New Yorker writer David Grann has skillfully adapted his chilling nonfiction bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon for young readers. Grann examines this ghastly episode of U.S. history in an authentic, accessible style that will hook teens with the intrigue of fiction while simultaneously enlightening them with the facts.
Two stories converge as Grann adeptly lays out the details of a series of gruesome murders committed against members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s. He focuses on the family of Mollie Burkhart: her older sister was shot to death, her mother died suspiciously not long after and Mollie's younger sister was killed in a bombing. When it became clear the murders were connected and continuing, the Bureau of Investigation was called in to take over the case. Tom White, a former Texas Ranger, led the investigation team in Oklahoma, while J. Edgar Hoover used one of the bureau's first major homicide cases to secure his position as the director of what would become the FBI.
Grann spotlights the gross mistreatment of this segment of Indigenous people--members of the Osage tribe were the "wealthiest people per capita in the world" in the 1920s, and white politicians took advantage of them. "Over the tribe's strong objections, many Osage... were deemed 'incompetent,' and were forced to have a local white guardian overseeing and authorizing all of their spending." Not only were these adults treated as less than full citizens, in many cases the guardians--often chosen as political quid pro quos--were stealing their money. Grann also reveals Hoover's dispassionate, egocentric approach toward the case: he saw it as a means to his permanent appointment as director of the FBI, not the resolution to this horrific Reign of Terror. Hoover never mentioned the FBI investigation team "by name as he promoted the case. They did not quite fit the image he wanted for the bureau.... Plus, Hoover never wanted his men to overshadow him."
There is no shortage of jaw-dropping information in Killers of the Flower Moon. Grann entices younger readers with a mystery worthy of fiction, grips them with a thriller and always respects them as the final link in the story circle. In the preface, Osage tribal member Dennis McAuliffe Jr. says, "Every time this history is learned, justice is served, and the victims... are honored." Grann has ensured that justice will indeed be served many times over. --Jen Forbus, freelancer
Shelf Talker: Journalist David Grann masterfully adapts his work about the Osage tribe murders--a National Book Award finalist--to provide young readers with an accessible look at this horrific part of U.S. history.