True Crime: a review of Killers of the Flower Moon

I have not yet watched the movie, but I have a feeling that once I do I will be saying “the book was better.”

I added this book to my reading list after my husband read it and absolutely loved it. Typically, my husband and I do not read the same types of books. While I do read non-fiction, I prefer fiction. My husband is the opposite. But he truly raved about this book, and given that the movie was on the verge of release at the time, I thought it was as good a time as any to give it a shot.

1. Be prepared to spend the first third of the book speculating until you come to the conclusion that you can't trust anyone that you have "met" so far.

2. The second third you will spend with your jaw on the floor as the plot continues to go deeper and grow darker at every turn.

3. And the final third will make you cry, but also fill you with a sense of the utter injustice as you look backward from the present.

If that was too vague, allow me to give you a glimpse into what this book is all about. As the tagline says, this book follows the story of the Osage Nation's rise to wealth through the discovery of oil, and the brutal murders of hundreds of people of the Osage Nation that took place over the course of many years.

1. The story is first told from the perspective of Mollie Burkhart, an Osage woman of significant wealth, and whose sister was one of the first known murder victims.

2. The next section of the book tells the story from the perspective of Tom White, the Federal agent tasked with investigating the murders.

3. The final section is told in the present day from the perspective of David Grann himself as he does his own investigative research into the story, talking with members of the Osage Nation.

So much of American history leaves out the stories, significance, and impact of Native Americans. That is why this book is important. The fact that our history books notoriously downplay Native American stories is not an old concept. In fact, a long string of murders that so few people had even known about until this book was written, testifies to this fact. Native American culture should be celebrated, and David Grann does this well, even while writing about a grisly part of it's history.

It is rare that non-fiction keeps me gripped, but I could not put this book down. It reads like a crime drama without sacrificing any facts. The truth is, it IS a crime drama, but it also is true. It is a story that is important and I am glad that David Grann did the research that needed to be done to tell this story right.

(There is little to no "adult" content in this book. All depictions of violence are written very tastefully (and you can take it from me because I am pretty squeamish on that front). There were no sexual references, and very little language. While the themes are intense, they are handled with the utmost care).