📚 NOVEL THOUGHTS 📚

3.5

++Many thanks to Celadon books and its author George Dawes Green for the ARC of this book++

Morgana Musgrove is the powerful, high society matriarch of this family whose dysfunction is as skewed and complicated as Savannah, where they live among the ghosts stories, homeless encampments and tragic history. In her youth, Morgana came to Savannah and captured the minds and hearts of so many of the male youth with her beauty and charm, they still dream about her. This did not sit well with other female debutantes at the time whose jealousy has yet to fade. But Morgana made her choice in Fred with whom she had 4 children and enjoyed his status and wealth until he died, leaving her with everything, including a ragtag detective agency.
After a crazy night drinking in Bo Peeps, Luke and Stony depart to head to their encampments in the "Truman Marriot," a stranger who Stony only met a little while ago in the bar, attempts to kidnap her. Luke comes to her rescue but is stabbed in the scuffle. Stony is tossed into a van and rushed off. The next day, Luke's body is discovered in a building owned by a building developer named Guzman that has been burned to the ground. For over a week, no one has heard from or seen Stony. All fingers point to Guzman who isn't a well liked person in Savannah but despite that, he hires Morgana's detective agency to get to the truth and prove his innocence. Morgana's granddaughter Jaq, a budding documentarian and friend of Stoney's, begins her own investigation into Stoney's disappearance, after she watches some film that she took of Stoney's last night in the bar. It takes a librarian to furnish some of the missing pieces of Stoney's crazy obsession with the treasure of the Kingdom as she calls it, but Jaq might be onto something huge. Meanwhile, Morgana's team of family detectives, are coming to the same conclusions from a different angle. All is not up and up in Savannah. Secrets and lies abound. And all the fingers are pointing to the upper crust, who wish to hide the inglorious past of Savannah.
There are so many interesting layers to this story. There are the powerful landowners, the curious characters of the homeless who take a huge role in this story and the villains who take what they want at any cost. The story takes on such an atmospheric note, with the background of historic homes, azaleas and cicada, to the swamps filled with live oaks covered with Spanish moss. It is hard not to think of books like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil when taking this one on. The cadence of the writing was surprising as the author tried to capture the speech patterns and idioms of Savannah and took me a bit of time to get into it. There were a lot of characters which got a bit confusing for me. The dysfunction of Morgana's family seemed unnecessary to the story for me and too much was spent on that. The way the author blended a story around the history of the Kingdom was creative. I was again reminded of another book The Last Slave Ship:The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found.... and the establishment of Africatown which still exists today. Morgana's painting of the racetrack used as a site for slave auctioning was in fact a real place owned by Ten Broeck, a historical figure of the 1850s, has a prominent storyline in Horse a new book by Geraldine Brooks.

Not quite what I was expecting. However, as Flannery O’Connor said, anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic, so I’m just going to call this grotesquely realistic. I grew up in Atlanta, so trips to the Savannah beach were commonplace, but I never really knew much about the city. This story, which involves characters from the dregs of society to the upper echelons of society, is steeped in atmosphere, history and secrets. Much like the city itself. Recommended.

This mystery set in the mysterious city of Savannah was a fun read. Savannah is pretty sleepy except for the tourist rides through town, the bars, and the homeless camps. Things get shaken up when Luke, the gentle giant, is found dead in a house that has purposely be set on fire. He companion, Stony, an archaeologist disappears as well. The history of Savannah is woven in as well.

A historical fiction novel for fans of Southern Gothic and Noir!

I dove into this novel headfirst with hope in my heart as Savannah, GA is one of the most beautiful (and chilling) places I’ve ever visited.


The book begins with Bo Kitchens at his favorite bar in Savannah, Bo Peeps. He would be found murdered later that same evening. The novel intensely focuses on Morgana Musgroves as she, along with her children, investigate the murder as well as a disappearance.

I thoroughly enjoyed the ties to the past that the author included in this uniquely original concept. The novel is broken up into only 5 chapters to represent the namesake “Kingdoms” of Savannah. The author does an excellent job of showing all facets of Savannah, both disenfranchised and obscenely wealthy and I did enjoy this read. My favorite part was the author’s note as it left me engrossed with the history of this beautiful town.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The historical notes at the end of the book were interesting, but reading this book was a slog for me. Books need breaks and I think it was a mistake to have only 5 chapters. Anyway, this wasn’t for me and I skimmed to the end. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This novel could have been so much more interesting had there been more surprises and less dialogue. There were so many unimportant bits that it was almost hard to keep reading at some points.

