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THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH

by George Dawes Green ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2022

Green’s novels may not come around often, but when they do, they hit hard and stay with you long after the end.

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.

Pub Date: July 19, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-76744-8

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Celadon Books

Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022

SUSPENSE | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | GENERAL FICTION

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by George Dawes Green

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New York Times Bestseller

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE | SCIENCE FICTION

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by Max Brooks

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BOOK TO SCREEN

THE GOD OF THE WOODS

by Liz Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2024

"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.

Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.

One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.

Pub Date: July 2, 2024

ISBN: 9780593418918

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE

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by Liz Moore

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#BookReview The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green @CeladonBooks #KingdomsOfSavannah #CeladonBooks #CeladonReads #partner

Savannah may appear to be “some town out of a fable,” with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city’s history. But look deeper and you’ll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It’s the story at the heart of George Dawes Green’s chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah.

It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths—truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core.

Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family.

Haunting, complex, and intense!

The Kingdoms of Savannah is a charged, gripping mystery that sweeps you away to Savannah, Georgia, and into the lives of the prominent, dysfunctional Musgrove family as they reluctantly, at the persistence of their matriarch Morgana, band together to solve the callous murder of a young homeless man and the disappearance of a middle-aged woman who seems to have discovered some long-buried secrets that at least one person is willing to kill to keep hidden in the past.

The prose is powerful and polished. The characters are flawed, ruthless, and self-absorbed. And the plot is a captivating, menacing mix of life, loss, secrets, deception, privilege, resentments, greed, corruption, homelessness, familial drama, and harrowing truths.

Overall, I found The Kingdoms of Savannah to be a gritty, provocative, tight novel by Green that’s a must read for anyone who loves a well-written mystery interlaced with a dramatic, family saga all mired in the dark, racially toxic history of the south.

This novel is available on July 19, 2022.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

Thank you to Celadon Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

About George Dawes Green

George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth, is an internationally celebrated author. His first novel, The Caveman’s Valentine, won the Edgar Award and became a motion picture starring Samuel L. Jackson. The Juror was an international bestseller in more than twenty languages and was the basis for the movie starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin. Ravens was chosen as one of the best books of 2009 by the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail of London, and many other publications. George Green grew up in Georgia and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Photo by Syrie Moskowitz.

“The Kingdoms of Savannah” by George Dawes Green

Ransom Musgrove, renegade lawyer son of the ruling class, provides a skeptical view of his family. He chooses to live in a homeless encampment rather than the family mansion, known as the “Old Fort.” In the opening pages, he visits his family home for the first time in ages. He notices nothing has changed with delicious scorn: “His forebears scowl down from their frames. He appreciates that none of them pretend to be happy.” Discovering why such an intelligent, educated man would choose to live among the homeless is one of the pleasures of reading the novel.

Jaq is another important voice in the story. She, too, descends from the Musgroves, but she is Black, a college-age student. She has undertaken a huge project: capturing the soul of her city in a documentary film titled “Some Town Out of a Fable.” Yet she admits the city is more like “a pit of vipers” than a “fable or fairy tale.” Her friend Luke is murdered early in the story, and another friend, Stony, goes missing. Jaq, assisted by her family, is determined to uncover the truth behind these crimes.

If the Musgroves are a royal family, then Morgana reigns as queen. She proves an intriguing character, both part of the upper class and witty detractor of it. She “hurls burning energy” at every charitable cause, knows where all the bodies are buried and where all the secrets are stored. She convinces her son Ransom to accompany her to visit a criminal named Guzman in jail with an eye toward Ransom’s representing him. Reluctantly, Ransom agrees. Morgana decides Guzman is possibly innocent of killing Luke, though she deems the inmate “a weasel or a vulture” who “ imagines he’s full of virtue.” Ransom is ticked off by her assumptions, annoyed by “her cocksureness, her iron faith in her ability to see through everyone’s masks and divine their true motives.” Still, Guzman delivers a few clues surrounding Luke’s murder—something vague about Stone Kings and treasure.

Green paints every aspect of the city with rich detail, from the SCAD buildings to the famed squares, from dive bars to fine dining establishments. In the background bleats the relentless nattering of ghost tour leaders who gloss over the city’s “darker history,” such as the “millions of rapes” of slaves resulting in plantation births. Instead, tours focus on what Morgana’s sister calls “a realm of beauty, a realm where the arts are revered, where creative aspiration is cherished where we can forge deep bonds of community around the celebration of genius and imagination.” The safe realm of the upper class. Ghost stories have been rewritten to present the wealthy in a favorable light. Green, however, is not content to showcase only Savannah’s finer aspects. He also has characters tell of “a poisonous vapor in this town, a sort of miasmal gas that rises from the storm drains and leaches into our homes and into our blood.” The result? Despicable crimes. In Green’s skilled hands, characters’ simple walks on the streets become travelogues replete with the signage revealing the personalities of the buildings and their owners:

They don’t take Abercorn Street because Abercorn turns into an endless strip mall south of Victory Drive: Morgana calls it “the largest repository of soul-destroying folderol in the universe.” Instead they take Waters. It’s all old-school Savannah, weird and ebullient the whole way. Rosette’s Lounge (No Loiterers! No Drugs!); the Relentless Church of the Lord; Da Boyz in Da Hood Car-wash (Best Hand Job in Town); Cheryl-Ann’s “Chinese” Take-Out; the Open Door Holy Deliverance Church (Behold the Hand—It’s Not Shortened that it Cannot Save!).

Whether residents live in the mansions or in the tent encampments, they have one thing in common according to Jaq: they are “required to submit, in one way or another, to the yoke of powerful interests.” The conflict between those powerful interests and those who desire to preserve a fuller history of the city offers readers an enlightening and enjoyable ride. A ride far more informative than a mere carriage tour of a few city blocks. Green even takes us beneath the city into its storm drains and out of the city into its swamps. Kingdoms is quite a ride, indeed.

George Dawes Green is clearly a writer at the top of his game. With Kingdoms of Savannah , he has written an historical novel sure to have much greater staying power—and far more significance—than an ordinary mystery.

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BookBrowse Reviews The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

The Kingdoms of Savannah

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Jul 19, 2022, 304 pages
Oct 2023, 304 pages

Mis. Ala. Ga.
Contemporary
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Underneath the wisteria and tinkling of champagne glasses, Savannah harbors a lair of dirty secrets.

