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The Best of StudioTulsa in 2021 -- "The Great Mistake: A Novel"

Aired on Tuesday, December 21st.

We explore a novel set in 19th-century NYC that digs into the life and times of -- and the mysterious murder of -- one Andrew Haswell Green, who was once known as "The Father of Greater New York" yet is today all but forgotten.

We chat with novelist Jonathan Lee, whose latest book is a vivid, page-turning work of historical fiction titled "The Great Mistake." It's a novel set in 19th-century New York City that digs into the life and times of -- and the mysterious murder of -- a man named Andrew Haswell Green. Not well-remembered today but very famous in his time, Green (who was called "The Father of Greater New York") was a lawyer and city planner whose visionary deal-making led to establishment of Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bronx Zoo, and the New York Public Library. But why was Green killed in the street in 1903, just outside his Park Avenue residence? Such is the core question of "The Great Mistake," which The Wall Street Journal called "engrossing [and] genuinely impressive."

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