Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann- Book Review

*Disclosure- should you use any of my links, I will get a portion of the sale*

This was the first book I had to keep secret. I couldn't post on Goodreads that I was reading it, I couldn't share my thoughts on Litsy or any other social media, and I couldn't tell my friends about it. Why? Because I received it early from Book of the Month, so I could blog about it on April 1st! How cool is that?

Killers of the Flower Moon is the next book from David Grann who wrote the incredible Lost City of Z. If you have not read that one, I highly recommend it. This one is a different story, but told just as well.

It is the 1920s and the Osage Indians have been living the high life thanks to the discovery of oil running underneath the reservation. Oil tycoons from everywhere come to bid on the oil into the millions (in the 1920s). The Osage nation gets portions of the sales, so the reservation is filthy rich.

The problem is it IS the 1920s, so people think less of the Indians and are resentful that they are making so much money by doing nothing. All of a sudden, richer members of the tribes start dying. Individuals are shot and bullets seem to disappear, people are murdered and the investigations come to nothing, yet these are not isolated incidents. Someone is murdering these tribal members.

The story switches then to the investigation and as the book title suggests, the roots of what will become the FBI. An outside individual starts the investigation into these murders and will uncover all sorts of crime scene manipulation, corruption, and all sorts of other problems. We are talking about estates worth millions of dollars in the 20s.

Obviously, this is a true story, so Grann is dealing with what may be known history (although it was new to me), but he is such a wonderful storyteller that I was drawn right in. I loved it so much that I wound up finishing it in just about a day and a half. I think anyone who picked it for Book of the Month would enjoy it.

My only critique is that the Tom White (the investigator) story starts to take over, the Osage become background to their own story. It becomes his story and how he was going to solve everything. That was minor though.

I really enjoyed this one. It was an interesting story with good twists and turns. I gave this one 4 stars.

Here is your Book of the Month link- Try Book of the Month for just $5!