Category: Book Review

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence by Carol Berkin

Released 2006.02.14   | Finished 2024.06.06  | Purchased

Note: A number of lectures are available on YouTube regarding this book, one hosted by American Revolution Institute dated January 7, 2016

As Dr. Berkin points out in one of the YouTube discussions of this book, women were not merely observers of the American Revolution. They did not sit on the sideline like at a football game and cheer on the participants or specific plays/actions within the battles. Whether a camp follower or the female at the home/business front regardless of her race or social standing, women were participants.

Dr. Berkin looked at the women on the North American continent as they were involved and how they were treated in the Revolution. Patriots vs Loyalists; well-to-do vs poor; White vs Indian vs Black.

 Women were in contact with both sides of the conflict. If she had stayed on the farm regardless of her success in maintaining the acres, troops came through like locusts taking what they could use. If the woman was lucky, raiding the larder was the only crime against her. Some of these ladies would destroy their work rather than have it stolen. Camp followers of both sides included colonial women in multiple capacities and for protection. Some found themselves taking water on the battleground as refreshment for men or cooling cannon.

Dr. Berkin’s examples of the situations women were varied and not the ones usually cited in history books written by men. She examined archives for information that was designated as ‘other’ to find information left by women. She also examined oral histories that were generally designated to the outer boundaries of history.

Recommendation: Excellent for women’s studies classes (at least they were called that 20 years ago) and for background/groundwork in American history. The book is finding an audience as the nation nears its 250th anniversary.

About the Author

Carol Ruth Berkin was born in Mobile, Alabama on October 1, 1942. The mother of two, Berkin earned her undergraduate work at Barnard College (1964) and her Ph.D. from Columbia. American historian and writer, she is currently the Baruch Presidential Professor of History, City University of New York (en.wikipedia.org). Dr. Berkin has also consulted on several PBS and History Channel documentaries and is board members of the National Council for History Education and The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History (www.Amazon.com).

Her published work includes:

Clio in the Classroom: Teaching Women’s History (ed. with Margaret Crocco and Barbara Winslow) pub. 2009.02.02

Civil War Wives pub 2010.11.15

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for American Independence pub 2005.02.01

Looking Forward/Looking Back: a Women’s Studies Reader (ed. with Carole Appel and Judith Pinch) pub 2005.05.27

A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution pub 2002.09.13

Women’s Voices/Women’s Lives: Documents in Early American Women’s History pub 1998.05.07

First Generations: Women In Colonial America pub 1997.07.01

Making America: A History of the U.S. (with Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, and James Gormly)  pub 2011.07.27

Women, War and Revolution (ed. With Clara Lovett and Holmes Meier) pub 1980.01.01

Women of America: A History (ed. With Mary Beth Norton) pub 1979.01.01

Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist pub. 2000.01.01

Wondrous Beauty: Betsy Bonaparte, the Belle of Baltimore who Married Napoleon’s Brother pub 2014.11.04

America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie

Released 2016.03.01     | Finished 2024.05.19    | Own

Praised by critics as an historical novel that catches the elusive history of Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha ‘Patsy’ Jefferson Randolph. The widowed Jefferson was left with two daughters to raise. The older was already a favorite companion of the revolutionary who as a young teen must guide her father through his madness and grief at the loss of her mother in a world that holds many enemies of her father. She was thrust into a world of diplomats and political enemies at an early age which only proved to be a training ground for the needs of her father when he was elected President of the United States.

Through the years and in political situations, Patsy was helped by future first ladies, Abigail Adams and Dolley Madison. Their sisterhood that looked beyond the entanglements of their spouses and father. The future of the United States depended on the ability of these women to hold the society of diplomacy together. They might not be the ones signing the treaties or passing laws, but they were the ones to control the hubris of their men in public and to advise them in private.

The novel is 580 pages long. At times that seemed quite long to someone who does not tither at a new history or historical novel. There were pages that seemed familiar, but such is the case when reading historical novels that have stories that overlap with other historical novels, biographies, and history texts. The reader expects to have these moments of déjà vu. The book was informative especially once the reader connects with the authors’ notes to explain historical situations vs. hypothetical/fictional situations. I read this for a book club – unless it had contained information that I need for a current historical project, I most likely would not have read it. However, because of the obligation to the club, I did finish it rather than escape to more modern fiction. That will not be the case for a reader that enjoys biography or historical fiction. There was something to be learned about Patsy Jefferson Randolph and this book provided a means to do so.

