Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
From the #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Lost City of Z, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. The family of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, became a prime target. One of her relatives was shot. Another was poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more and more Osage were dying under mysterious circumstances, and many of those who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered.
As the death toll rose, the newly created FBI took up the case, and the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including a Native American agent who infiltrated the region, and together with the Osage began to expose one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
For the Reading Challenge(s):
2025 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #44: A celebrity on the cover)
The Reason
I’ve been wanting to read this and it was available as a Skip the line loan for 7 days from Libby, so I jumped on it!
The Quotes
“History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the power of hindsight like an arrogant detective who seems to know the end of the mystery from the outset.”
“There was one question that the judge and the prosecutors and the defense never asked the jurors but that was central to the proceedings: Would a jury of twelve white men ever punish another white man for killing an American Indian?”
“There never has been a country on this earth that has fallen except when that point was reached…where the citizens would say, ‘We cannot get justice in our courts.’ ”
“Stores gone, post office gone, train gone, school gone, oil gone, boys and girls gone—only thing not gone is graveyard and it git bigger.”
The Narrator(s)
Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell. They were great, no complaints on the audio production. Will Patton is a familiar voice to me and it was good to hear it here.
My Thoughts
The horror that was done (and is still being done) to the Indigenous people of America has been talked about for a while now, but I know that a lot of it has been covered up and/or glossed over throughout history and it’s difficult to get a real sense of what actually happened and all the things that happened. This book was a brutal look into one of the things that happened.
I haven’t watched the movie but I am very interested to see how the story is being portrayed. It’s horrifying in and of itself, but more so now because the hate, corruption, and racism is still happening and may possibly be getting worse. It’s crazy to think that in these times, we have not learned or grown from the mistakes of the past. It’s crazy to think that we may even be regressing, and that what has happened before can still be happening.
Some of the crimes that have been committed against the Indigenous people were so blatant and yet, the perpetrators of the crimes are not scared or ashamed of being caught because they had the support of other hateful people. It’s so sad to me that we can look at another human being and think that they are beneath us and don’t deserve basic respect. I’m glad that I read this book and gained some perspective on human nature and the unforgivable things that have been done to Indigenous people, but it’s also a little scary and depressing to realize that it’s not completely behind us. I still think this is a very important book to read in order to open our eyes to the truth, and I would definitely recommend reading it.
My Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 stars.
Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?
