Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

This book retells the largely forgotten murders of several Osage people in the 1920s and how the case and its fame solidified the J. Edgar Hoover's control over the FBI and allowed him to shape it into the institution it is today. This book is DARK. It is broken into three parts, each with its own narrator. The first follows an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, as her family members begin dying around her. The second follows the lead FBI investigator, Tom White, as he and his team try and crack the case. The third follows the author as he researches the book, and learns that so many more Osage died than what the FBI ever investigated, and that the rot of the case goes so much deeper and the Osage community lives with the deep scars to this day, even as the rest of the world has moved on and forgotten. It's a tragic book, but very well written, and I liked the three narrator approach to the audiobook.

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millipede_reads's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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peterplaysguitar's review against another edition

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informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.75

Killers of the Flower Moon is a true crime story that almost feels like an old Hammett novel—not for the prose, but the drama of the content. There were many times while reading that my mouth fell open in quiet shock over what I was reading, and I'm still struggling to comprehend the brazen evil required of the perpetrators of the crimes. The story is told in three distinct parts (

a detective mystery, a courtroom drama, and a present-day investigation

) and each unravels more tangled knots of the Reign of Terror.

There are aspects of the story that I question the veracity of, namely the polished heroism of lead detective Tom White, whose only flaws it seems was that he was too moral and stoic. While reading, I did have a feeling that Grann might have taken some creative liberties with the minutiae of the events and actions of the people involved. But until I am able to read more about the Reign of Terror, I'll take Grann with a grain of salt and trust that he did his best to temper any dramatization with evidence and research.

Killers of the Flower Moon is thrilling and tragic, infuriating and engrossing. Highly recommended for anyone who wants (or needs) to face the sordid reality of the American spirit.

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issyd23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

“‘the devil was standing right there.’…the missing panel: showed William K Hale, staring coldly at the camera. The Osage had removed his image, not to forget the murders, as most Americans had, but because they cannot forget.” 4🥀

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rachelcd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

5.0

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mrlsdevos's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

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zsabella's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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