The Authors

Stephanie Dray (aka Stephanie Draven) is an American writer of historical and fantasy fiction known for her research and accuracy. According to the Elisabeth Storrs website, Stephanie is a frequent panelist and presenter at nation writing conventions, a former lawyer, game designer, and teacher.

Laura (A. Croghan) Kamoie (b. August 27, 1970, in Hagerstown, Maryland) is an historian (Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy) and author. She graduated cum laude from Dickinson College in 1992 and later earned her MA and PhD in American History from the College of William and Mary. She writes historical fiction and non-fiction as Kamoie and romantic fiction as Luara Kaye. Under her combined names, she has 44 titles.

The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House by Daniel Mark Epstein

Released 2017.05.30   | Finished 2024.04.18  | own

Since I am not an historian, my comments come from a non-history education. I do genealogy in my spare time and discovered that there is a blood relationship between these men and my family. Ben is my second cousin x10 times removed. Much closer than the relationship to Barbara Pierce Bush who is my 8th cousin. Why is any of that important – other than to wonder what dear cousin Ben would think of this country after all that he and son William gave up?

This is not the only family branch that broke apart during that volatile time in this nation’s history. It is just that most are not so well documented or on public display for the world to poke at or to dissect.

For some colonists, calling the Revolutionary War a civil war was a better description.

Ben was a loyal British citizen. He worked for the crown as co- Post Master General. He improved the delivery of mail. That is not to say that he did not take advantage of having free mail and contact every eminent person that he could whether on the North American continent or throughout the European Commonwealth and other European countries. Ben was a man of letters and science. William was involved and both were well known.

When the Crown and Parliament pitted the two against each other, their break with each other was inevitable. Parliament isolated Ben made a spectacle of him and accused him of being responsible for crimes committed in the colonies against the Crown. While with the help of Ben, William was put in charge of a colony. Ben became a champion to the colonists though he was still looking for a way to reconnect the colonies to the Crown. In the multiple positions that he was appointed by Continental Congress, he worked to complete the tasks. William became a substitute for the British, and he was made aware of how a large number of colonists felt about British rule without the colonists having representation in Parliament.

Personally, father and son lost the closeness that they had developed. They were pulled apart by their experiences and by the political forces around them. This book looks at those forces and makes the situation even more thought provoking.

How would any of us deal with a comparable situation? Oh, there was our Civil War, the Vietnam War, and the protesters to any ‘police action’ in other parts of the world where someone has overstepped what is socially acceptable or where someone bullies another. Never forget that no action that tears apart the lives of people creates human misery of multiple proportions.

About the Author

Daniel Mark Epstein is an American poet, dramatist, and biographer. He has also translated plays by Plautus and Euripides (Latin and Greek). He was born on October 25, 1948, in Washington, D.C. He grew up in a Maryland suburb of DC and in Vienna on the Eastern Shore, Maryland.

His education includes public schools in Prince George’s County, MD, Kenyon college, and a graduate semester at University of Virginia. Epstein conducted seminars at John Hopkins and taught at Randolph Macon, Towson State University, and Maryland college Institute of Art in the 1980s. The 1990s revealed his ability to write fair biographies and translated a Greek and Latin play. In the first decade of the 21st century, Epstein concentrated on the Lincoln trilogy. In the years since, his work turned his study to the Franklins and poetry.

A list of his work in prose.

titlerelease
Star of Wonder1986.01.01
Love’s Compass: A Natural History of the Heart1990.01.01
Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson1993.01.01
Nat King Cole1999.11.12
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay2002.09.01
Lincoln and Whitman: Parallel Lives in Civil War Washington2004.01.01
The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage2008.01.01
Lincoln’s Men: The President and His Private Secretaries2009.02.03
The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait2011.01.01
The Loyal Son: The War in Ben Franklin’s House2017.05.30

It Had to Be You (Under Suspicion series) by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke

Released 2024.04.16   | Finished 20234.04.23            | Borrowed from local library

If you have any immediate deadlines, stay away from this title!

