lONG BRIGHT RIVER
available IN PAPERBACK DECEMBER 1, 2020
"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
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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praise for long bright river
"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, author of New York Times bestseller of MYSTIC RIVER
"A superlative crime novel. Set against the backdrop of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, this is not just a gripping mystery but a thoughtful, powerful novel by a writer who displays enormous compassion for her characters. Long Bright River is an outstanding crime novel, bringing to mind the best of Dennis Lehane or David Simon. I found myself eking out the final pages because I didn’t want it to end. I absolutely loved it."
— PAULA HAWKINS, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN
"Liz Moore’s Long Bright River is a riveting portrait of so many things—of grief, of sisterhood, of a neighborhood in despair. Moore makes you care about the people that society too often abandons and, in doing so, pulls off a hat trick of epic storytelling that is stigma-busting, love-rendering, and page-turning to the last word."
— BETH MACY, author of DOPESICK: DEALERS, DOCTORS, AND THE DRUG COMPANY THAT ADDICTED AMERICA
"One of the pleasures of this deeply moving, absolutely page-turning novel is the way Moore, in both the present and in flashbacks to Mickey and Kacey’s childhood and teen years, slowly peels back layer after layer, revealing the old-boy’s network in the Philadelphia police force, the depths of Mickey’s loneliness, and the way the city of Philadelphia, particularly Kensington, is woven into this story, for good or ill. Give this to readers who like character-driven crime novels with a strong sense of place."
— BOOKLIST (starred review)
"Liz Moore’s Long Bright River is the perfect literary page-turner. It’s a brilliantly plotted crime novel, yes, but it’s also a story about the complicated push and pull of family, and how much of our childhood traumas we carry forward through our lives. Anyone with a mother, a father, a brother, or a sister – anyone with a heart, for that matter – will love this book, as I did."
— MARY BETH KEANE, author of the New York Times-bestselling ASK AGAIN, YES
"Smartly crafted. . .Filled with strong characters and a layered plot, this will please fans of both genre and literary fiction."
– PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Both sweeping and unbearably intimate, a riveting crime novel and a character-rich study of a city and its battered heart. And, in the way that Dennis Lehane anatomizes and explores his Boston, or Tana French her Dublin, Moore brings Philadelphia to vivid, wrenching life. Not to be missed."
– MEGAN ABBOTT, author of YOU WILL KNOW ME
“[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
"Long Bright River— a book that has garnered much pre-publication buzz — nervously twists, turns and subverts readers’ expectations till its very last pages. Simultaneously, it also manages to grow into something else: a sweeping, elegiac novel about a blighted city.”
— THE WASHINGTON POST
"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.”
— GOOD MORNING AMERICA
"Powerful."
— THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"An instant sensation and the January pick for Good Morning America’s book club."
— ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"A propulsive thriller and a poignant family saga.”
—TIME MAGAZINE
"Navigates assuredly between the plot twists and big reveals. . . . Long Bright River is equal parts literary and thrilling."
— O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
"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
"Moore’s observations are informed and compassionate… One of loveliest things about Long Bright River is that it’s not a literary glorification of addiction."
— THE GUARDIAN
"Thoughtfully explores the power of nature versus nurture, the pull of addiction, and, and the lengths we go to for family."
— MARIE CLAIRE