Daily Dose

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

ONE

"There was one question that the judge and the prosecutors and the defense never asked the jurors but that was central to the proceedings: Would a jury of twelve white men ever punish another white man for killing an American Indian?"

From Chapter 20, So Help You God!

A Caricature

Daily Dose

From The White Darkness, by David Grann

FELT

"The man felt like a speck in the frozen nothingness."

From Chapter 1, Mortal Danger

Daily Dose

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

ONE

"There was one question that the judge and prosecutors and the defense never asked the jurors but that was central to the proceedings: Would the jury of twelve white men ever punish another white man for killing an American Indian?"

From Chapter 20, So help you God!

A Caricature

The title piece in this superb new collection I first read, I think, either in The New Yorker, or in an anthology of the best crime writing, the year it was published. Wherever I read it, I will never forget it. It is a fascinating story, and a brilliant piece of true crime writing. Seeing that this new book, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, did in fact contain the piece I remembered, I took it with me to lunch today and read another, about a Polish detective, using a post-modern novel to convict a murderer. Since I brought my copy home, even as I tried to clean the house tonight and do laundry, I've read three more pieces from the collection. Can't help myself. They are are all amazingly good.

So, I take a few minutes out from folding fitted-sheets -- and who really wants to be doing that? -- to pay a small tribute to David Grann, a crime journalist of the first rank, and a writer of great skill.

Read this book!

(And now to fold pillowcases, and read "Crimetown, USA," before bed. Can't imagine I'll be able to sleep until I do.)