From the start of his novel The Kingdoms of Savannah , it's clear that George Dawes Green hails from Georgia. Whether depicting the humble starlight of a wooded homeless camp or the "soft crush of oyster shells" lining Turner's Rock — one of Savannah's most luxurious neighborhoods — Green's words transport you in a way only those of someone familiar with this place could. The Kingdoms of Savannah , which is set in the titular historical city in contemporary times, revolves around the sudden disappearance of archaeologist Matilda Stone, a Black woman also known as "Stony." Matilda was the last to see Luke Kitchens — a young white man with bipolar disorder — alive before he was found burned in a locked room of an abandoned home. The home is owned by a white man named Archie Guzman, a much-loathed real estate mogul who has connections to both Luke and Stony that no one can at first identify. Enter the Musgrove clan, four white siblings and their mother, whose collective dysfunctions run as deep as the labyrinth of tunnels lying beneath the streets of downtown Savannah. Like the Musgroves, these tunnels, proclaimed to be part of the sewer system, hold secrets. Rumor suggests they served as burial grounds during the height of yellow fever or conduits for alcohol smuggling and kidnappings during Prohibition. Bootlegging and the slave trade are part of the Musgroves' legacy, which explains some of the current tensions among them. There's Morgana, the brilliant but brutal matriarch, who inherited the Musgrove estate when her esteemed husband Fred passed. Willou is a high-ranking court judge. David is a bully and cold realist who can never forgive brother Ransom for the past. Bebe is an ER nurse living with her Black wife Roxanne and daughter Jacqueline — a young woman who worked at the bar where both Stony and Luke were last seen. And Ransom, the youngest Musgrove, once a practicing attorney and now homeless, has vowed to never associate with his family again. Green portrays the complexity of family dynamics with skill and ease, using the murder of Luke and disappearance of Stony to slowly reveal subtle alliances and devastating rivalries. Subterfuge appears throughout the novel as each sibling probes the investigation in their own way, their only common objective being to keep Jaqueline safe from harm. This proves to be an insurmountable task, since young, headstrong Jaq is determined to solve the mystery herself, no matter the cost. In addition, Green expertly coaxes colorful secondary characters to life ("rednecks, shrimp packers…old Billy Sugar with his long grizzled whiskers"). These figures appear peripheral at first, but some gradually develop into key players. The author crawls inside the head of each character, enlivening their personality quirks, dialect, fears and dreams, until it feels as if they're speaking directly to you. And then there is the City herself, introduced with fragrances that leap off of the page — wisteria, jessamine, yellow climbing rose — and place names that sound like music — Lafayette, Tatemville, Montmillan Isle. One of these places holds the secret of something called the Kingdom, the treasure presiding at the heart of this gothic mystery. While some of the characters' traits seem implausible at times (Jaq single-handedly delivers feats of prowess without batting an eye; Ransom has been estranged from high society for years, but is able to jump back into the milieu without missing a beat), the historical facts the novel is based on ring true. Green alludes to Savannah's dark capitalism and the audacity of the City's current elite, as present as the gorgeous columnar architecture of the home where Morgana Musgrove still resides. Behind every beautiful building lies slave labor and blood. Behind every development Guzman and his cronies pursue lies the land's Native history. Yet there are also heroes, both dead and alive. In the square where Ransom and his homeless allies seek refuge, the rock memorializing Chief Tomochichi of the Yamacraw tribe stands. General James Oglethorpe (see Beyond the Book ), the founder of the colony of Georgia, was a white man who insisted on honoring the Chief. Morgana reveals a noble side when granddaughter Jaq discovers one of her favorite paintings hanging in her grandmother's home, further evidence of their family's sordid past. And the Musician, a roving vagabond who is never seen but whose haunting whistle is legend, becomes central to Jaq and Ransom's search for Stony and the truth. The Kingdoms of Savannah is a deeply satisfying story that unwinds like the City's river — rich, silty and rippling towards a powerful twist of an ending.

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Submitting a book for review, write the editor, you are here:, the kingdoms of savannah.

In his first novel in more than a decade, Edgar Award–winning author George Dawes Green uncovers the dark, twisted secrets of Savannah’s historic and present-day corruption in THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH.

“Stony, you’ve got the treasure of the Kingdom and my partners need it. It’s that simple. Tell us where it is and we’ll let you go.” These are some of the first words that 43-year-old Matilda “Stony” Stone, a contract archaeologist and full-time vagabond, hears when she awakes in the captivity of Mr. Kindness.

The last time Stony saw the light of day, she and her very best friend, 21-year-old Luke Kitchens, were at Bo Peep’s, a local watering hole. Nursing not only free margaritas but a bottomless crush on the young bartender, an aspiring documentarian named Jac, she finds herself in conversation with Lloyd, a seemingly harmless young man who claims to know her. As one drink turns into another, Stony’s tight lips loosen and she begins answering Jac’s questions about the Kingdom, the home of the only free people to ever live in the state of Georgia. Stony claims to be the only person to know the location of the Kingdom, and given that her usual state of mind is drunk, people are inclined to excuse her ramblings as insanity. Except for Lloyd.

"This slow-burn, noir-like mystery never once lets up or fails to enthrall, and Green’s portrayal of the city reads like a proclamation, a reckoning and a promise all at once."

By night’s end, Luke is stabbed to death and Lloyd has kidnapped Stony. Now she waits in a storm drain under the city, an endless, unnavigable tunnel of brickwork, arches and vaults, all dug out by bootleggers in the 1870s. Mr. Kindness’ questioning has not turned to torture yet, but she knows his patience is waning.

Above ground, the entire city of Savannah is consumed by the news that Archie Guzman, the meanest slumlord in town, has not only set one of his own buildings ablaze for an insurance payout, he has burned a man alive in the process. In a city populated by some 40-odd homeless camps, the plight of the unhoused is ignored as much as it is criticized. Yet, in the face of a villain like Guzman, the city has become enamored of poor Luke, though there are odd holes in the account of his death.

For one, Luke was a drunk, but he had never before expressed an interest in drugs. Still, he was found next to a single syringe. For another, Guzman’s buildings are known for housing, at least temporarily, the down-on-their-luck and destitute. So while the appearance of a vagrant or even a syringe is not unheard of, the presence of only one of each is certainly uncommon. And then Guzman makes the most surprising move of all: he hires Musgrove Investigations, a failing detective agency owned by one of Savannah’s most well-known families, to exonerate him.