The new story for the Under Suspicion news crew involves a near ten-year old cold case. Twins dubbed the Deadly Duo have been under suspicion of killing their parents.

Ten years ago, Sarah and Richard Harrington held a college graduation party in conjunction with her best friend Betsy and Walter Ward for their sons at the local yacht club. Richard and Walter were also two of three partners in a law firm. The couples had decided that everyone that attended the party had to be dressed completely in white.

Sarah and Richard left the party early to return to their summer home less than a mile from the yacht club. They never returned. Shortly after their murders, their bodies were discovered by the young woman that walked the family dog. Soon thereafter, the police were at the graduation party to break the news to the children, twins Simon and Ethan and younger sister Frankie. The third member of the law firm, who had arrived at the yacht club late, stated that he had observed one of the twin boys returning from the parking lot and the vehicle that the twins had driven to the party. The twins had been under suspicion of murder with both accusing the other of the crime.

Ten years later, Frankie is in her last semester of college, ready to receive her inheritance. She stays connected with her brothers, but they have not talked to each other since the investigation of the murders. Frankie wants answers and her family to be whole. She contacted Laurie Moran to see if the television producer would consider investing the cold case and do what she does best, do what the police were unable to do, solve the crime and identify the person responsible for the murders.

About the Authors

Mary Higgins Clark (December 24, 1927 – January 31, 2020) was of Irish descent. Her father died in 1939; he left a widow with three children to support. As the children became old enough to work at odd jobs, they did so. Following graduation from secretarial school, Mary went to work at Remington Rand. There she was a fellow employee of Joseph Keller and Grace Kelly.

Mary’s writing began when she was in high school. Her first published story was the result of a college writing assignment, forty rejections, and six years of trying to sell the story- it sold in 1956. Though Mary continued writing while raising a family and completing a degree at Fordham University in 1971, her first novel was released until January 1, 1975. Over fifty novels would follow in her writing career.

Alafair Burke (October 1969 -) is a professor of law, legal commentator, and American crime novelist with fourteen books in her name only and the Under Suspicion series with Clark. She is the daughter of a school librarian Pearl Pai Chu and crime novelist James Lee Burke. Her work in law includes serving as a judicial clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and as Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney, Portland, Oregon.

