This was really a wonderful and horrifying true story. More people should know about this. I feel a personal connection to this book since I live in Oklahoma. The narration is beautiful and it is almost two books in one. The first half of the book covers the murders and the numerous investigations; the second half is the author's revelations after doing so much research into the crimes. This is an extremely well-done book and I would absolutely read more by this author.

Thank you Netgalley for my free copy of this amazing book!

This books was fascinating and horrifying. I knew nothing about this period of American history and David Grann's book was engaging and insightful. I only wish there was more resolution at the end!

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON is a jaw dropping story about the richest people per capita in the world in the 1920s -- the Osage Indian nation. They struck oil on their land and many of the Osage lived a life of luxury... until they started being killed off one by one. Mollie Burkhart's family was hit especially hard as her mother and sisters were poisoned and shot; however, most members of the nation were affected in one way or another by the deaths.

When the death toll reached 24, the FBI decided to take the case. It was one of their first major homicide investigations and it didn't go well. FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover decided to assign a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to solve the case. White assembled an undercover team that tried to immerse themselves into the region and figure out what the heck was going on. The story becomes more and more amazing as they discover clues during their investigation!

I am still reeling from KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON! It truly is an amazing story that's not only shocking but also extremely sad. I can't believe that not one of the members of my book club had ever even heard of what happened to the members of the Osage Nation, and I think they says quite a bit about our country's relationship with Native Americans... but more on that later.

The reactions on this book were mixed among my book club friends. All of us agreed that the story is truly remarkable (I am running out of adjectives!), but some of us appreciated the book more than others. I will admit that I felt as if the story carried the book, but I understand some of the issues with the writing. There were parts that were a bit dry, but it is non-fiction so I was fine with that. Others not so much!

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON has received tons of great reviews, and I think I heard that there are plans for a movie. It is definitely a story that needs to be heard. As my friends and I discussed this book, we couldn't help but focus on how our country treated Native Americans, and especially the Osage Nation. It was a horribly sad time in our nation's history, and I would like to think we've learned from it and changed, but...

As a fan of crime books, I actually enjoyed the parts of the book that focused on the FBI and their investigation techniques. It was a fascinating time with lots of changes. Keep in mind that it wasn't far removed from the Wild West! It was interesting to see an early J. Edgar Hoover's management techniques, as well as Tom White's devotion to the case.

Overall, I highly recommend KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. It's definitely going to be one of the most unbelievable true stories that you will read this year!

If this story were fiction, I would need to suspend disbelief regarding the conspiracy to kill the oil-rich members of Oklahoma’s Osage tribe during the early part of the 20th Century. And I would have done so because (author) weaves a compelling narrative. The fact that it’s nonfiction makes the story even more compelling — I was horrified at the corruption in law enforcement that allowed these people to be poisoned, kidnapped and violently murdered, some killed by explosives in their own homes while they slept. Also particularly horrified by the way the federal government treated these people like children and second-class citizens. It is an uncomfortable read because it exposes how greed exploits humanity, but I highly recommend it.

This true story of the systematic murder of many members of the Osage Indian Nation for their oil rights and the subsequent investigation into the killings is a flawless blend of history and mystery. It’s about the history of the Osage Indian Nation, oil drilling in America in the 1920’s, 1920’s law enforcement and the FBI’s first homicide case. Then, overlay all that with a murder mystery involving a stunning level of corruption that captivated the public interest at the time, but that I sure didn’t hear about in any history class. Though the early details occasionally get a little dry, the story picks up steam once the FBI starts to investigate and, just when you think it’s over, things become even more unbelievable. Killers of the Flower Moon would be a great choice for fans of narrative nonfiction and Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City.

This book pieces together a brutal piece of history and unravels an ugly murder mystery. It’s disturbing, depressing and, at least for me, not at all the fast moving read I was led to believe from some of the early reviews. Maybe it’s just me, but I had a difficult time sticking with it. There were so many people involved and random details tossed in that didn’t seem to move things along that to me it seemed a little too over-stuffed and hard to follow at times. Perhaps it should’ve been a little longer? I don’t know. I tried it first in its Kindle version which includes photos of the people involved and then I moved on to the audiobook when I found myself putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up again. The audiobook is read by three narrators and one of them, Will Patton, is one of my favorites so that definitely helped. Something about his voice just pulls you in and forces you to pay attention.

