SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Narrators Ariel Blake, Karen Commins, Kathleen McInerney, Lee Osorio, and Melinda Sewak depict lush and humid Savannah, Georgia, from its homeless encampments to its turreted mansions, where beloved singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer once entertained. Reminiscent of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, this mystery has colorful Southern characters and family mysteries best left hidden. The narrators form a kind of tag team as they voice the florid descriptions of the city, its people, and a murder investigation led by the unlikeliest of characters, high society’s Morgana Musgrove, portrayed by Karen Commins. In addition, the narrators rise to the challenge of delivering an extraordinary range of accents as they portray the wealthy and the poor, Blacks and whites, and the educated and the unschooled of one of this country’s most eclectic cities. R.O. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 05/02/2022
This haunting literary thriller set in Savannah, Ga., from Edgar winner Green (Ravens) opens with crimes against two members of the city’s sizable homeless community—the stabbing murder of Luke Kitchens, a genial white kid in his early 20s, and the apparent abduction of Luke’s drinking buddy, Stony, a 43-year-old Black woman—a constituency not generally high among police priorities. But that changes with pressure from Luke and Stony’s friends Jaq Walker, a fearless Black aspiring documentarian, and her uncle by marriage, Ransom, disgraced scion of the powerful white Musgrove clan. And then most crucially of all, formidable family matriarch Morgana Musgrove, the operator of a detective agency left to her by her late husband, gets involved after receiving a suspiciously large retainer to investigate. As the uneasy allies work their respective contacts in an increasingly desperate effort to save Stony, as well as to figure out who wanted to make her disappear and why, they get unmistakable warnings to back off, including a second murder and a suspicious “suicide.” Deeply rooted in Savannah’s at times horrific history, yet looking hopefully toward the future, this provocative page-turner is sure to enthrall a broad spectrum of readers. Green is writing at the top of his game. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency. (July)
From the Publisher
"The Kingdoms of Savannah is a novel about a place and the people in that place that reads like a thriller but could only have been written by someone who knows Savannah and its stories intimately and wants them to be told. It’s the apotheosis of Southern Gothic Noir."
—Neil Gaiman, Author of American Gods
"A rich, sprawling, dazzling mystery that's also a journey into history—of a nation, of a city, and of one unforgettably dysfunctional family. I savored every page."
—Riley Sager, New York Times bestselling author of The House Across the Lake
“Compelling characters and vivid settings make this impressive Southern narrative stand out among the best. THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH is not to be missed.”
—Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author
"In a sense all good novels are mysteries, but I've never read a mystery novel any finer than this one. It impeccably fulfills every requirement of the genre—idiosyncratic heroes and villains, exotic milieus, ugly secrets, surprising twists, gratifying turns. But George Dawes Green serves up so many other literary pleasures: deep appreciation of human complexity, unparalleled insight into a famously bewitching city and its arrangements of race and class, an acute sense of the differences between real and fake history, sentiment without sentimentality, comedy and tragedy perfectly intertwined, all depicted in gorgeous prose. The Kingdoms of Savannah is utterly satisfying."
—Kurt Andersen, New York Times bestselling author of Evil Geniuses
“Deeply rooted in Savannah’s at times horrific history, yet looking hopefully toward the future, this provocative page-turner is sure to enthrall a broad spectrum of readers. Green is writing at the top of his game.”
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
"In his first novel in more than a decade, Edgar Award winner Green delivers a gripping and expertly researched Southern literary thriller that is anything but cozy. Most powerful is the novel’s exploration of contemporary social issues like homelessness, privilege, and familial legacies built from slavery. Through masterful storytelling, Green turns the quaint and eclectic tourist town of Savannah into a character as conflicted and complex as the rest of the novel’s ensemble."
—Kirkus, STARRED Review
SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
Narrators Ariel Blake, Karen Commins, Kathleen McInerney, Lee Osorio, and Melinda Sewak depict lush and humid Savannah, Georgia, from its homeless encampments to its turreted mansions, where beloved singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer once entertained. Reminiscent of MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, this mystery has colorful Southern characters and family mysteries best left hidden. The narrators form a kind of tag team as they voice the florid descriptions of the city, its people, and a murder investigation led by the unlikeliest of characters, high society’s Morgana Musgrove, portrayed by Karen Commins. In addition, the narrators rise to the challenge of delivering an extraordinary range of accents as they portray the wealthy and the poor, Blacks and whites, and the educated and the unschooled of one of this country’s most eclectic cities. R.O. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-06-08
In the wake of a tragic death and a kidnapping, a dysfunctional family at the center of Georgia high society discovers painful truths in the shadows just beyond Savannah’s historic gas lamps and gazebos.
When ruthless land developer Archibald Guzman is arrested for the arson death of a local drunk, he attempts to buy the support of the Musgrove family, a crumbling yet still influential cornerstone of the Savannah elite. Morgana, the headstrong matriarch and, now that her husband is dead, proprietor of the investigation agency that is one of the family's businesses, accepts the controversial case in return for the promise of a windfall she hopes will slow their eroding finances. She knows the accompanying scandal will further strain her already embattled family, and soon they are all working at cross purposes. Ransom, her rebellious vagabond-by-choice son, sees Guzman as an enemy of the homeless, and Jaq, her aspiring filmmaker granddaughter, wants social justice for her immolated friend. The rest of the family is pulled along reluctantly, steeling themselves for the impending social fallout. Anonymous threats evolve into acts of actual violence as the amateur sleuths get closer to uncovering ugly truths about Savannah’s racially charged present and past, some far too close to home. The family must decide whether to band together against their desperate adversaries or agree to dangerous compromises that could tear them apart. In his first novel in more than a decade, Edgar Award winner Green delivers a gripping and expertly researched Southern literary thriller that is anything but cozy. Most powerful is the novel’s exploration of contemporary social issues like homelessness, privilege, and familial legacies built from slavery. Through masterful storytelling, Green turns the quaint and eclectic tourist town of Savannah into a character as conflicted and complex as the rest of the novel’s ensemble.
Green’s novels may not come around often, but when they do, they hit hard and stay with you long after the end.
