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Michaela Fitzpatrick, whom everyone calls Mickey, has been a Philadelphia police officer for over a decade, patrolling the neighborhood of Kensington, which has been in a long period of decline. Far too many residents have gotten caught in the sticky and deadly web of opioids, and Michaela knows all too well the telltale look of a junkie. She interacts with them every day on her beat, as she keeps track of the women who sell themselves for just enough cash to score a bit more of the drugs that will let them escape reality. Mickey also knows very well what drugs can do to destroy a life because of what she’s witnessed her sister go through for nearly two decades.
Mickey and Kacey were raised by their maternal grandmother, whom they call Gee, after their mother’s overdose. Gee scraped by, working multiple jobs, and was never warm and nurturing to the girls. Mickey was all too happy to escape to live on her own once she had a job and could provide for herself. Now, mid-30s, she is scraping by herself to take care of her nearly 5-year-old son, Thomas, and to keep him away from his father, her ex.
Mickey has had years to worry about Kacey, but now she’s starting to panic because she hasn’t seen her out on the beat for over a month. She fears the tragically common scenario of an overdose taking her sister’s life, which is bad enough, but then as the book begins, young women start turning up dead not of overdoses but of strangulation. Mickey starts asking around about her sister, and soon she has to start using channels she would much rather avoid, including consulting her extended family, whom she’s mostly steered clear of for a decade.
The story goes back and forth between the present and the past, steadily plumbing the depths of the challenging life Mickey and Kacey knew as children and exploring the close but complex relationship the sisters have shared for so long. In the present, it’s part murder mystery: Mickey is determined to find out who’s killing these young women, despite her department not placing much emphasis on it, and she puts herself in danger along the way on several fronts. She’s also trying to locate Kacey, and, while she’s never been able to help her sister stay sober for long, she at least wants to have her back on her radar.
Long Bright River is a moving story of family, of the complexities of sibling relationships, and a heartbreaking exploration of the impact of the opioid crisis in one neighborhood in one big American city. It’s real, it’s bittersweet, it’s haunting, and it packs a punch particularly for those who have loved ones who struggle with addiction. I couldn’t put it down.
Rated: High, for about two dozen instances of strong profanity and fewer uses of milder language. Sexual content is mostly mild; there are no sex scenes, but there are frequent references to women having sex young and selling their bodies for drug money, and there is one character who grooms a teenager for a sexual relationship further on. Violent content includes references to several young adults being strangled, to some shooting, to some beating up, and peril.
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