears comparison to Dennis Lehane and George Pelecanos but occasionally beats them at their own game' METRO
'heart-pounding thriller' VOGUE
'compassionate and enthralling' INDEPENDENT
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sometimes a novel’s setting feels so intensely real that it becomes a character in the story. That’s definitely true of Liz Moore’s stunning portrait of Philadelphia’s downtrodden Kensington Avenue, which serves as the backdrop to her deeply engrossing tale of family, addiction and murder. Sisters Kacey and Mickey don’t talk anymore—Kacey is spiraling down from drug addiction, while Mickey is devoted to her job as a police detective. But when Kacey goes missing, Mickey dedicates herself to finding her sister before a serial killer preying on the neighbourhood’s forgotten women does. We felt every ounce of Mickey’s increasing desperation and her cynical boss’ seen-it-all weariness. Seething with insight and compassion for one of the most heartbreaking epidemics of our age, Long Bright River is the most white-knuckle kind of thriller—the kind with a heart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moore (The Unseen World) weaves a police procedural and a family drama into a captivating novel. Mickey Fitzpatrick, a single mother, is an officer for the Philadelphia PD, tasked with patrolling Kensington, a neighborhood devastated by opioid addiction. Drugs have impacted Mickey's life as well: her mother died of an overdose, her father, also an addict, is thought dead after disappearing, and her estranged younger sister, Kasey, is a known user and prostitute. While on her beat, Mickey tries to keep tabs on Kasey by speaking to locals and shop owners, but when Kasey vanishes amid a flurry of unsolved murders of women in the neighborhood, Mickey dedicates herself to finding Kasey and the killer, all the while praying her sister isn't the next victim. Moore breaks her novel into sections labeled "Then" and "Now," filling each with short, direct chapters that explore Mickey and Kasey's history while also propelling the narrative's murder mystery. The author presents several characters as the potential killer, and though seasoned readers may guess the culprit long before the reveal, Mickey's personal journey that runs parallel to her pursuit is smartly crafted. Filled with strong characters and a layered plot, this will please fans of both genre and literary fiction.
