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Nov 19, 2011

Stephen rated it:

PART 1: STEVE’S REVIEW

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Written over a period of 7 years and published in 1966, this novel, while not technically the first “true crime” non-fiction novel, is credited (correctly) with establishing the genre and being the progenitor of today's true crime novel. I would certainly agree that most of the other true crime novels that I have read followed almost the exact "blue print" laid out by Capote in this book. That is quite a testament t More...

27 comments like (42 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2010

Paquita Maria rated it:

At first I wasn't going to compose a review about this book. Considering the adapted-to-screen version, the biographical film centering around this period in the author's life, the seemingly infinite number of editions printed over the last 40+ years, the massive hype surrounding the murders/murderers even today, the more than likely THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of reviews already written about the novel, and the general rock-stardom that IS Truman Capote, it seemed about as pointless as dropping a More...

4 comments like (24 people liked it)

Apr 10, 2008

Amy rated it:

After I read it, I looked up pictures of the Clutter family, and just stared for about five minutes. They endured what is probably everyone’s worst fear.

Having never heard anything of the Clutter murders prior to reading this book, the experience of reading it was intense, gripping, and suspenseful from beginning to end. Capote, with his impartial writing style, relayed facts and details in such a way as to give a complete character illustration of everyone involved: from each of t More...

1 comment like (32 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rolls rated it:

Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is a highly disconcerting read. After painting an idyllic scene we'd expect from the Midwestern setting evil makes it's presence felt. The blood is chilled and the heart gripped as a result.

As everyone must know by now this is considered the first nonfiction novel. Meaning that all of the bare facts of this story actually took place. A family of four was indeed murdered in their home by two unknown assailants on 14 November 1959. What made th More...

1 comment like (14 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Jeremiah rated it:

I originally thought this book would be a page turner on hypothermia. Being that thermoregulation keeps human blood at about 100 degrees, and hypothermia sets in at the high 90's, I assumed "cold" blood would be around 60 degrees...meaning instant death.

However, I did completely misjudge the book and its subject. Well played, Mr. Capote...well played.

2 comments like (17 people liked it)

Jul 22, 2010

Jason rated it:

Within 10 minutes of finishing In Cold Blood you'll be on the internet searching for pictures of the killers and victims of this real world multiple-slaying narrated brilliantly by Truman Capote. The photos are there, and like a voyeur, you'll be drawn, captivated, needing to see the mug shots, the murdered family, the courtroom stills, the crime scene, each room that held a body with a head blown open like a busted melon.

Capote breathes such realism into the characters that all you More...

3 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2012

Judy rated it:

Not being a fan of true crime, I must say this particular book was first-rate. My reason for even reading this account of the murder of a Kansan family, was three-fold:

1) I was interested in what the Truman Capote-Harper Lee connection could produce.
2) It comes highly recommended.
3) Its been mentioned in other books I have read leading to much curiosity.

Scott Brick is an excellent narrator of my audiobook, leading to additional appreciation of Capote's work. The acc More...

13 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 22, 2012

Checkman rated it:

This is the first book that I've ever read for the specific purpose of reviewing it for Goodreads. I've been curious about the book for many years, but for some reason I've always found some reason not to read it. Well in 2011 I ran out of excuses and dived in.

First of all let me state that this was a very easy read. It moves along at a good clip and never drags. Well not quite true. It drags somewhat when Capote spends several pages covering Perry Smith's background. There is a tou More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2008

Martine rated it:

I don't know why I waited so long after seeing and liking Capote to read the book on which the film was partly based, but I'm glad I finally got around to it, as In Cold Blood is a magnificent read. The first ever true-crime novel (or 'non-fiction novel' as Capote himself called it), In Cold Blood tells the story of the quadruple murder that shook the Kansas community of Holcomb in 1959 and which Capote then spent six years investigating, talking to the bereaved villagers, the detectives who wor More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Shannon rated it:

We've all heard quite a lot about (from?) Truman Capote these past 12 months. Between Philip Seymour Hoffman's Capote and what's-his-name's (Toby Jones') performance in Infamous, it's rather difficult to even crack the spine of this over-explicated text without hearing the faint cackle of new-york-high-society-types, or picturing Mr. Capote himself, before a crowd, holding the book (a tome, in my mental image) above his head, in that fantastic anecdote about the primacy of the text. So, perhap More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Martha rated it:

Meticulous reconstruction of the brutal murders of a helpless family, with an emphasis on the movements of the killers after the crime and their eventual convictions and executions. Felt like the source material was doing the driving, not the author. In fact, I became tired of slogging through page after page of first-hand accounts from the killers, their family members, and their former cell-mates - a pitiable bunch.

