Author Guide · Narrative Nonfiction
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In a museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, David Grann noticed that one panel had been cut out of a panoramic photograph from 1924. The director told him the missing man was “the devil”: William Hale, the cattleman behind the murders of Osage people in the 1920s. That gap became Killers of the Flower Moon. Grann, a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003, builds every book the same way, out of archives, court records and diaries, and often by going to the place himself: the Amazon for The Lost City of Z, a Patagonian island for The Wager. This guide covers his five key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 2009–2023 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
David Grann has written five key books: The Lost City of Z (2009), The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (2010), Killers of the Flower Moon (2017), The White Darkness (2018) and The Wager (2023). Start with Killers of the Flower Moon, a National Book Award finalist and the basis of Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film; then read The Wager, his account of a 1741 shipwreck and mutiny.
Where to Start with David Grann
If you want his defining book
→ Killers of the Flower Moon (2017) — the Osage murders and the early FBI.
If you want a shipwreck, a mutiny and a trial
→ The Wager (2023) — the 1741 wreck of HMS Wager.
If you want an expedition story
→ The Lost City of Z (2009) — Percy Fawcett’s disappearance in the Amazon.
If you want to sample him in shorter pieces
→ The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (2010) — his New Yorker stories in one volume.
5 David Grann Books, in Order
The Lost City of Z
In 1925 the British explorer Percy Fawcett disappeared in the Amazon with his son Jack while looking for a lost city he called Z. Grann follows his route into the Xingu region of Brazil, using Fawcett’s diaries and the oral history of the Kalapalo people, and talks to archaeologists whose excavations of ancient settlements with moats and roads suggest Fawcett may have been closer to the truth than his critics thought. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Samuel Johnson Prize, and James Gray filmed it in 2016 with Charlie Hunnam as Fawcett.
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes
Twelve of his magazine stories, mostly from The New Yorker: the death of a leading Sherlock Holmes scholar, a French impostor who passed himself off as a missing Texas boy, a bank robber still robbing banks in his seventies, and “Trial by Fire”, about Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in Texas for an arson that may never have happened. “Trial by Fire” won a George Polk Award, and three of the stories were later filmed.
Killers of the Flower Moon
In the 1920s the Osage of Oklahoma were among the richest people per head in the world, thanks to oil under their land, and then they began to be killed. Grann tells the story through Mollie Burkhart, whose family was targeted; Tom White, the agent sent by J. Edgar Hoover’s young Bureau of Investigation; and, in the last part, his own research, which shows that many more killings were never solved. It was a National Book Award finalist, and Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, received ten Oscar nominations.
The White Darkness
A short illustrated book, expanded from a 2018 New Yorker story, about Henry Worsley, a British special forces officer obsessed with Ernest Shackleton. After crossing Antarctica with descendants of Shackleton’s men in 2008, Worsley set out in November 2015, aged 55, to cross the continent alone and unaided. Apple announced a series based on the book, starring Tom Hiddleston, in 2022.
The Wager
In 1741 HMS Wager, a British warship on a secret mission against Spain, was wrecked off Patagonia. The castaways split: about thirty men reached Brazil in a makeshift boat in January 1742, and months later three, including Captain David Cheap, reached Chile, each group accusing the other of mutiny or murder. Grann reconstructs the voyage from logbooks, journals and court-martial records. It was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and Scorsese and DiCaprio bought the film rights in 2022.
In What Order to Read David Grann
None of Grann’s books continues another, so the order is up to you. Read in publication order and you see the method grow: The Lost City of Z puts Grann himself in the jungle, Killers of the Flower Moon turns the archive into a murder investigation, and The Wager lets three witnesses tell the same story against each other.
If you want a short taste first, try The White Darkness or one story from The Devil and Sherlock Holmes; “Trial by Fire” is the best known. Leave The Wager until after Killers if you prefer to read the most celebrated book first.
A reading path
1. The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (2010)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (2017)
3. The Wager (2023)
4. The Lost City of Z (2009)
5. The White Darkness (2018)
Everything Else David Grann Published
Beyond the 5 key books: 2 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Other editions and selections
2
2 books · 2018–2021
- 2018The Old Man and the Gun: And Other Tales of True Crimethree stories from The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, issued with the 2018 Robert Redford film
- 2021Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Young Readersa shorter edition for younger readers
The years · 1967–2023
Quick facts about David Grann
- Known for
- Narrative nonfiction built from archives and on-the-ground reporting, above all Killers of the Flower Moon, his account of the Osage murders of the 1920s.
- 1967
- Born in New York City
- 2003
- Staff writer at The New Yorker
- 2023
- The Wager; Scorsese’s film of Killers
- Born
- 1967, New York City
- Education
- Connecticut College (1989); Fletcher School, Tufts; Boston University (MA in creative writing)
- Worked
- The Hill and The New Republic; staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003
- Lives
- New York, with his wife and two children
- Honours
- George Polk Award for “Trial by Fire”; Edgar Award for Killers of the Flower Moon
- On screen
- The Lost City of Z (2016), The Old Man & the Gun (2018), Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
The red mark is 2017: Killers of the Flower Moon, a National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Award.