This is a story about those in power who systematically attempt to eradicate an entire tribe of Indians in order to nab their wealth. First they remove them from their homeland and stick them on an unwanted patch of land (which turns out to be worth a fortune later when oil is struck), then they take their buffalo away making them dependent on the government’s money and then after the tribe has accumulated millions because they were far savvier than anyone assumed, the murdering begins. It is a terrible, awful story and it makes me heartsick that there was no justice and that these people were treated as if they were stupid children – or worse. I wasn’t expecting hearts and rainbows but I was hoping someone, somewhere would pay for all of the atrocities committed but no, the greedy and the powerful get away with murder. It’s sickening.

Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. It’s an important book and appalling true story that needed to be documented. We all need to know about the evil that was done to the Osage Tribe and I am not sorry I read/listened to it but I can’t honestly say I would ever read it again.

In 8th Grade, I was required to take Oklahoma History. It was taught by the boys basketball/Driver’s Ed coach. While we DID learn about some things, one thing that was never discussed was the Osage murders in the 1920’s.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, David Gann presents this little known part of history and ties these numerous and VERY connected events together in a readable and exciting book. Readers are taken from Oklahoma to Washington DC to Houston and back to Oklahoma in a journey to find the source of the murderous crimes and what he found was strings that led to many, many corrupt people.

This book is divided into three sections. Part one is Mollie Burkhart’s story, how her family was systematically murdered one by one. Part two follows the FBI and their investigation. Part three, and my favorite part, was David Grann’s own investigation almost 100 years later, and his discovering of the pain that still exists in Oklahoma and with the Osage people.

This is a story of greed. Of false friendship. Of the FBI. This is a story of how badly some ‘Americans’ wanted power.

Thanks to NetGalley, David Grann and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon joins Devil in the White City, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and other engrossing and stranger than fiction stories that entertain and disturb, with laser focused research and precision storytelling.

Are you looking of obscure murders not often examined today? Or are you looking for incidents in American history that seem to be brushed under the rug. In either case, you have hit upon a find. Killers of the Flower Moon attempts to illuminate a tale out of American history of horror brought about by greed, jealousy, concealed ambition, not to mention corruption in high places that helped to lay a base for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to grow into the behemoth that it is now.

In Killers of the Flower Moon, Grann opens with the terror gripping Mollie Burkhart, an Osage Indian, the middle of three sisters. One sister is killed by a shot in the back of the head, another sister has her house blown up while she and her husband were sleeping, and Mollie's mother was likely poisoned. Why did these murder's and numerous others happen? Greed over oil headrights owned by the Osage Indians. But the mystery lies in who inspired these assassinations. And this is where the FBI (then known as the Bureau of Investigation) enters the picture. Local officials were turning up nothing, neither had private eyes, so the government had been called in. They managed to partially solve the situation, getting a few convictions and declaring victory. But as the author reveals in the last few chapters, the BI's investigations never answered several key questions and murders still occurred after victory had been declared.

Most readers will enjoy the story despite the rabbit trails that the narrative wanders into upon occasion. However, be prepared to be enraged over the greed and incompetence displayed by public officials during this case.

There seems to be no end of the atrocities about which they did not teach me in school. I hope schools are doing better now and this book might help. The Osage tribe was driven from its original land by the US government, forced to sell their land in Kansas and ultimately moved to Oklahoma. They selected the Osage Territory in Oklahoma because it was so barren and worthless that they didn't think that the white people would try to push them away again. They were wrong. I can't even begin to detail all of the terrible things that the government did to the Osage, but it included leaving them starving in a territory where they couldn't hunt and were unfamiliar with the necessary farming techniques. The US also tried to pay them for their Kansas property with useless supplies rather than cash. The children were forced into schools for assimilation. When oil was discovered on the Osage land each registered member of the tribe held a share of the mineral rights and became fabulously wealthy. The rights could be inherited, but not sold. From then on the Osage had more to worry about than the government.

During the 1920s the Osage were subjected to venomous treatment by white swindlers. The government deemed itself entitled to monitor the spending habits of the Osage and appointed guardians to handle the money of some of them. Guess who got appointed. And then the murders began. A group or groups of conspirators were killing the Osage by shooting, poisoning or blowing up their houses in order to concentrate ownership of the mineral rights so they could be more easily exploited. Law enforcement investigators who got too close to the truth of the murders also turned up dead. Finally, the FBI managed to arrest at least some, but not all, of the men responsible for the murders and convictions were obtained. The Depression and the depletion of the oil deposits made the wealth disappear.

The first two parts of this nonfiction book dealing with the murders and the investigation read like a novel. The final part was somewhat more dry, but still interesting. The book is very thoroughly researched and compellingly written. It left me feeling outrage, fury and disgust.

