A taut, terrifying view of White supremacy taken to murderous extremes, now all too common.
Fast-paced tale of the search for a racist serial killer in the early days of criminal profiling.
As an FBI agent and instructor, Douglas largely invented the criminal profile, a branch of psychology of the sort that fuels TV shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds. He gained a reputation for ferreting out likely perpetrators by means of patterns. For example, when a young woman was murdered in the Georgia woods, he specified a subject in his 20s, with a military record ending in a dishonorable discharge, a smug attitude, a blue-collar trade, and a dark vehicle—the last because, he and Olshaker write, “I had observed that orderly, compulsive people tended to drive darker cars.” Bingo: He perfectly described a subject whom the Georgia police had just interviewed. These skills come into play when the narrative turns to the search for the virulently racist Joseph Paul Franklin, who targeted Jews, Black men, and, more pointedly, White women who dated the latter. Sometimes his victims were Black children, targets of opportunity. “Though it still wasn’t part of the cultural lexicon,” write the authors, “by then we were already using the phrase serial killer to reference a predatory offender who killed three or more victims at different times and places.” They found Franklin also was implicated in the shootings of Larry Flynt, who published pornographic images of interracial couples, and Vernon Jordan, the civil rights leader. Douglas and Olshaker carefully lay out the trail of evidence but come to unsettling conclusions. Although such killers are marked by a sense of powerlessness and alienation, the racist murderer at the heart of this book has also inspired other killers such as Dylann Roof. As the authors write about Franklin, “his unwavering dedication to fomenting hate made him a potential inspiration and symbol to others with similar orientation.”
A taut, terrifying view of White supremacy taken to murderous extremes, now all too common.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-297976-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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