Play Book Tag discussion

In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.

Then, one by one, they began to be killed off. One Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, watched as her family was murdered. Her older sister was shot. Her mother was then slowly poisoned. And it was just the beginning, as more Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

In this last remnant of the Wild West—where oilmen like J. P. Getty made their fortunes and where desperadoes such as Al Spencer, “the Phantom Terror,” roamed – virtually anyone who dared to investigate the killings were themselves murdered. As the death toll surpassed more than twenty-four Osage, the newly created F.B.I. took up the case, in what became one of the organization’s first major homicide investigations. But the bureau was then notoriously corrupt and initially bungled the case. Eventually the young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to try to unravel the mystery. White put together an undercover team, including one of the only Native American agents in the bureau. They infiltrated the region, struggling to adopt the latest modern techniques of detection. Together with the Osage they began to expose one of the most sinister conspiracies in American history.

A true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.

I'm not a fan of non-fiction but reading this book I had to remind myself from time to time that it's not fiction, all these things happened to real people. It's written really well. I felt very close to all those events. The author not just retells the chronology of what happened. He creates this fantastic background that immerses a reader into that time, that society. For example, we don't just get to know who solved all these crimes, but we learn about his childhood, family, and upbringing, and later we can easily understand his motives.

This book also gave me a lot of knowledge about the Osage Indian tribe. It was all new to me, so I enjoyed learning more about their culture and was sorry to read about the racial injustice they had to face.

I’m glad you liked it too. It’s very powerful. After I read this book, I learned of a similar (even more dramatic) event that took place in Oklahoma in the early 1920s. There was a successful neighborhood in Tulsa they called Black Wall Street. It was attacked and destroyed by jealous angry white people. Neither of these shocking events were well known, even in Oklahoma.

I tried the audio of this and it reminded me of a cheap PBS history special, it was terrible. Not the narrator's voice, or cadence, perse, but it just triggered "cheap history video from elementary school" for some reason.

I have a hardcopy of the book so I look forward to reading it sometime!

This book is worth reading - it is a true story of what happened in the US - and it makes me feel shame for our country (US) that we allowed things like this to continue. A great book. Thanks for the review. peace, janz

I listened to the audio a couple of years ago. Fascinating and gripping. I loved it. 4****

I really liked this one when I read it, and it's one I've made a note of to come back to and research into further later on.