Morgana Musgrove has been called many things: formal, imperial, cruel, stunning, witty and calculating. Her four adult children, each more traumatized by her than the last, will tell you that she is all of these things and more --- a peculiar, intoxicating combination that can support and champion as easily as it can annihilate and destroy. From her home at the “Old Fort,” a Romanesque revival mansion covered in fragrant flowers and verdant vines, Morgana has long watched over Savannah, carefully surveying the affairs, business deals and alliances of her neighbors.

Although her husband was once a wealthy man, the Musgrove fortune has dwindled in recent years. There’s no greater proof than her 33-year-old son Ransom, once a promising lawyer who is now living in an encampment under the Harry S. Truman Parkway by choice. So why would Guzman, a man with endless resources and cronies at his beck and call, choose Morgana --- and, by consequence, her dysfunctional family --- to investigate the charges against him?

Alternating between the perspectives of imprisoned Stony, beleaguered Ransom, inquisitive Jac and even the one “friendly” police officer in town, Green invites readers to discover not only the meaning and location of the Kingdom (and the treasure at its heart), but just how and why the power players of Savannah depend on keeping it secret while the city itself begs for its discovery. While the initial premise centers on the Kingdom, the book is a bit of a Russian doll of mysteries, with every clue opening up yet another investigation and every lead exposing even more suspects.

At the novel’s heart is Jac, a Musgrove herself, who is set on preserving the fable-like mystery of the historic city through interviews with citizens from every walk of life. However, as she is drawn deeper into the mystery of the Kingdom, she learns that Savannah is a ghost town in more ways than one, a city whose beauty is undercut by its horrors: the Ten Broeck Racetrack, the hanging of Alice Ridley, the slave auctions of Charley Lamar, and so much more. Savannah, with its almost comical ghost tours and wailing cries of bachelorette parties, has always claimed to remember its past, but its darker histories cut deep and refuse to relinquish their control of its present.

In Green’s meticulously researched and controlled prose and plotting, the themes of homelessness, racial violence and privilege are set against the haunting backdrop of one of America’s most beautiful --- and tarnished --- cities. This slow-burn, noir-like mystery never once lets up or fails to enthrall, and Green’s portrayal of the city reads like a proclamation, a reckoning and a promise all at once.

One of Morgana’s daughters states, “When Savannah really goes to work, when it’s got its cauldron going, well you better submit; you’re not going to beat it.” The experience of reading THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH can be described in much the same way. You’ll be hard-pressed to put this mesmerizing, utterly chilling novel down once you’ve read the first few pages.

Reviewed by Rebecca Munro on July 29, 2022

The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green

Publication Date: October 17, 2023
Genres: Fiction , Literary , Mystery , Suspense , Thriller
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Celadon Books
ISBN-10: 1250888794
ISBN-13: 9781250888792

Crime & Mystery

In Savannah, Spanish Moss, Tea Roses and Murder

The rot runs deep in George Dawes Green’s long-awaited fourth novel.

Credit... Pablo Amargo

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By Sarah Weinman

July 28, 2022

Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event . Partly because he publishes so rarely — four novels in 28 years — and partly because each book inhabits a distinct world and space, be it a cave in Manhattan’s Inwood Park (his brilliant 1994 debut, “ The Caveman’s Valentine” ), a courtroom (“ The Juror, ” released the following year) or the mad desperation surrounding lottery winners (2009’s “ Ravens ”).

Now arrives THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH (Celadon, 272 pp., $26.99) . Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on the backs of enslaved people. At a brick Romanesque Revival mansion nicknamed the Old Fort (“on account of the parapet and the grand turret and the gargoyles”), a willful, wayward society doyenne named Morgana Musgrave has ordered her four grown children to help her solve a murder.

Morgana makes for an unlikely detective, but don’t mistake this for a sweet, cozy mystery — the rot runs deep in Green’s Savannah, barely concealed beneath the strands of Spanish moss and banks of jessamine, tea roses and wisteria. Green’s prose is languid, even luxurious, but at critical moments of suspense, he pares it back to ramp up the terror.

“You know, every day in Savannah you make compromises,” Morgana muses. “You keep thinking, I’ll just make one more compromise here and I’ll be done. But there will be more compromises tomorrow. And you have to make them. If you don’t make them, you’ll be erased.”

I guessed nearly every major twist and turn in Jennifer Hillier’s latest thriller, THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK (Minotaur, 345 pp., $27.99) . But I did not care one bit, because, as with her previous novels, Hillier revels in her characters, their monstrous complexities and their all-too-human instincts. (She also just has fun writing: The novel’s opening line is “There’s a time and place for erect nipples, but the back of a Seattle police car definitely isn’t it.”)

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The Best Fiction Books » Mystery » Best Mystery Books of 2023

The kingdoms of savannah, by george dawes green.

🏆 Winner of the 2023 CWA Gold Dagger

The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green is a dark and yet evocative mystery set in the American South . The world of the wealthy elite of Savannah, Georgia is contrasted with the homeless people living in tents nearby, as well as the slavery that wealth was built on.

