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

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

53 reviews

matcha_cat's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.25

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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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clarao's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

Powerful book. Very heavy. Written in true crime style and a little slow moving.

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mjl2994's review against another edition

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dark informative reflective fast-paced

4.0

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crybabybea's review against another edition

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Not for me. I think this was way too overwrought with useless facts and information that weren’t relevant to the story. I found the midsection about the creation of the FBI super boring and it felt like the author couldn’t decide what he actually wanted to write about. It’s written like a murder mystery but it’s clear who the culprit is and the motive behind the murders; maybe that’s the point but it made the whole setup of the book feel weird and unnecessary tonally.

I don’t know maybe I’m being a bit too crazy but I just didn’t like the way the story stopped focusing on the Osage and instead focused on the creation of the FBI and the white agents who were involved with the case, especially since the Osage people were such an important part of the case being solved, and especially especially knowing how the police/FBI have completely failed the indigenous communities and MMIW.

I’m also not a true crime fan in general and don’t really care to hear interviews of suspects and details about crime scenes or whodunnit stories, so I just didn’t like this.

The information about the Osage community, their wealth, and the way systemic racism affected them was properly enraging but I just don’t know if this author was the right person to tell that story.

The audiobook narrator talks like Zapp Brannigan which irritated me lol

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