How David Grann Writes: The Archive and the Journey
Grann works from primary documents: Fawcett’s diaries, FBI files and grand-jury testimony from the National Archives, the logbooks and court-martial records of HMS Wager. He has said he did not want Killers of the Flower Moon to be “just a cataloging of the dead”, and spent years looking for documents in which the victims could still be heard.
He also goes to the places he writes about. For The Lost City of Z he travelled into the Xingu himself, and his own trip forms a thread of the book; for The Wager he sailed to the island where the ship was wrecked. He structures the material like a thriller, with suspects, clues and late revelations: Killers is told in three parts, from the victim’s family, from the investigator and finally from Grann’s own research, and The Wager sets the rival survivors’ accounts against each other.
Readers who like this mix of history, crime and adventure usually go on to Erik Larson, Patrick Radden Keefe and Jon Krakauer. For more, see Authors like David Grann.
Watch
David Grann answers readers’ questions
For the PBS NewsHour and New York Times book club in February 2018, Jeffrey Brown puts readers’ questions about Killers of the Flower Moon to David Grann.
Frequently asked questions about David Grann’s books
What is The Wager by David Grann about?
The wreck of HMS Wager, a British warship sent in 1740 on a secret mission against Spain, which ran aground off the coast of Patagonia in 1741. The castaways fell apart into rival groups. About thirty reached Brazil in a makeshift boat in January 1742; months later three, including Captain David Cheap, reached Chile. Back in England each side accused the other of mutiny or murder, and the Admiralty held a court martial in 1746, which tried the men only for the loss of the ship, not for mutiny.
Is The Wager a true story?
Yes. The Wager is narrative nonfiction, not a novel: a history of a real shipwreck and mutiny, reconstructed from logbooks, journals the survivors published and the records of the court martial. Bookshops usually shelve it under history or maritime history.
Is The Wager a good book?
It was very well received. It went straight to number one on the New York Times nonfiction list, stayed on the hardcover list for more than a year, and was chosen as a best book of 2023 by, among others, The New Yorker, TIME and NPR. Barnes & Noble named Grann its 2023 Author of the Year, and Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio bought the film rights.
How many pages is The Wager?
352 pages in the US hardcover (Doubleday, 2023). Penguin Random House lists the 2025 US paperback at 432 pages; page counts for other editions vary.
Is The Wager about gambling or poker?
No. The title is the name of the ship, HMS Wager; the book is a history of its wreck in 1741 and the mutiny that followed. Grann has not written a book about gambling or poker players.
Who is David Grann?
An American journalist, born in New York City in 1967. He has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2003, after working at The Hill and The New Republic, and lives in New York with his wife and two children.
Who wrote Killers of the Flower Moon, and why?
David Grann, in 2017. He first heard about the Osage murders around 2011, and at the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, he saw a 1924 panoramic photograph with one section missing; the director told him it had shown “the devil”, William Hale. He wanted to recover the voices of the victims and spent years in the archives and with Osage families.
Is Killers of the Flower Moon a true story?
Yes. It is nonfiction about the real murders of Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma and the investigation by the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner of the FBI. Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film is based on the book.
What is David Grann’s best book?
The most honoured is Killers of the Flower Moon (2017): a National Book Award finalist, winner of the Edgar Award for best fact crime and of the Spur Award, and a #1 New York Times bestseller. The Wager (2023) has been his biggest bestseller since.
What is David Grann’s most famous book?
Killers of the Flower Moon, helped by Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film, which received ten Oscar nominations.
How many books has David Grann written?
Five key books: The Lost City of Z, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, Killers of the Flower Moon, The White Darkness and The Wager. There is also The Old Man and the Gun (2018), a selection of three stories from the 2010 collection, and a young readers’ edition of Killers (2021).
What are David Grann’s books in order?
The Lost City of Z (2009), The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (2010), Killers of the Flower Moon (2017), The White Darkness (2018) and The Wager (2023).
Where should I start with David Grann?
With Killers of the Flower Moon, his defining book. If you prefer something shorter, read one story from The Devil and Sherlock Holmes, such as “Trial by Fire”, or The White Darkness.
Which David Grann books have been made into films?
The Lost City of Z (James Gray, 2016) and Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023). Stories from The Devil and Sherlock Holmes became The Old Man & the Gun and Trial by Fire (both 2018). Film rights to The Wager were bought by Scorsese and DiCaprio in 2022, and Apple announced a White Darkness series with Tom Hiddleston the same year.
Is The Lost City of Z a true story?
Yes. Percy Fawcett was a real British explorer who vanished in the Brazilian Amazon in 1925 with his son Jack and Raleigh Rimell. Grann’s book combines that history with his own journey into the Xingu region.
Was David Grann ever sued over his reporting?
Yes. The art authenticator Peter Paul Biro sued Grann and The New Yorker for libel over “The Mark of a Masterpiece” (2010), a profile that questioned his fingerprint-based authentications. The case was dismissed.
Footnotes
- About David Grann — davidgrann.com
- The Wager — Penguin Random House
- The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder — Wikipedia
- The Lost City of Z (book) — Wikipedia
- The Devil and David Grann — The Village Voice, 2017
- Killers of the Flower Moon awards — davidgrann.com, 2017
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“In April, millions of tiny flowers spread over the blackjack hills and vast prairies in the Osage territory of Oklahoma.”
— David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon (2017), the first line
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