Sisters Mickey and Kacey are inseparable as they grow until, surrounded as they are by dysfunction: two drug-addicted parents and a hardened and unforgiving grandmother. Twenty-some years later Mickey is a Philadelphia cop searching for her missing little sister who has also fallen prey to the city’s epidemic of heroin use. This book succeeds on so many levels, but particularly in the author’s depiction of a female cop who is also the single mother of a five-year-old son, with all the complications that implies; her jaded male colleagues who may not be what they seem; and the many addicted people that populate the city’s streets. Her compassionate creation of complex characters raises the story above an ordinary suspense novel. I was also captivated by Mickey’s love for Philadelphia and her fine-grained observations about change and decay. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.