Book details

The Kingdoms of Savannah

Author: George Dawes Green

Hudson Booksellers Best of the Year

CHAPTER ONESOME HIDEOUS COMPROMISE Ransom Musgrove has been summoned to the house of his youth, the Romanesque revival mansion from the 1880s that everyone calls the “Old Fort”—on account of the parapet and the grand turret and the gargoyles and all the ivied brickwork. As he comes up the walk he gets flashes from his boyhood. Under that pecan, first kiss with Debbie Gannon. Under the crepe myrtle, third base with Lu Ann Farris. Up in the brown turkey fig tree, wasn’t there some death match with his big brother, David? He has a vague memory of David taunting him, of getting so mad he went for David’s throat and forgot to hold on to the limb. He doesn’t recall what happened next. Then at the front steps he has one more memory. Thirteen years old. Standing out here awaiting the carpool to school and daydreaming, when his mother appeared on the balcony. Although it was a bright, sunny morning, she was drunk. Clearly she’d been out partying the night before and hadn’t been to bed yet. She began to disparage him in the third person, one of her favorite pastimes. She said, “While the kid dawdles there like an idiot, gathering wool, concocting his little fantasies about how the world should be, the real world keeps marching on, doesn’t it? Clomp clomp clomp, crushing his little dreams. Does he even notice? No, he’s too stupid. Is he going to be a hobo? Well yes, that’s certain, unless he gets some ambition and starts kiting checks. Ha ha ha.” He hoped that the arrival of the carpool would shut her up. And it did, for a moment. Mrs. Tarkanian’s big Suburban pulled up, and he squeezed into the second row with two other kids while Mother, up on that balcony, produced a silk handkerchief and waved it. Mrs. Tarkanian waved back. “Hey, Morgana.” His mother said, in a loud tragic voice, “Hey, Laurel. Goodbye, Laurel. Goodbye, my son who is destined to be a vagabond.” Her position when drunk was always: I’ll speak the truth and the public be damned. As the carpool pulled away he felt his mortification in his jawbone and his spine, and silently begged for death. However, the other kids made no comment. Maybe they’d thought she was joking? Or they hadn’t understood the word? However, years later a girl who’d been in that car told him she’d thought it was “romantic, scary but kind of romantic the way your mom stood up on that balcony that day telling the whole neighborhood how you were destined to be a vagabond .” It’s not lost on him that Morgana’s prophecy has come true. Up four steps to the porch, to the front door with the spiderweb fanlight and sidelight, and he hasn’t even seen her yet but already he feels the bad juice in his veins, and has to remind himself that she summoned him (sending her accountant to find his tent under the Harry S Truman exit ramp), that he’s still a free man, he’s thirty-three years old and should she try to start anything, to flip any of his switches, he can just turn and walk away. Anytime he’s so inclined. So he tells himself. He turns the door crank. Here comes Betty the maid. “ Raaan -sum!” Betty’s a white woman in her late thirties. She grew up on a farm in Odom, Georgia, and wears a perpetually awestruck look, and dresses in baggy browns and grays, and always has a slow and languorous drawl even on the rare occasions when she isn’t riding her magic carpet of downers. When she says, “Oh, your mama will be so glad!” the last words seem to roll on forever: sooo glayyyy- uddd. She hugs his neck and then holds the door open for him. He steps inside. His eyes have to adjust. The foyer is always kept in the gloaming, with only a thin light slanting down from the oriel window. There’s the pomp of the staircase, and the bronze sconces and the walnut secretary desk, and the still lifes and fantastical landscapes that Morgana loves. His forebears scowl down from their frames. He appreciates that none of them pretend to be happy. However, Betty does pretend. When he asks how she’s doing, she smiles and says, “So well, Ransom.” Raaan -sum. He knows this to be false. A few weeks ago she went to the home of her ex-boyfriend’s new flame and borrowed a cup of sugar from her. Then found her ex’s Durango on the street, and emptied the sugar into the tank. Not coy about it. Bystanders took out their phones and recorded her. She posed with that cup the way Annie Oakley would pose with her pistol. Then she returned the cup to the new girlfriend and thanked her. The videos became popular of course. Now she’s in a great deal of trouble but keeps a brave face and says to Ransom, “It’s such a lovely dayyyy , isn’t it?” and leads him straight to his mother. Morgana stands at the dining room table. She’s plumping up an immense arrangement of flowers. “My beloved,” she coos, raising her cheek for the requisite buss. “You look terribly thin. Are you eating dandelions and wild asparagus?” “I’m eating fine, Mother.” And somewhat to his surprise, she drops it. Doesn’t needle him at all. Doesn’t accuse him of “assuming some pose of dereliction to which you are frankly unentitled ,” or charge him with “plunging a dagger into the heart of your family.” She simply gestures for him to take a seat. With a quick smile, as she resumes her arranging. She must truly need something. She is wearing a mauve silk shirt and her honeycomb brooch, and looks quite formal. Not “imperial”: her enemies call her that, but really she’s too small and birdlike to fit that description—and, just now, too busy. She’s laying in a base for her spray. Building a pedestal of ruscus and aspidistra and stock and freesia (Ransom grew up amid her flowers and knows them all). She asks, “Would you care for iced tea?” “Thanks, yes.” She nods; Betty goes off. He watches his mother work. The snip-snip of the shears. After a moment though, she frowns and says, “Oh it’s impossible.” “What is?” “It’s for my event tonight, the Spring Soiree for the Disabled. Every year the big spray is all anyone talks about, and every year it gets harder to assemble. Would you just look at these ?” Holding up a few stems loaded with garish blooms. “They’re called Papaya Popsicles. They’re ludicrous yet must be given prominence, because they were grown by Rebecca Cressling, who donated sixty thousand dollars last year. What do you think?” “Sort of blaring.” “Yet it gets worse.” She shows him a clutch of black blossoms with long white whiskers. “We must also give pride of place to these . Bat flowers. Have you ever seen the like? Grown by Jane Rundle with great care in her greenhouse. And why did she do this? No one can say. But she has bequeathed us one point five million dollars in her will, so we must not dishonor her little nightmares. I thought of cutting the stems long, that they might loom over the whole show like so many Grim Reapers—a metaphor for how Jane’s death looms over us . Looms yet never quite happens , does it? But that would demote the Popsicles. You see my dilemma? I have to feature both Popsicles and bat flowers. I must create some hideous compromise.” “Mother?” “Yes, dear.” “You asked to see me.” She turns to give him a full look. “Right. Well. Yesterday Johnny Cooper came by.” Johnny Cooper manages Musgrove Investigations—one of the many little sidelines created by Ransom’s father and still in Morgana’s possession. He says, “You still haven’t sold that?” “No, but I’ve rather neglected it. Of course, it’s never brought me a dime in profit. But then it didn’t for your father either. Frankly I believe profit wasn’t the point for him. I believe he used it in his business dealings. To keep track of his rivals.” Ransom’s gaze flicks away from her: he turns to the portraits, his scowling forebears. She catches the shift. “Darling,” she asks, “are you hiding a smile?” “Why would I do that?” “Because you think he was keeping track of me .” Just at that moment though, Betty reappears, with a pitcher of her lemony tea and two of the pineapple-crystal glasses inherited from Great-great-aunt Inez. “And Betty,” says Morgana, “do you suppose you could stop by Mooney’s and collect those three hams?” “Right away, ma’am.” “None but the long-cured. If he tries to pass off one of those honey-glazed tourist things, tell him to shove it back up from whence it came. You hear?” “Uh-huh.” “And get Mr. Riley to check the oil on the beast.” “Yes ma’am, uh-huh, I will.” Adding, as she withdraws: “Oh handsome Ransom, you need to come live here with us.” Haaaand -some Raaaan -som. Then she’s gone. Morgana puts down the shears, and takes a seat. The house is still but for the grandfather clock with the slight lisp and her sigh. “Well, maybe he was having me followed. I mean I’d have deserved it. I wasn’t a good wife. Not then anyway. I felt I had to live in a state of constant romantic excitation. I was reading too many eighteenth-century novels. I recall thinking, what’s the point of living if you can’t live in a swirl of scandal? I wonder if there is a file on me? I wonder if there are any good surveillance photos of me?” She sips from the pineapple glass. She has a wistful look. “At any rate,” she says, “I know your father loved that business. He loved going with Johnny on stakeouts. And taking you along. You remember?” “Yeah. I liked going. Dad would pick up a bucket of wings from Church’s and we’d eat in the car. Then I’d fall asleep and Dad and Johnny would watch the Thunderbird Motel all night.” “And when you got home I’d always make you tell me everything. I’d say, Report, and you would. You recall that?” He nods. But feels a bit impatient. “So, Mother. What did Johnny want?” “Oh, well, it seems our little detective agency has been approached by a big client. Or rather the lawyer for a big client. The client himself is in jail.” “For what?” “Arson. Also I’m told the state has reached for a murder charge.” “Jesus. You’re talking about Archie Guzman?” “You know the case?” “Everyone in Savannah knows the case. What’s he want from you?” “Well, naturally, an investigation. Why, does that seem strange? You think he should go to one of the bigger outfits? Such as that fetid place that does all the repossessions? What’s that called again?” “Screven.” She makes a face of disgust. “Yes yes, Screven Security. Honestly I was wondering myself: Why pick little us over them? So I called Burt Randolph—Guzman’s lawyer—and put it to him. And you know what he told me? He said ours is an old and esteemed agency.” Ransom can’t help but roll his eyes. “Old, for sure. You got a seventy-year-old gumshoe who needs a hip replacement. Plus your three wino part-timers, they’re old, plus that rotting old office over the souvenir shop.” “But in fact he said greatly esteemed. Also he raised, unprompted, the question of a retainer.” “How much?” “Oh they’re being quite generous.” “How much?” She sniffs. Waits a beat. “Two hundred thousand dollars.” Ransom gives a low whistle. “Plus three hundred more,” she goes on, “should we happen to uncover evidence leading to Guzman’s exoneration.” “Good God. That’s insane.” “It is rather a large—” “No, I mean it’s insane that Guzman thinks anything will lead to his exoneration. Have you read the papers?” “A bit. I know he’s somewhat unpopular—” “Despised. By everyone. Rich and poor, young and old, it’s unanimous. Everyone hates the Gooze. He bulldozes anything that’s beautiful, he builds the ugliest crap imaginable and sues everyone for the right to do it, and he’s the meanest slumlord in town. Treats his tenants like dogs. For himself he built that pig mansion out in Thunderbolt, you’ve seen it, it’s a pile of crap. And now he’s gone and burned a man alive.” Copyright © 2022 by George Dawes Green