Mary Higgins Clark Book List

  1. Aspire To The Heavens, aka Mount Vernon Love Story 1968.01.01
  2. Where Are The Children 1986.12.12
  3. A Stranger Is Watching 1977.01.01
  4. The Cradle Will Fall 1980.01.01
  5. A Cry in the Night 1982.09
  6. Stillwatch 1984.01.01
  7. Weep No More, My Lady (Alvirah & Willie #1) 1987.01.01
  8. While My Pretty One Sleeps 1989.07.01
  9. The Anastasia Syndrome and Other Stories 1989.11.15
  10. That’s The Ticket 1990.01.01
  11. Voices in The Coal Bin 1990.10.01
  12. Loves Music, Loves To Dance 1991.05.15
  13. All Around The Town 1992.05.04
  14. Milk Run 1993.01.01
  15. Stowaway 1993.01.01
  16. I’ll Be Seeing You 1993.05.05
  17. Death On The Cape and Other Stories 1993.12.02
  18. Remember Me 1994.05.02
  19. The Lottery Winner And Other Stories (Alvirah & Willie #2) 1994.11.01
  20. Let Me Call You Sweetheart 1995.05.08
  21. Silent Night 1995.10.16
  22. Moonlight Becomes You 1996.04.18
  23. My Gal Sunday 1996.10.22
  24. Pretend You Don’t See Her 1997.04.28
  25. You Belong To Me 1998.04.21
  26. All Through The Night (Alvirah & Willie #3) 1986.09.20
  27. We’ll Meet Again 1999.04.26
  28. Before I Say Goodbye 2000.01.01
  29. Deck The Halls (with Carol Higgins Clark – Alvirah & Willie #4) 2000.11.30
  30. On The Street Where You Live 2001.04.17
  31. He Sees You When You’re Sleeping (with Carol Higgins Clark) 2004.11.03
  32. Daddy’s Little Girl 2002.04.16
  33. Kitchen Privileges: A Memoir 2002.01.01
  34. The Second Time Around 2003.01.01
  35. Nighttime Is My Time 2004.04.06
  36. The Christmas Thief (with Carol Higgins Clark – Alvirah & willie #5) 2004.11.09
  37. No Place Like Home 2005.04.05
  38. Two Little Girls In Blue 2006.04.04
  39. Santa Cruise (with Carol Higgins Clark – Alvirah & Willie #6) 2006.11.14
  40. Ghost Ship 2007.04.03
  41. I Heard That Song Before 2007.04.03
  42. Where Are You Now? 2008.04.08
  43. Dashing Through The Snow (with Carol Higgins Clark- Alvirah & Willie #7) 2008.11.18
  44. Just Take My Heart 2009.04.07
  45. The Shadow Of Your Smile 2010.04.13
  46. I’ll Walk Alone (Alvirah & Willie #8) 2011.04.05
  47. The Magical Christmas Horse (children’s story) 2011.10.25
  48. The Lost Years (Alvirah & Willie #9) 2012.04.03
  49. Daddy’s Gone A Hunting 2013.01.01
  50. Inherit The Dead (multiple writers writing a chapter a piece) 2013.10.08
  51. I’ve Got You Under My Skin (Under Suspicion #1 with Alafair Burke) 2014.04.01
  52. The Cinderella Murder (Under Suspicion #2 with Alafair Burke) 2014.11.18
  53. The Mystery Writers Of America Cookbook (multiple writers contributing) 2015.03.24
  54. Death Wears A Beauty Mask and Other Stories 2015.04.23
  55. The Five Dollar Dress (multiple writers’ short stories) 2015.06.02
  56. The Melody Lingers On 2015.06.23
  57. All Dressed In White (Under Suspicion #3 with Alafair Burke) 2015.11.17
  58. As Time Goes By (Alvirah and Willy series #10) 2016.04.05
  59. The Sleeping Beauty Killer (Under Suspicion #4 with Alafair Burke) 2016.11.15
  60. All By Myself, Alone (Alvirah & Willie #11) 2017.04.04
  61. Every Breath You Take (Under Suspicion #5 with Alafair Burk) 2017.11.07
  62. I’ve Got My Eyes On You 2018.04.03
  63. You Don’t Own Me (Under Suspicion #6 with Alafair Burke) 2018.11.06
  64. Kiss The Girls And Make Them Cry 2019.11.05
  65. Piece Of My Heart (Under Suspicion #7 with Alafair Burke) 2020.11.17
  66. Where Are The Children Now? (with Alafair Burke) 2022.04.18
  67. It Had To Be You (Under Suspicion #8 with Alafair Burke) 2024.04.16

Alafair Burke Book list

  1. Find Me 2022.01.11
  2. The Better Sister 2019.04.16
  3. The Wife 2018.01.23
  4. The Ex 2016.01.26
  5. If You Were Here 2013.06.04
  6. Long Gone 2012.05.22
  7. All Day and a Night (Ellie Hatcher series) 2014.06.10
  8. Never Tell (Ellie Hatcher series) 2012.06.19
  9. 212 (Ellie Hatcher Series) 2010.03.23
  10. Angel’s Tip (Ellie Hatcher Series) 2008.01.01
  11. Dead Connection (Ellie Hatcher series) 2007.07.10
  12. Close Case (Samantha Kincaid series) 2005.07.06
  13. Missing Justice (Samantha Kincaid series) 2004.06.02
  14. Judgment Calls (Samantha Kincaid series) 2003.07.01

Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World by Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink

Released 2023.09.05          | Finished 2024.03.17         | Borrowed from local library

For someone who writes, hopefully, effectively every day, reading what professionals have to say about the task and how to do so in a way to get and keep readers is important. I’ve just shut you out or put you to sleep with my first sentence. It is way too long and contorted I am told.

The authors premise for writers:

  • Writers have to write for people who think they can multitask – inefficiently and a fallacy. When writing, the writer should consider those who are ‘multitasking’ to reduce stress.
  • Getting that initial attention while the reader is internally deciding whether, when, how, and benefits reading any piece of communication (factors include sender, size of content, packaging).