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Apr 26, 2011

Diana~ rated it:

In Cold Blood is a haunting novel that portrays the darker side of society. While I did not enjoy reading it since my Professor assigned this reading to us, it is still a novel that I will never likely forget. It explores the faults of our very own justice system and how everything isn't just always black or white... but also shades of gray. Ultimately, I felt sorry for the Clutter family and Perry Smith but pity for Dick Hickock. Even towards the end, he was never remorseful or apologized for h More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2011

Dan rated it:

With the glut of crime-related progams - both factual and fictional- on primetime television and the daily bombardment of crime we receive from the news media, you might assume this would be just one more crime story. The fact is, it is a very compelling description, by those involved as well as by Capote, of the brutal murder of a family and of the investigation, trial, and execution of those who committed it. The accounts of the individuals who first found and first investigated the the scen More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2008

Mel rated it:

In Cold Blood was an experiment in form—and the expansion of a genre. The author, Truman Capote did five years of painstaking research before committing what he learned to the page. The story of how the text came to be is almost as fascinating as the tale of the Clutter murders itself.
Capote insisted that there should be no authorial presence in the text, and yet his voice drips from each page. The protagonist is Perry Smith, the murderer who Capote is quoted comparing himself to. In the More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Taka rated it:

Capote's style is a menagerie of 4-parts precision, 2-parts lyricism, and 4-parts stiffness, which is not my favorite cocktail to say the least. I did appreciate the concise aspect of it, though.

As for the story, the fact that it is a "non-fiction novel" - a category Capote made up - sheds the verisimilitude of an usual fiction and makes you reel from the naked force of truth, esp. when reading the murder scenes. To know that these people actually existed, and to know how a More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Ashley rated it:

It's considered a nonfiction novel but it is also an expository tale about the nature of American violence. The town is all-American, the murdered family is all-American and the class divisions, lack of compassion, and the spirit of revenge are also distinctly American. What's so disturbing about the book is the sympathy you can't help but feel for Perry Smith, who actually fired the shots that killed all four Clutters. It's transmitted through Capote who found somewhat of a demented friendship More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2008

Josie rated it:

This was a really good book! It's about the true story of the murders of 4 family members in Holcomb, Kansas town (a small town) and it's honestly one of the scariest books I have ever read! Don't read this one at night! Truman Capote gives an account-by-account re-telling of the murder of the Clutter family from the events leading up to the murder to the prosecution of the murderers. Very good! What makes it all the more creepy is the fact that it is a true story.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 09, 2009

Darcy rated it:

What an amazing author of incredibly sharp character studies. Truman Capote's portrayal of the murder victims, the murderers, and the detectives was equally impartial. In fact, I think the descriptions of the motivations of criminals in this book were more sympathetic and detailed than those of the upright hard-working farmer who was killed and the detective who had nightmares and smoked 60 cigarettes a day until the killers were caught. Yet, at the end of a scrupulously detailed account of t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 02, 2009

Geoff rated it:

"In Cold Blood" is a well written novel based on the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. The book is a fascinating read. Truman Capote is a master at detail and making the reader feel he/she is present - from the Clutter's last days to the execution of convicts, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Capote does well at portaying the personality differences in Smith and Hickock. My fascination with the Clutter murders did not stop with this book. I started reading online arti More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2010

Pavel rated it:

I just got back after two weeks out of town, where I had only occasional access to the internet. I'll drop couple of reviews a bit
later and browse my friends' reviews I've missed, but before that one recomendation to everybody:
If you haven't seen "Capote" movie, watch it today, tommorow or whenever you have an opportunity.
It's not exactly based on this book, but rather a story how Truman Capote was writing this book, but it's stuningly brilliant. Philip Seymor Hoffma More...