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“Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event. … Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on...

Book Details

“Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event. … Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on the backs of enslaved people. His prose is languid, even luxurious, but at critical moments of suspense, he pares it back to ramp up the terror.” — New York Times Book Review Savannah may appear to be “some town out of a fable,” with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city’s history. But look deeper and you’ll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It’s the story at the heart of George Dawes Green’s chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths—truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core. Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family.

Imprint Publisher

Celadon Books

9781250767448

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" 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 "[The Kingdoms of Savannah is] layered, but like a parfait goes down sweet, chilled and easy...it has the flavor of Southern Gothic without the bitter aftertaste. ... Green wants to hammer home that undergirding Savannah’s beauty — all the flowers and fashion and conviviality — is unspeakable ugliness that must be given voice. ... If history is made up of crime stories, the author seems to be proposing, then why not a crime story to help rethink history?" — New York Times “Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event. … Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on the backs of enslaved people. His prose is languid, even luxurious, but at critical moments of suspense, he pares it back to ramp up the terror.” — New York Times Book Review "A chilling southern thriller with a definite Midnight in the Gardens of Good and Evil vibe." — PEOPLE, Book of the Week “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. Green’s novels may not come around often, but when they do, they hit hard and stay with you long after the end.” — Kirkus, STARRED Review "This fascinating story takes readers from homeless encampments to elegant homes as Morgana and her children probe the doings of a strange, dysfunctional family and discover appalling injustices in the city’s past. Based on historical events, Green's literary thriller will draw those who loved John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. " — Booklist, STARRED Review "A masterful and multifaceted work: finely crafted mystery, thought-provoking social commentary and an indelible portrait of a complicated city." — BookPage, STARRED Review

About the Creators

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George Dawes Green explores local hidden history in his latest novel, 'Kingdoms of Savannah'

Savannah has always seemed uncanny, like the setting of an old fable or gothic mystery. Street lights casting bizarre shadows through gnarled oak branches and their mossy drapery, cobble stone streets and dark alleys, wildly varied architecture that makes you feel like you’re traveling thorough time from block to block, are just a few characteristics that add to Savannah’s haunting charm.

It’s only natural that New York Times best-selling author George Dawes Green ’s latest whodunit, “ Kingdoms of Savannah ,” would be set in this strange and wonderful city.

Green, who splits his time between New York City and Savannah, comes from a family of 8th generation Savannahians, and in a way, has been building up to writing this novel for a long time.

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“I do feel like that,” said Green. “When I was a kid I didn’t live in Savannah. We bounced around various towns and cities in the North for years when I was a kid. Finally, when I was about 11, my mother finally prevailed because she was a Georgian.”

Although Green’s family settled in Brunswick, his mother considered Savannah her capital city. The family would make regular trips to Savannah in their Chevy Bel Air to visit cousins, and in hindsight, these excursions were formative for Green.

“They were very strange, very hot afternoon teas that a 12-year-old boy had to endure because you’d have to listen to these Savannah stories. My mother was often pounding them into my head and I resisted greatly to the point that when I was 15 I dropped out of high school and put thumb out and hitchhiked to New York. But I did keep coming back and eventually I felt the allure of this strange city. Finally, I moved back here, and I feel in some bizarre way it’s my capital city, as well. So I’ve always wanted to address that in a book. I finally did.”

