From the Bookshelf of The Roundtable…

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

David Grann

Start date: September 1, 2018

Finish date: September 1, 2018

Discussion: Nonfiction Group Read

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 29 topics — 959 comments total

Nonfiction Group Read

August - Savage Harvest
By Lauren · 46 posts · 30 views

last updated Aug 29, 2019 04:52AM

Nonfiction Nominations for August 2019
By Lauren · 18 posts · 36 views

last updated Jul 15, 2019 08:41PM

showing 10 of 16 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Feb 26, 2018 Irene rated it really liked it

This was an interesting and tragic piece of U.S. history with which I was unfamiliar. The author does a wonderful job of telling the story in a clear, concise and engaging fashion.

8 likes · Like · see review

Aug 18, 2017 Sera rated it it was amazing

Shelves: library, audio, favorites, non-fiction

Excellent book about the multi-decade investigation of the series of murders of the Osage Indians. The book provides another example of the greed of white man and the lack of humanity toward those who look different from him.

The book also provides an interesting overview of how numerous investigative techniques evolved during the course of the investigations and how the FBI became the agency that exists today. Hoover's efforts in how to manage a government agency get much attention in the book a ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 25, 2017 Heather(Gibby) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I was far more familiar with Canada's horrific history with its aboriginal people that with the American experience.

This was a very informative history of the Osage people who had "struck it rich" when oil was found on their land. However the white people of the time did not consider them real people and were resentful of their wealth. Conspiracy to take over their rights to their own money were not enough, and this lead to a community of people co-operating in dozens of murders to get control ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2018 Pamela rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Totally compelling and very readable account of shocking crimes against the Osage of Oklahoma in the 1920s and 1930s. Discovery of oil on their land had made them rich, but then they began to be killed off. Investigators met a conspiracy of silence and suspicions that the representatives of law and justice had been bribed or threatened into collusion. Were those appointed as 'guardians' to Osage who were judged incompetent to manage their affairs by the system as benign as they claimed? Eventual ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 09, 2018 Elise rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, 2010s, history, read-in-2018

Grann clearly explains the cause and effect of history while maintaining an emotionally involving and devastating narrative. I kept hoping for each new Osage introduced to make it out alive, for each white person not to be corrupt. It rarely happened.

Although I had taken a college course on US history, American Indian perspective, covering the Civil War to present day, and although the professor was from Oklahoma (albeit Choctaw), I had never heard of the Reign of Terror before. I remembered the ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2018 Janice (JG) rated it really liked it

4 stars for the information and research contained in the book. The writing was like dramatic reportage, but it did manage to convey the emotions of those who were victimized by the political, economic, and corporate structures, and their greed, that seem always and forever to have the upper hand. Damn.

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2018 Jen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, audio, 2017-releases, 2018-reads

Top quality narrative non-fiction. It's hard to believe this isn't fiction, learning about the atrocities committed against the Osage people in the 1920s all in the name of greed - but what else could it be for? Grann is highly skilled at weaving together stories of a community's murder mystery, one woman's immense personal loss and deep resilience, insightful history of land rights of native american people, and a broader examination of the 'birth of the FBI' and evolution of law enforcement. F ...more

Like · see review