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The Kingdoms of Savannah

Review

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