Callawegians, get your reading glasses ready.
The One Read 2018 pick, as decided by local readers and One Read Task Force members, is "Killers of the Flower Moon," by David Grann. In September, the Daniel Boone Regional Library, Callaway County Public Library, William Woods University, and other local groups and businesses will host a series of events themed around the book.
This nonfiction book details one of the fledgling FBI's first cases: the murder of a number of oil-rich Osage Indians in Oklahoma during the 1920s.
"In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma," the back cover copy reads. "After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe. Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off."
Members of the family of one particular Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart, appeared to be the main targets. Those who attempted to investigate the killings often became targets themselves - and authorities seemed eager to bury the case. When the death toll climbed more than 24, the newly founded FBI got involved.
Through careful research, Grann revealed new evidence in this old, disturbing case.
"It's very much a page-turner," One Read co-chair Lauren Williams, of DBRL, said. "It fits the true-crime genre, and hearkens back to a time when Oklahoma was still very much the Wild West."
True crime is trendy right now, she said.
"You have these kind of cowboy FBI agents who come in and take charge," DBRL adult services librarian Kat Stone Underwood added.
Sherry McBride-Brown, CCPL adult services librarian, said she thinks this book will be of particular local interest.
"A lot of people around here have Native American heritage," she said.
Task Force members are planning lectures, a writing contest, an art exhibition, a film showing and more. They're hoping to bring author Grann sometime in mid to late September.
Grann is a staff writer at the New Yorker and has previously written "The Devil and Sherlock Holmes" and "The Lost City of Z."
Book copies may be checked out at the library in audiobook, ebook and physical book form. It will also be available at Well Read Books and other bookstores.