Long Bright River
Liz Moore's Long Bright River is a literary mystery set in Kensington, the Philadelphia neighborhood at the heart of the American opioid crisis. Mickey Fitzpatrick is a single mother and patrol officer whose beat is the same blocks where her younger sister Kacey, a heroin addict and sex worker, has been disappearing for years. When women begin turning up dead along the train tracks above Lehigh Avenue, Mickey realizes that Kacey has gone missing again and may be the killer's next victim. Moore tells the novel in alternating then and now chapters, tracing the sisters' shared childhood with their grieving grandmother, the moment a single Percocet in a high school basement set Kacey on a path Mickey has spent her career trying to police, and the present day investigation into a string of deaths that the department has not bothered to solve. The result is a propulsive mystery and a quietly devastating portrait of how addiction and class shape American policing.
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about Long Bright River
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Mickey patrols a Philadelphia neighborhood where her sister Kacey, an addict, has disappeared into the streets. Women are turning up dead on Mickey's beat. She is afraid the next body will be Kacey's.
Yes. Peacock released a Long Bright River limited series adaptation in 2025, starring Amanda Seyfried. The show is largely faithful to the novel.
Long Bright River is fictional but informed by real conditions in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood during the opioid crisis. Liz Moore researched the area extensively before writing.
Long Bright River was written by Liz Moore, published in 2020 by Riverhead Books.
Long Bright River is 464 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Long Bright River takes most readers 7 to 10 hours to finish.
Long Bright River is a standalone novel by Liz Moore, not part of a series.
Long Bright River is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.