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“Kingdoms of Savannah” is about Morgana Musgrove, a doyenne of Savannah society, who is asked to solve a case involving arson, a “disappeared person,” and a murder. Musgrove is a conniving and difficult woman with a dysfunctional family. She enlists the help of her four reluctant adult children, who eventually help her uncover dark secrets that those in power would prefer to keep hidden.

Part of Savannah's tourist industry is built upon the city’s rich and complex history, but some of Savannah’s more unpleasant history is often obscured or ignored. It’s this hidden history that Green finds fascinating and draws from in the construction of his mystery.

“I’m always interested in why certain stories are told and others stories are not told, because I think stories shape the character of a city,” said Green. “The fact these stories were not told, is to me fascinating. There are so many dark things about Savannah, and also some inspiring things about Savannah history that no one ever hears. Those episodes are all intertwined in the book. These historical events are at the root of the contemporary mystery. The book is a modern detective story, but it has lots and lots of history, and a lot of the history are these stories that are never told.”

Green was inspired by a paper, written by his friend, Savannah historian John Duncan, about a group of Black soldiers who fought for the King of England during the American Revolution. After the war, rather than return to slavery, many of the Black soldiers founded an encampment north of Savannah along with Native Americans.

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“There are a number of people now who are trying to do some more extensive research into this community that lasted a number of years,” explained Green. “It’s an extraordinary story, and it’s an inspiring story. It’s one that, like so many of these fascinating stories, it isn’t history, for one reason or another, that has been passed on to us, and I am fascinated by the question of why.”

Green took a deep dive through the Georgia Historical Society archives to research this story, and even went so far as to borrow his friend’s canoe to look for evidence of the lost site.

Another piece of Savannah history Green was inspired by was the infamous Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar . A “narcissistic bully and one of the richest men in Savannah,” Lamar and his pro-slavery Fire-Eaters helped engineer the Civil War with the hopes of building an Empire of Slavery.

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“That’s completely obscured in textbooks and people in Savannah just don’t understand this at all, and I just find that fascinating,” said Green. “It’s amazing because one of the things he did was to provoke the New York Times. This was one of the things the Fire Eaters were always trying to do. There’s a few episodes that people talk about. He bought the fastest yacht in America and went to Africa and kidnapped 600 people and brought them to Georgia, and there were only 400 left that survived the journey, and sold them into slavery. He only did that to provoke the Buchanan administration and the New York Times into an attack, which came of course and he shouted, ‘False news!’ He claimed that he was a victim and just being picked on and that all of his followers were victims.

“It was Charlie Lamar creating stories and then manipulating how they’re told to create an atmosphere, shape the city that he wanted, and that has been true throughout Savannah’s history.”

Local readers will recognize many of the places depicted in Green’s novel, real or fictionalized. Adding to the fable-like quality of “Kingdoms of Savannah” is a Tolkienesque illustrated map printed on the inner cover that marks Savannah landmarks from the book.

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“It has all of these completely separate little worlds and that’s what I mean by the title, ‘The Kingdoms of Savannah,’” explained Green. “There are these separate enclaves and they don’t mix very much. There’s a Black community, there’s a homeless community, there’s the enclave of the very wealthy, there’s the gay community. There’s all these little kingdoms and they’re so close to each other. It’s just a tiny, little town. It’s easy to stroll from one end of the town to the other, and my characters do that every day. I have a character that lives in one of the homeless encampments out under the Harry S. Truman Parkway, and he just walks into the town everyday. That's what most of the folks who live in that encampment do.”

While celebrating the release of his latest novel, Green is also marking the 25th anniversary of The Moth , the world renowned storytelling series he founded in New York City. What began as small gatherings at apartments, soon spread to events at bars, then large venues like the Lincoln Center.

Now, The Moth has clubs and events all over the world, and millions of listeners of its podcast. Green celebrated with a special sold-out reading at The Gingerbread House featuring some of Savannah’s greatest storytellers including New York theater legend Edgar Oliver, Opollo Johnson, Aberjhani, and Jane Fishman.

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“I was very inspired by growing up in south Georgia and spending a lot of time out on porches when I was a young man, drinking on porches, listening to stories,” said Green. “That’s one of the things I was thinking about when I started The Moth. I love the idea of coming back now and celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Moth with some great Savannah raconteurs.”

Work of George Dawes Greens went print to the big screen

Although Green is primarily a writer of thrillers — his book “The Juror” (1994) was an international hit that was adapted into a movie starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin — he is inspired by the pure storytelling skills of raconteurs.

“When a great raconteur is telling a story there’s a simplicity, and a directness, and an immediacy,” said Green. “I don’t necessarily try for that in my fiction because I write thrillers. I like the scaffolding of a thriller, so they’re very different, but I do always aspire to that simplicity and immediacy. I think if I did train my fiction writing with what I was hearing at the Moth, I think it would be better in some way, but they’re very different disciplines.

“One thing I love in books, I love the moment when you feel caught up in the flow of turning pages. You’re utterly captured by the story you’re reading, and that’s the same feeling as when you’re listening to a great Moth story.”

The Kingdoms of Savannah

"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. Green’s novels may not come around often, but when they do, they hit hard and stay with you long after the end.” — Kirkus , Starred Review

A man with a joyful smile sitting on a tree trunk in a serene park setting, dressed in a casual suit ensemble.

George Dawes Green

Praise for george dawes green.

“In the chilling literary thriller The Kingdoms of Savannah , a woman uncovers truths about a secret Southern community (formed by Black slaves who fought for the British during the Revolutionary War) and unveils the city’s sinister history.”

"This fascinating story takes readers from homeless encampments to elegant homes as Morgana and her children probe the doings of a strange, dysfunctional family and discover appalling injustices in the city’s past. Based on historical events, Green's literary thriller will draw those who loved John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ."

“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.”

"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."

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The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel By George Dawes Green Cover Image

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Kobo eBook (July 18th, 2022): $12.99
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Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Traditional
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The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the cover for issue #1 of Convert was Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy. A man in a space suit — with the helmet removed — stands in a field holding a huge gun, surrounded by strange flora that almost seems like it’s trying to consume him. The mental comparisons to the Area X of VanderMeer’s series only continued as I read through it, but a development its final few panels affirms that Convert has its own unique story to tell.

The first issue of the new science fiction/fantasy series from Image Comics was released this week, and visually, it’s stunning. In the opening pages, “Science Officer Orrin Kutela finds himself stranded on a distant planet, starving and haunted by the ghosts of his dead crew,” per the description. “On the verge of death, he makes an astonishing discovery.” Convert was written by John Arcudi, with art by Savannah Finley, colors by Miguel Co and lettering by Michael Heisler. The second issue drops September 25.