The message is covered in 207 pages. The authors follow the guidelines they prescribe. This is followed by a one-page appendix with a website address to address word alternatives. The obligatory acknowledgements are two pages. The twenty-two pages of notes (i.e. footnotes) act as the ‘meat’ of the book for those who are doing similar research.

This is a must read for anyone who tries to communicate on a daily basis. (And for these people, a highly suggested purchase for your working library on your desk.) Even those proficient in the use of words might want a copy of this by their copy of Strunk and White The Elements of Style.

The Authors

Todd Rogers’ biography on the book jacket states that he is at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government as a professor oof public policy. He is a cofounder of the Analyst Institute and EveryDay Labs. His writing has been published in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, and others.

Jessica Lasky-Fink’s biography on the book jacket states she is a research director on the same campus in the People Lab. Her work focuses on proving information with government programs and services.

Dutton: Penguin Random House Publisher, available on Amazon for Hardcover $16.49 | paperback $21.62 | Kindle $15.99 [on the morning of March 17, 2024]

The Secret (#28 in the Jack Reacher series) by Lee Child and Andrew Child

Released 2023.10.24      | Finished Reading 2023.12.01   | Borrowed from public library

This is a travel back in time for Reacher, 1992.  He was recently demoted from major to captain. He has an assignment to work with an interagency group: Kent Neilson, CIA; Amber Smith, FBI; Gary Walsh, Treasury; and Reacher, US Army. The group was pulled together by the Defense Department Christopher Baglin and Secretary of Defense Charles Stamoran. At first glance, Reacher decides that the group is an interagency taskforce of fall guys. Each representative has an obvious reason to be thrown into the taskforce should the group fail.

The assignment for the taskforce, discover why a group of people are dying. Each was a member of a research lab located in India in 1969. They were working on the same project. They were agency people. What is the chance that all of them would die of natural or accidental causes in a matter of days?

While the assignment is to gather information that would solve this agency puzzle, Reacher’s first investigation is into the backgrounds of the people on the taskforce with him. For him the first questions to be answered are whether any of his group are going to go against him or work with him or will he have to dispense justice on his own.

In the meantime, sisters Roberta and Veronica Ganson are visiting former co-workers of their dad who just so happens to have been in Indian in 1969 at the time that the group was there. They are trying to identify who was responsible for the events involving their father and his death.

About the Authors:

Lee Child, born James Dover Grant, was born on October 29th, 1954, in Coventry, Warwickshire, England.  He studied law at the University of Sheffield, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1977. He worked at Granada Television in Manchester from 1977 – 1995 that included two years as a trade union shop steward. During that time, he was involved with more than 40,000 hours of programming, writing commercials, and news stories. Once his position was eliminated due to corporate restructuring, he turned to writing fiction. His first novel, Killing Floor, was published in 1997. He moved to the United States.

Andrew Child, born Andrew Grant, was born in 1968 in Birmingham, England, is the youngest brother of Lee Child. Andrew also went to the University of Sheffield where he studied theatre. As Andrew Grant, Andrew began writing in 2008 with nine titles before beginning the process of taking over the Reacher series and changing his name to Andrew Child.

The brothers have written four Reacher novels together.

(information on authors from Wikipedia)

Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan

Released 2021.08.24   |Finished 2023.09.21   |Purchased for book club

Nineteen-year-old French orphan buys his way into the American Revolution. Gaining the attention and respect of General Washington, he apprentices while carrying the rank. As he worked in the shadow of Washington, he learns how to lead and gains the respect of the men around him.

Washington treated several around him as sons in his intimate circle. Around him were John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton – they and Lafayette became known as the three Musketeers. These relationships are intertwined with the war and gaining the independence of the colonies.

One re-entering France, Lafayette worked to bring liberty and freedom to his homeland. The part of the book dealing with Lafayette in France is essential to those studying the man, the nation, and Europe as a whole when looking at the politics and other men involved. For those of us isolated readers who have not been as exposed to French history, there is a need to know and understand that Lafayette was part of the aristocracy and must deal with the royal family in France. With some he was educated with, with some there were fears of the ideas he championed.

As a non-reader of French history, there were many names to keep straight and to learn something about. For that reason, I would recommend this book for those trying to grasp the activities involving France during the life of the Marquis de Lafayette.