I loved the setting of Savannah; the book starts off with a murder and then we have a mystery. very good read.

The rich allure of Savannah always gets me. Savannah has always had its outer charm, but it's also filled with many generations-old secrets, ghost tales and its dark side. This thrilling, historical mystery is masterfully told by the great George Dawes Green. Put this in the hands of anyone who loved Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil!

“𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛. 𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖.“

As I may have mentioned once or twice 😉, I love reading anything and everything set in Georgia. And, Savannah? That’s sits very high on my bucket list. So, you can imagine how eager I was to read this new novel from George Dawes Green. Described as "a chilling southern thriller with a definite 𝘔𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘷𝘪𝘭 vibe”, how could I possibly resist?

“𝚃𝚘 𝚖𝚎 𝚂𝚊𝚟𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊𝚑 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚏𝚎𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝-𝚊𝚞𝚗𝚝‘𝚜 𝚔𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚎‘𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚊.“

The prologue drew me in immediately with its fantastic writing and cast of fascinating characters. As the novel progressed, the cast only got larger and more intriguing, with wonderful character names such as Ransom, Billy Sugar, & the Guze.

“𝙸‘𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚏𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢 𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚎, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚜, 𝚒𝚝‘𝚜 𝚊 𝚙𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚟𝚒𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜.“

What I thought was going to be a domestic thriller wrapped up in a chilling Southern Gothic, actually became an historical fiction of great magnitude. While incredibly well written and full of history & importance, I was looking for something twisty & suspenseful, thus my minor disappointment. The lessons I learned during this read were valuable but disheartening, to say the least. However, I think that was the point being made. We don’t always get what we want and life is not always fair or just.

Go into this one with an open mind and an open heart. Just don’t expect to be thrilled or chilled.

Beneath the southern gentility and grand mansions with their storied families, there lies a darker version of Savannah. Not everyone is aware of this and some choose to ignore it. Morgana Musgrove is a well-to-do grand dame of Savannah society, manipulative and acid-tongued, and her family tolerates her scheming to varying degrees. But when she agrees to take on the case of a local criminal accused of murder under the auspices of her late husband's investigation business, that might be a step too far. People start disappearing and turning up dead, and Morgana's family is at risk. Soon members of of her family are reluctant participants in the investigation and are uncovering Savannah's unsavoury past in the process.

I freely admit that I struggled with this novel. At 304 pages, it has only 5 chapters and at times they can be rather slow. While the setting is intriguing and the troubling ancestral history draws you in, the dialogue can be unwieldy and difficult. Rather than stating that a character speaks with a heavy Southern drawl, the author phonetically describes the dialogue ("daaayy-umm") which can become very annoying. The ending is somewhat abrupt and feels incomplete.

Thanks to NetGalley and Celadon Books for a copy to read and review.

This Southern Gothic Noir novel has been compared to one of my favorite books, John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” However, I didn’t find anything about this novel anywhere close to MGGE.

I must be on some kind of weird streak because this is the third book in a row that has thoroughly disappointed me. I should have known when the readers are told that two of the catalyst characters are murdered and disappears, respectively, in the second sentence.

Most of Savannah knows what happened and who is responsible, but the police, once again, look the other way. But society maven Morgana Musgrove has decided that the case needs more than the police are willing to do. She owns a small private investigation firm and puts it to work. Over the course, all four of her adult children are involved, but it’s nothing to write home about; It’s not even a page turner.

The “Kingdoms” that is referred to in the title are homeless encampment that ring the city. And the dark secrets the Savannah is trying to hide are hidden beneath its tourist spots. Savannah, Georgia, has secrets? How shocking! But the book is supposed to reveal those secrets that were neither shocking nor surprises. It never, truly, did.

Author Dawes Green goes against conventional things like punctuation, grammar, paragraph break, accents, character descriptions---which I’m not against---but they have to work, and you guessed it! For me they didn’t. Therefore, “The Kingdoms of Savannah” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Twenty-two year old Luke Kitchens, a big guy with an infectious laugh, was at Miss Bo Peeps, his favorite bar in Savannah, Georgia. His drinking partner, forty-three year old Stony (Mathilda Stone) was a contract archeologist. Jaq, the bartender, served up the drinks. Jaq was an inquisitive, spunky, future documentarian. Seemingly, Stony was a "poor homeless woman who thinks she lives in a fairy kingdom...The King's soldiers are the only free people to ever live in the State of Georgia...". That night, Luke would be killed and Stony disappeared.

