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A review by briandbremer
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
3.75
The first two thirds of this book are fascinating and horrifying. Grann's writing is propulsive, driving this true story forward. He does a good job of introducing the horror of what happened to the Osage (both with the murders and generally) and centering it while also introducing you to all of the players. When the FBI finally cracks the case, the members of the conspiracy aren't merely names you're meeting for the first time.
The book peters out in the last third, however, consisting mostly of Gran 's interviews with living descedents of the Osage. Those interviews are interesting but they just lack the electricity of the first parts of the book and aren't helped at all by Grann's insistence of inserting himself into the story (something he did in Lost City of Z as well).
Most egregious though is Grann's rather dubious claim of "solving" one of the unsolved murders. Basically, he reads an old FBI file that, paraphrasing, says "We think this guy did it because x but we can't prove it." Then Grann submits nothing but speculation that he FBI already had.
It's a frustrating ending to an important story that needed to be told.
The book peters out in the last third, however, consisting mostly of Gran 's interviews with living descedents of the Osage. Those interviews are interesting but they just lack the electricity of the first parts of the book and aren't helped at all by Grann's insistence of inserting himself into the story (something he did in Lost City of Z as well).
Most egregious though is Grann's rather dubious claim of "solving" one of the unsolved murders. Basically, he reads an old FBI file that, paraphrasing, says "We think this guy did it because x but we can't prove it." Then Grann submits nothing but speculation that he FBI already had.
It's a frustrating ending to an important story that needed to be told.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Violence