Eliz Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar J. Mazzeo

Released 2019.07.02   | Finished 2023.10.15  |purchased for book club read

The backcover states:

Fans fell in love with Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton – Aleander Hamilton’s devoted wife – in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical phenomenon Hamilton. In Alexander’s last letter to Eliza before he died, he described her as the ‘best of wives, best of women.’ Yet Eliza remains a mystery.”

The author provides background and the coming of age of this lady who became the Roman wife of a man known today as one of the founding fathers of our country. This was an age where for the most part, the man was the face seen by the public and the woman supported or steered from behind closed doors. Because of Hamilton’s death in a duel, Eliza was forced to the forefront where the nation found the woman of strength on which Hamilton had depended.

For anyone interested in a founding mother of this county, this is a good-read choice.  I wish I could say that I would have picked this book to read without the book club, but I generally read fiction that has a grounding in intrigue. This one grabbed my interest, and it was hard to set it aside.

Civil War Generals of Indiana by (Dr.) Carl E. Kramer Pub. The History Press

Published 2022.11.07 | Finished 2023.10.21  | Borrowed from local library

From the backcover of the book:

“When the Civil War erupted, the Union and the Confederacy faced the challenge of organizing huge armies of volunteers with little or no military experience. Crucial to this task was finding generals, and Indiana answered this call with nearly 120 of them. Although a competent division and corps commander, Ambrose E. Burnside’s leadership of the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg proved disastrous. Jefferson Columbus was a relentless commander, but murdering his superior in a Louisville hotel halted his probable rise to major general. A commander of the Louisville Legion, Lovell H. Rousseau was the only civil War general commissioned by a city. Compiling years of research, historian Carl E. Kramer provides biographical sketches of every identifiable Indiana general who attained full-rank, brevet and state-service status in the tragic struggle.”

The book provides new ideas for research for local history (being back and forth between Clark and Floyd counties history). From a researcher’s perspective, a treasure trove of information. For those who are looking for additional information on the men of the rank of general who were associated with Indiana, likely a large amount of information with a biography to suggest additional resources for additional information.

Coming to historical research late in life, it is interesting to be able to have this resource available. Of particular interest for my investigations, the biographies of Benjamin Franklin Scribner, son of one of the founders of New Albany – the county seat of Floyd County, Indiana, and John smith Simonson who had settled in Charlestown, Indiana – the first county seat of Clark County after his service as captain in the Indiana Militia during the War of 1812. Finding connections to these men who served as generals during the Civil War makes the book of interest.

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

Released 2017.04.18 /(movie 2023.10.20) | 2nd reading 2023.07.15          | own

*****

Heartbreaking

Grann explores the history of the Osage in Oklahoma in the early 20th century. Once it was discovered that the Osage Reservation was sitting on an oil field worth hundreds of millions of dollars, apparently every occupation’s worst actors showed up to take advantage. Because the government did not think that the Native Americans were educated enough to handle their new-found wealth, each individual who received oil money had to have a professional guardian who could and did charge outrageous rates to control the individual’s oil rights’ money. If that was not enough, the Osage were being killed ‘herding’ the money toward a few individual Osage with the intent of then taking possession of the wealth with those deaths.

Sadly, most of the perpetrators were white guys with very low scruples and a willingness to cause the death of others. It appeared to be open hunting season. Osage were afraid to be out on their own or with someone that had not gained their trust. Unfortunately for many, some of those ‘white guys’ were very close by marriage. Another unfortunate happenstance was that those who were elected to defend and protect had also left the straight and narrow.

Eventually, with the assistance of a senator from another state, the federal government stepped in. Investigation into the numerous murders was slow because the evidence had disappeared. Investigations had to start at the beginning; witnesses were no longer alive. The agency called upon to do the investigation was also under investigation and had a new person at the helm, J. Edgar Hoover. The agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was in the position of building from the ground up and developing rules that would be in place for years to come.

Author David Grann is/was a staff writer for the New Yorker [current Amazon bio does not mention this] and author of a number of books: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon (2009); The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession (2010); The White Darkness (2018); and the new release The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) as well as Killers of the Flower Moon (2017).