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The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel Hardcover – July 19, 2022

“Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event. … Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on the backs of enslaved people. His prose is languid, even luxurious, but at critical moments of suspense, he pares it back to ramp up the terror.” ― New York Times Book Review Savannah may appear to be “some town out of a fable,” with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city’s history. But look deeper and you’ll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It’s the story at the heart of George Dawes Green’s chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths―truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core. Moving from the homeless encampments that ring the city to the stately homes of Savannah’s elite, Green’s novel brilliantly depicts the underbelly of a city with a dark history and the strangely mesmerizing dysfunction of a complex family.

Print length 304 pages
Language English
Publisher Celadon Books
Publication date July 19, 2022
Dimensions 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
ISBN-10 125076744X
ISBN-13 978-1250767448
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Please talk about the two versions of Savannah that you present to the reader—the one that the tourists see, and the hidden one that unfolds over the course of the novel.

GEORGE DAWES GREEN: Tourists imagine they get the character of the city in these tours, with all the mansions and fine silverware, and all the floating Victorian specters moaning about their Lost Cause and their fallen nobility; with all those murderous children and rich heiresses throwing themselves tragically from cast-iron balconies. But Savannahians can’t stand all that death-cult stuff. The real city comes to us through its living stories: the immeasurably rich memories of our neighbors.

What is the significance behind Kingdoms being plural in the title of the book?

There are many worlds in this small city: the redoubts of the old guard, the Black neighborhoods, the 39 homeless camps that encircle the city, the tourist district. As my protagonist Morgana Musgrove says: “Savannah’s not just one realm, it’s a great many realms—but they work together to keep us in thrall.”

Editorial Reviews

" 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 "[The Kingdoms of Savannah is] layered, but like a parfait goes down sweet, chilled and easy...it has the flavor of Southern Gothic without the bitter aftertaste. ... Green wants to hammer home that undergirding Savannah’s beauty ― all the flowers and fashion and conviviality ― is unspeakable ugliness that must be given voice. ... If history is made up of crime stories, the author seems to be proposing, then why not a crime story to help rethink history?" ― New York Times “Around these parts, the publication of a new George Dawes Green novel is an event. … Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city’s history, built on the backs of enslaved people. His prose is languid, even luxurious, but at critical moments of suspense, he pares it back to ramp up the terror.” ― New York Times Book Review "A chilling southern thriller with a definite Midnight in the Gardens of Good and Evil vibe." ― PEOPLE, Book of the Week “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. Green’s novels may not come around often, but when they do, they hit hard and stay with you long after the end.” ― Kirkus, STARRED Review "This fascinating story takes readers from homeless encampments to elegant homes as Morgana and her children probe the doings of a strange, dysfunctional family and discover appalling injustices in the city’s past. Based on historical events, Green's literary thriller will draw those who loved John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. " ― Booklist, STARRED Review "A masterful and multifaceted work: finely crafted mystery, thought-provoking social commentary and an indelible portrait of a complicated city." ― BookPage, STARRED Review

About the Author

Product details.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Celadon Books (July 19, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 125076744X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250767448
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.6 inches
#603 in Southern Fiction
#6,376 in Murder Thrillers
#20,865 in Suspense Thrillers

About the author

George-dawes green.

George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth and Unchained, is an internationally celebrated author. His first novel, The Caveman’s Valentine, won the Edgar Award and became a motion picture starring Samuel L. Jackson. The Juror was an international bestseller in more than twenty languages and was the basis for the movie starring Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin. Ravens was chosen as one of the best books of 2009 by the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail of London, and many other publications. George Green grew up in Georgia and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Where the Hurt Is (An Emmett Hardy Crime Novel Book 1)

Customer reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 47% 29% 17% 4% 3% 47%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 47% 29% 17% 4% 3% 29%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 47% 29% 17% 4% 3% 17%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 47% 29% 17% 4% 3% 4%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 47% 29% 17% 4% 3% 3%

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To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the storyline fascinating and great. They also describe the historical setting as refreshing and a refreshing take on the classic Southern Gothic. Opinions are mixed on the characters, with some finding them wonderful and others overblown. Readers also have mixed feelings about the writing quality, with others finding it well-written and detailed, while others find the narration terrible and the points of view hard to follow at first.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the storyline fascinating, lively, and engrossing. They also appreciate the surprises, unexpected action, and plot twists.

"...So glad I did! Well written and interesting . The characters in the story are vividly described so you almost feel like you have met them...." Read more

"...The mystery was good and the ending unexpected...." Read more

" Great story . Being from Savannah I know a lot of the corruption is true. It’s everywhere though. Not just Savannah...." Read more

"...but I realized I was halfway through the book, and the story STILL hadn't come together . Amazing character development but get to the point!..." Read more

Customers find the historical setting refreshing, lovely, and interesting. They also say the book portrays Savannah realistically and interestingly.

"...by thousands, and buried treasure, this is a refreshing take on the classic Southern Gothic ...." Read more

"...in Savannah for more than 20 years this book portrays Savannah realistically and interestingly . Enjoyed the book and can see this made into a movie" Read more

"truly an engrossing, lovely history . reminding one that history is never really history we live it everyday. with a wink and a nod." Read more

" Intriguing portrait of old , mysterious Savannah as it continues to live in the contemporary city...." Read more

Customers find the humor in the book tragic yet bitingly funny. They also describe it as a quirky thriller with real substance and fabulous characters.

"... It is funny , it is enlightening, and it is masterfully written. I loved it." Read more

"First time reading this author, but not the last. A quirky thriller with real substance and fabulous characters...." Read more

" Tragic yet bitingly funny (Morgana and Stony’s wit) atmospheric page turner. Once this book gets you, you can’t stop reading...." Read more

"...This book will stay with me, it really hit a nerve ." Read more

Customers have mixed opinions about the characters in the book. Some find them wonderful, while others say they're overblown and unlikable.

"...So glad I did! Well written and interesting. The characters in the story are vividly described so you almost feel like you have met them...." Read more

"...The characters didn't come off as very believable ...." Read more

"... Amazing character development but get to the point! Also, sick to death of "social justice" warriors...." Read more

"The book was so complicated with so many characters that I had to continually go back to remember who the character was...." Read more

Customers are mixed about the writing quality. Some mention it's well written and interesting, with beautiful descriptions. Others say it'll be tedious and monotonous, with terrible narration and too many F words.

