I'm always up for a Southern Gothic with small-town politics and local corruption. I loved the detailed the dreary underground history of Savannah and wished I'd read it while staying in Georgia. The folklore of the area's history is juicy and his writing made you feel drenched with the sticky sweat of the place.

"The Kingdoms of Savannah" melds the allure of historic charm with a contemporary mystery. Savannah emerges as a character, its rich tapestry of sights, scents, and secrets providing a backdrop for formidable Morgana Musgrove, grappling with personal and professional challenges. When a murder and a disappearance shake the city's elite, Morgana seizes the opportunity to unravel the truth, enlisting the reluctant aid of her estranged children.

Green masterfully intertwines multiple plotlines, propelling the story forward with a steadily building tension that mirrors the twisting paths of Savannah's landscape. Morgana's unconventional sleuthing exposes dark truths hidden beneath the veneer of privilege, challenging the powerful forces determined to protect their secrets at any cost.

Drawing from Savannah's complex history, Green crafts a compelling narrative that delves into themes of power, greed, and social hierarchy, while also exploring the dynamics of fractured families. "The Kingdoms of Savannah" is a captivating and immersive mystery that demands attention, offering readers a unique and unforgettable journey through the heart of a city both revered and reviled.

Intrigue, murder, sights and sounds of Savannah, strong matriarch family, these are just a few of the things you will read in this book. It's easy to read and there are so many twists in this Southern novel based in Savannah, it will keep your interest. I picked up this book as it was based in Savannah and since visiting this city, it caught the flavor of a visitor and resident. I found a new author with this book and look forward to reading his other books. Highly recommend.

I found this book interesting and unusual and couldn't put it down. Definitely a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley,, the author, and Celadon Books for providing me with an ARC copy.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Being from Georgia, I really wanted to love this book. I am familiar with the Savannah area and love it. Unfortunately, this story didn’t work well for me.. I love the premise but the story is told largely from the Southern Black perspective and yet the author is a Southern white man. This left me a little less interested in the characters.
I will consider trying something different from this author because I really did like the writing and appreciate the style.
#TheKingdomofSavannah #NetGalley #CeladonBooks

Every place has secrets and Savannah is no different. Those secrets tend to come out when major events take place. In this case, a man is murdered and his buddy is nowhere to be found. Morgana Musgrove is handed the investigation and she is known for doing whatever it takes, even if some of her ways are shady af, to get down to the answer. What she doesn't expect is, when she finally figures out what happened, how much it will impact her world.

This is a pretty short read. The book has five chapters so the author took off right from the gate. But for me, it began to slow pretty quick. The story left me with answers that I didn't have answers too. I would have preferred move development, whether it is character or plot. It just felt like a free fall and then the reader, me, hit the ground way to fast.

I do want to thank Netgalley and Celadon for providing me this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was not not given enough time to read and archived before I could download the book. I hope others were able to enjoy it and hope to read from the publisher in the future at a timetable thst was a wider range of timelines

I love to read stories set in areas I've been, particularly when I'm fairly comfortable and familiar with the area. Growing up in Atlanta, I've been to Savannah pretty often since my late teen years. It's a quick drive south and one I've done quite a few times. So, I was excited to read a book set in Savannah. Others I've read in the past I've enjoyed a good bit - books like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil or Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. So I was excited to dive into another Savannah-set novel, especially one with talks of murder and dark histories.

Apparently, George Dawes Green is a pretty well-known author with significant following, but I was unfamiliar with him or his work. So after diving into The Kingdoms of Savannah, which has several Black characters and has a significant storyline based in Black folk tales and slavery, I looked into Dawes Green a bit. I feel deep discomfort in reading heavily Black storylines written by white authors (or really any storyline with significant characters of an identity not shared by the author). It feels wholly privileged and like profiting from generally-disadvantaged populations, which I despise.

The book itself was interesting. The writing was solid. The characters were well-rounded and well-built. The story is noted to be based on real-life history, and I do think a lot of that is history that needs to be told, but again, having it told from a white person trying to mimic the Black perspective is gross and is profiteering.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an ARC!
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Unfortunately I DNFed this, it just didn’t catch my attention and maybe I’ll get into it again when I’m in the perfect headspace to give this another try! But I would buy and recommend this for this definitely!

This was such a great read! Having recently moved to the south I was able to relate to a lot of politicking and history of the south. The mystery was well done and the ending was realistic. Jaq’s character was phenomenal and I would 100% read another book about her. I also loved Ransom. And thank goodness the dog wound up being okay because that part stressed me out! Overall I really enjoyed this book!

Southern Gothic at its best. For obvious reasons it reminds me of Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil and what a shadow to have over your shoulder, but the book can withstand the pressure. It started a bit slow for me but was well worth the initial slog!

