Will I love Killers of the Flower Moon?

My great-grandfather came to Oklahoma during the Run of 1893, the fourth of the five land runs that officially opened the state to white settlement. As a kid, I was spoon-fed, uplifting stories about the state’s founding while being kept in the dark about its bleaker episodes.

One of them was the theft by white men in the 1920s of oil rights owned by the Osage people of northern Oklahoma. A story of murder, theft, and betrayal, Grann’s book made me angry about the lies I was told as a child, not to mention the injustice still shownto  Oklahoma’s indigenous… show more.

The author told a riveting story I had, surprisingly, never heard before. I have read many other stories by Native writers about how Native people in America have been terribly and dishonestly treated by White people and White culture. I just had not known about this particular story, which is as terrible as any of the others. I have to really credit David Gann for making the Osage characters come alive, and not just as victims, but as wives and husbands and sons and daughters. I write nonfiction myself, and I marveled at his boldness in telling this history with… show more.

Few writers can compare to Grann in his storytelling skills and his ability to bring historical lives to contemporary realities. I admire the way Grann turns his research into a compelling narrative, bringing me into the 1920s Southwest—a world that often is not part of our idea of the Roaring Twenties.

In focusing on the tragedies the Osage suffered, the book opens up a new understanding of the Roaring Twenties that has little to do with speakeasies and lavish parties. And this, for me, is the power of Grann’s book to expand our understanding of this iconic era through this… show more.

This book tells a hidden part of American history. I was shocked to learn about the horrific practices happening on Indigenous lands. In the 1920s, members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma mysteriously disappeared or died.

Grann’s book uncovers the plot to kill off tribe members for their oil land. He concentrates on three missing women and the sister who tries to uncover what happened to her family. I especially admire the strength of the Indigenous women who held strong in the face of evil. 

This book blew me away. I had heard references to the vast fortune that some Osage Indians had acquired when they discovered oil on their reservation land. But I had no idea that members of the tribe had been systematically murdered by whites to gain inheritance rights to that fortune.

A true story that reads like a superb mystery novel. Another missing story from our shameful history.

A world of research goes into every David Grann book, and this one is no exception.

I appreciate how the author painstakingly re-creates the mood and history of the time—Osage County, Oklahoma, in the 1920s—aided by documents and period photographs. It’s a fascinating, suspenseful true crime story, a tale of greed and betrayal. When oil is discovered on Native lands, the tribal members suddenly find themselves awash in wealth.

The Osage are assigned guardians by the government to oversee their newfound riches, but the guardians may not always have the tribe’s interests at heart. 

After the early indifference of the… show more.

If ever a work of nonfiction could entertain as well as upend the view of benevolent manifest destiny, Killers of the Flower Moon is the one! This book was not an easy read because of the violence and evil it reveals, but the story compelled me to keep reading to see if justice would prevail.

I loved the characters--because the author dug deep to uncover the 'why' behind their actions--and the spellbinding story that, like a great novel, kept me hooked until the end.

As a writer and a reader, I like to focus on little-known heroes. If you do,… show more.

I began reading this book in anticipation of the Martin Scorsese film and found myself utterly enthralled by a dark and bloody chapter of American history I never even knew existed.

The conspiratorial mistreatment and murder of the Osage people for their oil-rich land in Oklahoma should be part of the standard curriculum in classrooms throughout the United States.

The tragedy of Mollie Burkhart serves as a chilling microcosm of the innumerable injustices wrought against the indigenous peoples of this continent.

This account of a real-life American horror story is nonfiction but reads like a thriller.

When the Osage tribe was moved to land in Oklahoma that turned out to be sitting on oil fields, white criminals resolved to do anything—including murder—to get that oil money from the Osage.

I’d never heard about any of this before reading the book, and it’s a devastating story full of greed, betrayal, racism, and death. I have yet to see the film based on the book, but it’s hard to imagine a movie being any more horrifying than the actual story.

Who knew that the Osage people of Oklahoma were systematically murdered by their White neighbors in a quest to inherit "Headrights" to the underground oil on the Osage Reservation?

One of the more chilling episodes in the history of the United States of America, this story of men's greed, envy, and hatred belies the history of our nation that we learn in school. 

Not all White men are bad, of course. Tom White, a field investigator for the newly formed FBI, set out to discover the murderers. Supported by J. Edgar Hoover, who was intent on building the reputation of… show more.