Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI in Reading with Style

Dec 24, 2017 Snowtulip rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, non-fiction

Living in the desert southwest, you are reminded of Native American history on a daily basis...but it's often easy to stop looking past the touristy pieces of daily life. One of the reasons I read and love non-fiction is for these reminders of what has passed and what we should have learned from, especially when it's so easy for us to isolate ourselves in today's day and age.

The amount of research that had to go into this story had to be outstanding, so I appreciate the commitment to bring this ...more

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Sep 27, 2018 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, bookclub-grasslands, 2018-read, rws-2018-fall

This book starts out slowly and builds to an amazing feat of historical research and writing. This was selected as the "One Read" by my local library (i.e., the book the library encourages everyone in the community to read and plans a month of activities around). I got to hear the author speak, to discuss this with my bookclub, and to talk to folks all over town who had read it.

I had no knowledge of this piece of history (or really anything particular to do with the Osage Nation) before reading ...more

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Nov 29, 2019 Rachel N. rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2019, history, audiobook, play-book-tag, nonfiction, native-american, oklahoma

In the 1920's the Osage Nation was rich due to vast oil deposits under their land which they retained the rights to. During this time several Osage were murdered by being shot or poisoned. The book mainly follows the deaths of the members of Mollie Burkhardt's family. The subject matter was interesting and not something well known. I listened to the audio book and it was not very well produced. there are three different narrators, only one of which was interesting. I also found the last part of ...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Kathleen (itpdx) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lwv-book-group, non-fiction

David Grann puts together the story of a series of murders in Oklahoma in the 1920’s of Osage Indians and allies. The apparent motive was the wealth generated by oil leases and to prevent the plots from being discovered. The investigation that successfully uncovered and prosecuted some of the perpetrators was conducted by what became the FBI. This is when J. Edgar Hoover began his career as its head. Grann includes some insights into Hoover and how he ran the Bureau. The story of Tom White, the ...more

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