Morgana Musgrove was the patriarch of "Old Fort", a Romanesque revival mansion circa 1880s. To the community, she was a gracious and generous benefactor who supported worthy causes. Annually, she hosted the Spring Soiree for the Disabled. To her four children, she was disparaging. A stay at "Old Fort" would allow Morgana to "find a way to get her claws in you and you'll be finished." A visit by her accountant would soon stir things up.

As manager of Musgrove Investments, accountant Cooper informed Morgana that she was in possession of a small detective agency. How timely! A slumlord named Guzman had been arrested for the murder of Luke Kitchens. Luke, having squatted on the second floor of one of Guzman's dilapidated properties, could not escape the raging fire downstairs. Strong evidence pointed to Guzman, including the gas can found in his garage. "Musgrove Investments need(s) to take my case because your bank accounts are leaking like a sieve. Every business you own is losing money". He offered a retainer of $200,000. It sure will help Morgana keep up appearances! During a visit to Guzman in jail, he does something unprecedented. "He opens his mouth wide-inside a card propped up by his tongue...Stone Kings...Treasure...Keep safe and Give my Love.' The plot thickens.

Morgana browbeats her children into cooperating with her to try to solve the mystery of Luke's death, Stony's disappearance, and search for the King's Treasure, amid threats received. Who are their true friends? Who are their real foes? At Morgana's insistence, son Ransom helps her. After a seven month stint in prison, Ransom has resettled in one of the forty-odd homeless camps in Savannah. His encampment lies under the exit ramp of the Harry S. Truman Parkway. He lives there by choice. Morgana's granddaughter, Jaq, has her pulse on the investigation, despite dangerous interludes, and her camera, always at the ready to videotape.

The rich, varied tapestry of Savannah was presented within the context of this historical fiction novel. Author End Notes included a discussion of the underground tunnels used by bootleggers during Prohibition and family wealth and privilege amassed through slavery. This captivating read is highly recommended.

Thank you Celadon Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. Anything by Savannah immediately captures my interest. I really enjoyed this story however it did take me a bit to get into it. Once I finally got into it, I was drawn in and couldn't put it down. The author was fantastic and I loved the how he wove the history being tied into the modern day mystery. Do yourself a favor and read this the first chance you get!

I could not get into this one at all. I was excited to get this one and thought it sounded good and that it would be a great story, but it wasn't, at least not for me.
I mean, it seemed like a long book to me of the same information and things being said, and come to find out, it only had 5 chapters. Those were 5 very long chapters and I could not click or connect to this one. Plus, the language in this book was not my thing. I dislike books with an overabundance of profanity and foul language, and this had a lot. I don't remember the last time I read/tried to read a book that had so much profanity like every few words. I mean, I can understand some profanity once in a while and I prefer, or rather can tolerate, maybe a little, but this was too much.
This was supposed to be a type of Southern mystery in Georgia about a dysfunctional family that gets together to solve a murder and a disappearance with buried secrets that have to be uncovered and such. I know other readers have liked this one, so it might be something you'd like, but it was a big miss for me.
Thanks to Celadon Books and NetGalley for letting me read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Kingdoms of Savannah is a contemporary southern gothic mystery/thriller with historical elements by George Dawes Green. The ebook version is 272 pages. We follow multiple characters with third-person points-of-view.

Morgana Musgrove is one of Savannah, Georgia's most prosperous and respected society mavens. Since she inherited a detective agency from her late husband, she is hired by a slimy real estate developer to find a missing woman while exonerating him of a murder of which he is being charged. To get to the bottom of the case, Morgana needs to call upon her four grown children to help her with the investigation.

I initially picked up this book because Neil Gaiman blurbed it and called it "the apotheosis of Southern Gothic Noir."

This book stretches from the bottom of the barrel to the top of society in Savannah, including homeless encampments that circle the city, a maze of tunnels beneath the streets, and the mansions of the city's elite. The author does a great job giving us spooky vibes throughout, using a ton of historical information to weave his tale. There are also certain famous locations in the city--including the stone stairs of death--that feature heavily in some character backstories.

