In 1921, Mollie Burkhart's sister Anna was murdered. Then other mysterious deaths began occurring and Mollie, an Osage woman with oil rights that made her and others of the tribe extremely wealthy, grieved for her family and sought answers for what happened.

Grann divides the narrative into three parts: the first, primarily from Mollie's perspective as deaths pile up; the second, focusing on investigator Tom White who worked for what would become the FBI; and the third - well, I'll leave the discovery of exactly what the third section does to fellow readers. Suffice it to say, you are reading history and true crime at the hands of a master of narrative nonfiction, who keeps the pages turning throughout the investigation. Photographs throughout bring the places and people to life. Grann's thorough research gives you enough background to follow it all and only occasionally gets a little too long-winded, though it's always fascinating. This is one that'll stay with me for a long time. ( )

Fact-filled history of murders and other crimes committed against Osage Indians in Oklahoma in the 1920s by greedy and corrupt people stealing money the Osage had received when oil was discovered under their tribal lands. Honestly, I didn’t love the book, I’m just not that much of a history buff. But the research and writing and organization were clearly top-notch. If you’re interested in American history I’d strongly recommend it. ( )

A great read, but very tragic and sad. ( )

Such a great novel. I loved how the story was a history, yet read like a work of fiction. ( )

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. ( )