5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 05, 2010

K.D. rated it:

A couple of weeks back, a disgruntled former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza from the Manila Police District shot and killed eight Hong Kong tourists ending the hostage crisis drama that lasted for around 10 hours. This took place at the Quirino Grandstand in the heart of Manila, Philippines. The whole nation was stunned while watching the images unfolding on TV screens. The whole world watched with us as the events are covered by CNN. Mendoza's demand was for him to get his job back. He was ab More...

42 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 05, 2009

Mario rated it:

The book i have read is titled In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. It's about two Murderer's and their case. This book is a Novel and it talks about how two men murder a family at their own home and flee to Mexico to hide and lay-low.

On the morning of November 14, 1959 Perry Smith meets up with Dick Hickock. While the Clutters go about their daily business, running errands and baking apple pies, Hickock and Smith are tuning their car and plotting on them. After a long drive and d More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 11, 2008

Endah rated it:

Buku kesembilan karya penulis Truman Capote ini di kalangan pemerhati sastra sering disebut sebagai sebuah bentuk sastra baru: novel nonfiksi. Truman Capote yang lahir pada 30 September 1942 ini memerlukan waktu tidak kurang dari 6 tahun untuk menyelesaikan In Cold Blood ini.

Aslinya, buku ini pertama kali terbit di Amerika Serikat pada 1965. Terjemahan bahasa Indonesianya oleh penerbit Bentang berdasarkan buku yang sama tetapi edisi 2002. Di negaranya, buku ini termasuk salah satu b More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 09, 2008

Kassi rated it:

The classic true crime book written by the famed Truman Capote earned its place in history as the first book of its nature - an attempt to combine journalism with storytelling for the purpose of creating a compelling tale. In this sense, the book doesn't disappoint at all. It was well chronicled and sometimes even overly inclusive of the facts, testimonies, and articles published from various accounts surrounding the murder that this book covered.

I was greatly interested in the pysch More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Philip rated it:

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was published in 1966, and is based on events that happened almost fifty years ago. The events were real. This is not a work of fiction. The Clutters, an appropriately surnamed Kansas family, have their own complications within their rambling homestead. What family doesn’t? Clutter the father is a farmer. Who isn’t in these parts? Life is not so productive of late. Whose is? The two younger children, a daughter and a son, More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

Angela rated it:

After finishing Other Rooms Other Voices I found I really liked Capote.. so far in this book I can already tell how fascinated he is by these murders... and the murderers.. cant wait to finish it.

poor cutter family.. didnt know what hit them.. i wish i could live back in these days, where everyone knew each other, lived on open farms and worked the land.. sounds like a lot of fun.. maybe not.. who knows

... well now I've finished it... capote sure picked a strange way to r More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Rebecca rated it:

In Cold Blood is a book I wouldn't normally have chosen because a) I'm afraid of everything and this for sure sounded like a scary topic and b) it's a true crime story, which makes it even more frightening in my mind. However, I'm glad I read it. I learned a lot about Truman Capote (sorry, wasn't one of the billions who went to see the movie about him a few years back), including that he was the first true crime author. As a journalist, I also really liked seeing how he was able to put all of hi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 18, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

I am torn when it comes to rating this book because it was very well written, and provocative and memorable, yet it definitely disturbed me quite a bit while I was reading it. I would find myself getting scared at night (especially when I would wake-up with my young infant alone in our dark, quiet house). It is not overly graphic or inappropriate at all, but simply the subject matter: real-life mass murder, is enough to keep you on edge. I read it in just a few days so that I could get it ove More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Mona rated it:

Holcomb, Kansas made national headlines on November 15, 1959, when the four members of the Clutter family were found bound and murdered in their farmhouse on the outskirts of the small town. Six years later, two ex-convicts, Richard ("Dick") Eugene Hickok and Perry Edward Smith were hanged for the murders. Capote's In Cold Blood is, mainly, the story of these two criminals.

Capote, who began researching the book soon after reading an article about the murders in 1959, trace More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 27, 2012

Jenn rated it:

Let me start off by saying that I listened to the audio version narrated by Scott Brick. I found him to be an amazing narrator. He gave each of the main characters their own voice without being overly dramatic or cheesy. There was a subtle uniqueness to each voice that only added to my enjoyment of the book. He is the first narrator that I can picture myself listening to based on his presence and not necessarily based on the book.

Should we invest in literature based on true stories More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)