A review by stephen_coulon
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

It's a literary nonfiction account of a series of murders of Osage Native Americans on their land in the early 20th century. Grann’s adept use of shifting points of view allows him to breathe real humanity into the figures of this horrific event. True crime storytelling can suffer from a lifeless reporterly tone on the one hand, or become a disrespectfully macabre spectacle on the other. Grann finds the right balance between factual and human. This is an important event in American history that’s too long been ignored, but the victims’ families still suffer the trauma and effects of the crimes, so he treads carefully enough not to revictimize the Osage community. The social, institutional, and governmental depravity on display is next to unbelievable, even if you’re already aware of the USA’s history with Native Americans. Grann writes with grace and great care, and his adeptly structured book chooses to guide you through a very human story rather than just feed you the facts in order. Let’s hope the Scorsese film does this book justice.