I received a free copy of the ebook from the publisher but I listened to the audiobook borrowed from the library and used the ebook only to see the photographs of many of the people and places referred to in the book. Of the three narrators of the audiobook, my favorite was Will Patton in part two. The ebook has extensive footnotes and a bibliography.

Grann’s historical research to bring this true crime to readers is fascinating. The murder case, intriguing and twisting, just when you think the case is solved, it isn’t.

This book opened up a chapter of American history that I'd never heard about before. Expertly researched and written by a New Yorker staff writer, Killers of the Flower Moon delves into the murders, cover-ups and investigations on various members of the Osage during the Reign of Terror. The book provides fascinating insight into methods of investigation employed by private eyes and the FBI at the start of J. Edgar Hoover's directorship. The only criticism I have is that this book could have kept going. Grann touches on so many aspects of the period that it could have been even greater in scope without sacrificing anything.

Another shameful chapter of maltreatment of Native Americans. I really appreciated the level of research that the author cited and the up-to-date chapters that chronicle the lives of the heirs to this misfortune.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I thought it was really slow and kind of boring.

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murder and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann - The history is disturbing and chilling, made even more so because it is an actual history not fiction. The theme is ages old, forever present in this world. People kill for money. The extent to which such greed can reach is scary in the history of the Osage murders. The book is intense and compelling and relevant today.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/05/killers-of-flower-moon.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

The dark stain of man’s doing, the greed, the need, and thirst for power.
The corruption, the taking of that which is not his, the lands crying of the blood that pours forth from it and these pages the reality of what measures man would stoop to.
I was not in know when it came to the fate of the Osage, the dead, now with the great meticulous research of this capable writer readers can be educated.
The FBI and Hoover come under the microscope here in the dealings with the murders and the first days of their forming and policies.
The writer captivates the reader with the tragedy and the search for the guilty parties layered in a well done work of fact.

I received this book from Net Galley several months ago and read it quickly. I was stunned and upset with this story, and found it really disturbing. The narrative nonfiction format makes it very readable, but the story is so sad and upsetting when you realize how terribly the Native Americans were treated who were involved in these events in the 1920’s. Once again I have to wonder why I’ve never heard of these events?
Recommended for those who want narrative non-fiction; I would use it in high school history as well.
Thank you for my review e-copy!

David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon is the story of the Osage Indian murders and the beginning of the FBI. Mr. Grann delivers another well researched book. The story started off a bit slow, but soon I was drawn into the world of the Osage. The individuals came to life through the descriptions. I could feel a tiny portion of the fear they must have felt. It is a tragedy that this story is not well known. I appreciated the way that the events were presented and how the story unfolded. I am at a loss for words to express the range of emotions from reading this book. Killers of the Flower Moon is an excellent book that is well worth reading.

Just over a century ago, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. In this amazing book, David Grann presents the results of his exhaustive research into one of the most horrific and shameful eras in U.S. history: the “Reign of Terror” as the Osage began to be killed off for their land (and the incredible wealth they achieved due to the oil underneath their land). It’s a chilling, riveting piece of nonfiction – and it reads like fiction.

As the U.S. government was inclined to do, they shoved the Osage onto a godforsaken piece of land in the corner of Oklahoma, unaware that whoever had the rights to the land would be rich beyond imagining. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage seemed to have it made: they bought cars and rode in them with their chauffeurs, they built mansions, and they sent their children off to study in Europe.

Beginning with an isolated death here and there, it became apparent that one by one, they were being killed off. Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman whose story is central to the book, saw her entire family murdered: her sister was shot, her mother slowly poisoned, and then there was the firebombing. The Osage began to die in significant numbers under mysterious circumstances.

This part of Oklahoma was really one of the last bits of the Wild West, evidenced by the fact that anyone who tried to investigate the killings would themselves be murdered. J. Edgar Hoover (a truly weird little man) and his newly created F.B.I. took up the case as their first major homicide investigation and at first blundered terribly due to the rampant corruption in the early days of the Bureau. But Hoover brought in Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, who put together an undercover team who bravely worked with the Osage to reveal a deeply ingrained conspiracy.

Killers of the Flower Moon not only reveals the cold blooded murders of dozens of Osage, and lays out the horrible treatment of Native Americans that allowed the crimes to be ignored, covered up, and/or forgotten.

I found myself highlighting tons of paragraphs as I read…but I can’t bear to go back and retrieve them to share in my review. Seriously, this book is haunting and devastating. I admit I was relieved when my Kindle showed I was 75% of the way through but the book was done – yes, a full 25% of the book is notes, and I was ready to stop reading about the horror.

It’s an incredible piece of research into a part of U.S. history that we might wish to forget – but which we should NEVER forget. Five stars, and thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.