Four plus stars..
Not familiar with the work of George Dawes Green, so went in with no expectations, I just liked the book description. What a wonderful read! Filled with interesting characters - a lot of them! - and yet not difficult to keep track of them. Really appreciated the character developments in this book.

The suspenseful aspect of the story was very well done for this reader, as it was not so obscure as to be unbelievable, and allowed you to go along for the ride without spending all your time trying to figure things out. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour of both the underbelly and the society side of the city. Author’s notes after the Epilogue are also worth reading.

Years ago, I read a travel article about the flowering of Savannah (azalea season) and have always wanted to visit. It’s now become one of the favorite places to visit for one of my adult children….and so we’ve discussed maybe someday having a home there. Now, not so sure about that!

There’s so much going on in this book that it’s hard to even describe it! I guess I’d say it’s a Southern noir mystery crossed with a dysfunctional family drama, with a teeny bit of history thrown in.

The book is set in present day Savannah, and starts strong with a murder and kidnapping in the prologue, but then shifts gears to family drama as we see the perspectives of multiple members of a well to do Savannah family (though one of them is living in a homeless encampment after time in prison). The matriarch of the family gets hired to investigate the murder by someone who seems to have been framed for it since the family apparently has a private investigation business, and ropes various of her kids and granddaughter by marriage into investigating, even though they mostly seem to be investigating more on a personal basis rather than a professional one. In addition to POVs of various of the family members (though strangely not the matriarch even though the book blurb focuses on her), we also occasionally get POVs from the kidnapped woman, and one or two other characters. And underlying it all is a depiction of Savannah as both historically and presently very corrupt.

So, as you can see, there was A LOT going on in this book - maybe too much. It’s actually pretty short, but also very dense with all that’s going on, all the characters, and the descriptions of the city. Somehow it manages to be both underdeveloped and overbaked. It’s definitely very atmospheric, and the mystery was decent, and a few of the characters, Ransom and Jaq particularly, really came to life. It just was a lot.

3.5 stars

I thought this book was very engaging and presented a different side of Savannah than tourists see. I enjoyed the quirky characters and the mystery at the heart of the book.

Thank you NetGalley! Being from Savannah I had to read this one. I love how George Dawes Green does such an amazing job describing my hometown. The story was traumatic, dark but also such a compelling story.

4 stars!

As someone who has frequented Savannah, I was so excited to jump into this one!

A man is murdered and a woman has disappeared. As a mismatched camaraderie, Luke and Stony were well liked by many of the colorful frequenters of Bo Peeps, a local watering hole.

What really happened to them that night?

Inquiring minds want to know... Not the least of whom is doyenne Morgiana Mustgrove, successor to her ex husband's slightly shady detective agency. And with the promise of an impressive payday, she's moved into action investigating the incident - dragging her reluctant son Ransom with her.

I could tell from the beginning that this would be more than a standard mystery. The exemplary writing extended beyond the usual to create atmosphere without trying too hard with physical descriptions. An underlying sinister vibe while caring for some characters and despising others is subtly created between the lines. I love reading books like this!

In addition, the author included after notes detailing the true underbelly of some of the darker elements of Savannah's history. Very interesting indeed.

This review is overdue and I apologize for the delay. Thank you to Celadon Books and George Dawes Green for my gifted print copy. It’s much appreciated!

I don’t think this book was for me. I had high hopes but it just didn’t work. I have recommended a few of my friends trying it as it may work better for them and what their reading interests are. It was too far out of my comfort zone!

Another interesting description that fell hard. The story is so filled with Southern Gothic tropes that it was work to trudge through each chapter. I had to walk away because it was incredibly frustrating to have a great story premise fall victim to all the stereotypes.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Two societal extremes, the homeless and the wealthy convene in this intriguing tale of a young man’s death and subsequent disappearance of a well-known local. It is laced with detail of Savannah’s dark history, shady business happenings, socialite scene, and crime-ridden streets.

Having been to Savannah recently, it was fun reading a book in the setting of the city! Definitely a different book (probably not for everyone), but I enjoyed it.

This is an atmospheric book with terrific characters; it's set in the beautiful city of Savannah, but the darkness and secrets of the city seep through. The novel centers around the murder of Luke and his missing friend Stony. The reader is pulled into the midst of the Musgrove family, an old Savannah family, as their matriarch Morgana takes on the case.

The Kingdoms of Savannah is full of complex characters and rich with history. This is a fictional story, but feels like it could be real. A great read.

There is murder, kidnapping, and a look at the underbelly of Savannah's sorted history. The book was full of details and interesting characters. Unfortunately, the author's writing made it difficult to keep the city's history straight and each character lacked development. I think that it was a very ambitious project; it just lacked structural development. Since this was a book my book club was gifted I felt that I had to read it all the way through. Listening to the audio book as I read helped me to keep the characters and the events better organized in my mind.