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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168642.In_Cold_Blood?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="In Cold Blood" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71T99157VEL._SL160_.gif" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/168642.In_Cold_Blood?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">In Cold Blood</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/431149.Truman_Capote">Truman Capote</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/9766180?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars 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, traces the whereabouts of Dick and Perry before and after they commit murder. He explores the mindset of each, their respective backstories, their feelings about the crime, and their final thoughts before execution. Capote also details the Holcomb townspeople's reaction, as well as law enforcement's search for the killers. I thought the characterization of Perry was especially interesting - born of two rodeo performers, he had a difficult childhood, served in the military, and became permanently disabled during a motorcycle race. At the same time, he was an avid reader, and liked to draw. About Mr. Clutter, Perry said, "I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."
 
 The achievement of In Cold Blood is not the comprehensiveness with which the subject is approached, although that is certainly present. Rather, Capote manages to humanize every single character here, from Dick and Perry, right down to the Holcomb woman who runs the post office. Although nonfiction, In Cold Blood is written as a story, and it is easy to get sucked into thinking of it as simply a story. Indeed, that is why I found it so absorbing when I started it back in January, and why I found it too disturbing, haunting, and real when I finished it in May, shortly after a family friend's brush with a couple of criminals who had broken into his house. 
 
 My criticisms of the book are few. I've since learned that Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) was a childhood friend of Capote's and helped him research the book, but at least in the library copy I had, there was no reference to her contributions (this may have been a fluke of the edition I was using, as some other reviewers have said the book was dedicated to her, but I checked mine and there was no reference to her). I suppose that I am used to the nonfiction books of today, which make it a point to footnote each source used, so it was difficult to get used to a nonfiction story without footnotes (this, of course, contributed to the story-like atmosphere of the book). Other than those quibbles, I cannot find much to criticize. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/60939?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Mona's review
rating:

bookshelves: history, mystery-suspense, nonfiction
status: Read in May, 2008

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, traces the whereabouts of Dick and Perry before and after they commit murder. He explores the mindset of each, their respective backstories, their feelings about the crime, and their final thoughts before execution. Capote also details the Holcomb townspeople's reaction, as well as law enforcement's search for the killers. I thought the characterization of Perry was especially interesting - born of two rodeo performers, he had a difficult childhood, served in the military, and became permanently disab...more 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, traces the whereabouts of Dick and Perry before and after they commit murder. He explores the mindset of each, their respective backstories, their feelings about the crime, and their final thoughts before execution. Capote also details the Holcomb townspeople's reaction, as well as law enforcement's search for the killers. I thought the characterization of Perry was especially interesting - born of two rodeo performers, he had a difficult childhood, served in the military, and became permanently disabled during a motorcycle race. At the same time, he was an avid reader, and liked to draw. About Mr. Clutter, Perry said, "I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."

The achievement of In Cold Blood is not the comprehensiveness with which the subject is approached, although that is certainly present. Rather, Capote manages to humanize every single character here, from Dick and Perry, right down to the Holcomb woman who runs the post office. Although nonfiction, In Cold Blood is written as a story, and it is easy to get sucked into thinking of it as simply a story. Indeed, that is why I found it so absorbing when I started it back in January, and why I found it too disturbing, haunting, and real when I finished it in May, shortly after a family friend's brush with a couple of criminals who had broken into his house.

My criticisms of the book are few. I've since learned that Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird) was a childhood friend of Capote's and helped him research the book, but at least in the library copy I had, there was no reference to her contributions (this may have been a fluke of the edition I was using, as some other reviewers have said the book was dedicated to her, but I checked mine and there was no reference to her). I suppose that I am used to the nonfiction books of today, which make it a point to footnote each source used, so it was difficult to get used to a nonfiction story without footnotes (this, of course, contributed to the story-like atmosphere of the book). Other than those quibbles, I cannot find much to criticize. ...less

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