Morgana has such a good mind for mysteries, and I wish we spent more time in her point-of-view. There are so many different point-of-view characters in this book! There are also only five chapters plus an epilogue in this book. I get that the separations are done on purpose, exploring different areas, but each chapter is VERY LONG.

Make sure you read the author's notes!

Tropes in this book include: corruption, family drama, dysfunctional families

CW: violence, guns, death, murder, drug use and abuse, animal endangerment, mentions of emotional/psychological abuse in the past

Special thanks to Celadon Books, Macmillan, and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Thank you to Celadon Books and NetGally for the ability to read this prior to formal publication. This was an engaging read: a great deal of the history of Savannah, Georgia as well as on current day status of homelessness in the same city. The strength of this novel is in the characters. Green writes of the members of the Musgrove family, as well as other community members. The only downside is that there are so many well developed characters who don't necessarily have a strong role in this story, but perhaps there can be another novel that picks them up, as Green developed them all so well.
This is primarily a mystery, but also delves into family relationships, history, and present day social issues. A captivating read!

Thanks to Celadon and Netgalley for providing this ARC. I had no idea what to expect with this one going in and had any expectations I had greatly exceeded. The book has a great plot which kept me engaged until the end, and interesting quirky characters. From that aspect, it was reminiscent of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Overall, an enjoyable read mixing a mystery and historical fact.

The Kingdoms of Savannah is the 2022 answer to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The author is a master artist mixing Savannah mystique with murder, mystery, as well as a colorful cast of characters. He even manages to weave in the ongoing struggle of development with the history that abounds everywhere in the low country. My compliments. You won't be disappointed!

This book wasn’t on my radar at all until I was provided a review copy by Celadon Books last Friday but the synopsis sounded too good not to drop everything and read and so I did. A man is found murdered in an abanonded building. The perpetrator, a wealthy developer, calls in a prominent socialite who inherited her deceased husband’s investigation business to play detective. One-by-one she enlists members of her family to investigate including grandchild Jaq, one of the last people to see the deceased, and estranged son. What comes next is a story of corruption, greed, power, all set amongst the different realms of Savannah.

This book is a lesson in Savannah history and culture to the uninitiated.

It is gritty, it is dark and it is a perfect put together.

This book seamlessly integrated so many different elements through so many different character perspectives without ever losing my interest. Each POV served a purpose in the storytelling without it feeling cluttered.

This book will leave you wondering just how much of history have we lost because it was inconvenient or expensive?

My only complaint was that this book was divided into five chapters and sometimes I felt like there was no real good place to stop reading. When I did pause, I found that the story had lost some momentum because I hadn’t read it through as it was intended.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green is one excellent story. For years, there have been two cities that I consider separate from the United States, although physically attached. I believe that New Orleans and Savannah both have a vibe uniquely their own in the South, and a visit to either great City will back up my opinion. They are somewhat the “heart” of the South, and Savannah specifically is known as “America's first planned city.” The city is laid out in a series of grids that allow for wide open streets intertwined with shady public squares and parks that serve as town meeting places and centers of business. Savannah had 24 original squares; 22 squares are still in existence today.  But if you have ever been to Savannah, you will know that it is a City of shady streets and shady business. Wealthy people, old storied names, homeless camps, tourists, and ghosts. The ghosts fill a large part of The Kingdoms of Savannah, and a first-rate story is told here. No City is a study in perfection, but Savannah has so many levels that it’s hard to believe anyone can indeed survive the dark side. The characters of Stony, Jaq, Billy, Luke, Ransom, Hatchet Head, and the society maven, Morgana, make this story spicey as hell. Old mixing with new, money mixing with absolute poverty, history mixing with the present…it’s a fictional tale with a foundation of historical truth. Well done, Mr. Green, you have captured the essence of a great city, and you have also captured “some” of its secrets. @oakmist10 #KingdomsOfSavannah #money #hate #georgedawesgreen @netgalley #slavery #ghosts #society #secrets #themusician #evil @celadonbooks
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I received a complimentary copy of this book. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Thank you to NetGalley and Celadon Books for the opportunity to read this book. Pub Date: July 19, 2022. Look for free copies in your local @littlefreelibraries. #celadonbooks
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Thanks to Google for clarification on the Savannah squares. #littlefreelibrary