"Came across this book while browsing the Libby app. So glad I did! Well written and interesting...." Read more

"...are written in different character points of view and were hard to follow at first ...." Read more

"...Not just Savannah. I loved the plot and it was a written well ." Read more

" This book is tedious . It's a good story, but I realized I was halfway through the book, and the story STILL hadn't come together...." Read more

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COMMENTS

In 'The Kingdoms of Savannah,' Oddballs Circle Around a Murder Mystery
THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH By George Dawes Green 289 pages. Celadon Books. $27.99. ... The Book Review Podcast: Each week, top authors and critics talk about the latest news in the literary world.
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
It's the story at the heart of George Dawes Green's chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah.It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be "disappeared.".
THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH
26. Our Verdict. GET IT. New York Times Bestseller. Roberts' latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three. Every summer, John and Cora Fox visit Cora's mother, Lucy Lannigan, in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, leaving their children, 12-year-old Thea and 10-year-old Rem, for a two-week taste of heaven.
Review: 'The Kingdoms of Savannah' by George Dawes Green
All the while, ghost-tour carriages rattle by in the background, serving as chilling reminders of tragedy twisted into glib entertainment. Green's historical notes at the end of the book offer fascinating details about the real-life people and events that inspired him to write The Kingdoms of Savannah, which is a masterful and multifaceted ...
Book Review: The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
Review: Haunting, complex, and intense! The Kingdoms of Savannah is a charged, gripping mystery that sweeps you away to Savannah, Georgia, and into the lives of the prominent, dysfunctional Musgrove family as they reluctantly, at the persistence of their matriarch Morgana, band together to solve the callous murder of a young homeless man and the disappearance of a middle-aged woman who seems ...
The Kingdoms of Savannah
Book Summary. Savannah may appear to be "some town out of a fable," with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city's history. But look deeper and you'll uncover secrets, past and present, that tell a more sinister tale. It's the story at the heart of George Dawes Green's chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of ...
"The Kingdoms of Savannah" by George Dawes Green
The Kingdoms of Savannah (Celadon Books, 2022) reads like a fine literary suspense novel, a top-tier mystery. But Kingdoms triumphs in extending the boundaries of the genre. George Dawes Green unearths so many long-buried layers of history with such drama, such flair, such artistic skill that readers may not even be aware they are reading a thoroughly researched record of the fabled city of ...
Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel
The recipient, a fan of Savannah enjoyed the book. Smoothly-written and full of entertaining twists and eccentric -- though IMO, cartoon-like -- characters. Most historic info in the novel is accurate. He (recipient) is also a map fan and I concurrently gave him a book with maps and pictures of historic Savannah sites. He loved this combo.
Review of The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
The Kingdoms of Savannah is a deeply satisfying story that unwinds like the City's river — rich, silty and rippling towards a powerful twist of an ending. Reviewed by Tina Choi This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in September 2022, and has been updated for the October 2023 edition.
Book Marks reviews of The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
Green's historical notes at the end of the book offer fascinating details about the real-life people and events that inspired him to write The Kingdoms of Savannah, which is a masterful and multifaceted work: finely crafted mystery, thought-provoking social commentary and an indelible portrait of a complicated city. This fascinating story takes ...
The Kingdoms of Savannah
ISBN-10: 1250888794. ISBN-13: 9781250888792. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be "disappeared.". An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called ...
New Crime Novels
Now arrives THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH (Celadon, 272 pp., $26.99). Green leans all the way into Southern Gothic, but the main grotesquerie is the city's history, built on the backs of enslaved people.
The Kingdoms of Savannah
by George Dawes Green. 🏆 Winner of the 2023 CWA Gold Dagger. The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green is a dark and yet evocative mystery set in the American South. The world of the wealthy elite of Savannah, Georgia is contrasted with the homeless people living in tents nearby, as well as the slavery that wealth was built on.
The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel
—New York Times Book Review Savannah may appear to be "some town out of a fable," with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city's history. ... The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes ...
The Kingdoms of Savannah: WINNER OF THE CWA AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL
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."
The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel
It's the story at the heart of George Dawes Green's chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be "disappeared.".
The Kingdoms of Savannah
In The News. " 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." "A rich, sprawling, dazzling mystery that's also a journey ...
Author George Dawes Green talks new novel Kingdoms of Savannah
Adding to the fable-like quality of "Kingdoms of Savannah" is a Tolkienesque illustrated map printed on the inner cover that marks Savannah landmarks from the book.
The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel
Editorial Reviews "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 ...
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
It's the story at the heart of George Dawes Green's chilling new novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be "disappeared.".
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green #bookreview
Thank you Celadon Books, #partner, for the advanced copy of The Kingdoms of Savannah in exchange for my honest review. Publisher: Celadon Books. Published: July 19, 2022 . Summary: Savannah may appear to be "some town out of a fable," with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city's history.
The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes Green
The Kingdoms of Savannah is utterly satisfying - Kurt Andersen. 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
The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel (Hardcover)
—New York Times Book Review Savannah may appear to be "some town out of a fable," with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city's history. ... The Kingdoms of Savannah. It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep's, one of the town's favorite watering holes ...
What to read this weekend: Rural horror infused with Chinese ...
This week's reading recommendations include 'Sacrificial Animals' by Kailee Pedersen, 'Trash Talk' by Iris Gottlieb and the comic 'Convert' by John Arcudi and Savannah Finley.
The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel
Amazon.com: The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel: 9781250767448: Green, George Dawes: Books ... ― New York Times Book Review Savannah may appear to be "some town out of a fable," with its vine flowers, turreted mansions, and ghost tours that romanticize the city's history. But look deeper and you'll uncover secrets, past and present ...

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Underneath the wisteria and tinkling of champagne glasses, Savannah harbors a lair of dirty secrets.

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The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel (Hardcover)

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August 2022 Indie Next List

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About the Author

What to read this weekend: Rural horror infused with Chinese mythology, and the lush alien world of Convert

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen

Trash Talk: An Eye-Opening Exploration of Our Planet's Dirtiest Problem by Iris Gottlieb

Convert by John Arcudi, Savannah Finley

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The Kingdoms of Savannah: A Novel Hardcover – July 19, 2022

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