(Riverhead Books)
Two sisters were born to a mother who died young, a victim of the opioid addiction crisis, and their paths diverged. One excelled in school, then became a police officer, patrolling the decaying Philadelphia neighborhood where the girls grew up. The other succumbed early to addiction, worked those same streets for money, and nearly lost her life multiple times. Now those streets are even more dangerous. Girls, just like officer Mickey’s sister Kacey, are turning up dead, and Kacey is missing. Fearing the worst, Mickey works furtively behind the scenes, but her inexperience and naivety nearly blind her to evidence, and testimony that points to someone in the police department is wrongfully ignored. It’s a story of both family and duty, and paints the current crisis of addiction in areas of our country where jobs are lost and hopelessness is on the rise, in a humane and reflective light. The sense of place evoked in this gripping novel is strong. Alternating between now — Mickey’s quest to save her sister and keep her job — and then — illuminating portraits of the girls growing up with their mother, being cared for by their angry and resentful grandmother — author Liz Moore (author of “Heft” and “The Unseen World”) has crafted a impassioned story.
— Reviewed by Jenny Lyons of The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury.
 

8 more books on opioid abuse
Dreamland, by Sam Quinones
Dopesick, by Beth Macy
Opioid, Indiana, by Brian Allen Carr
Fentanyl, Inc., by Ben Westhoff
Invisible as Air, by Zoe Fishman
The Wolf Wants In, by Laura McHugh
The Addiction Solution, by Lloyd Sederer
Smacked, by Eilene Zimmerman