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In Cold Blood

Truman Capote

Start date: November 1, 2016

Finish date: November 30, 2016

Why we're reading this: November 2016 New School Group Read
[close] November 2016 New School Group Read

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Jul 30, 2014 Franky rated it really liked it

Shelves: true-crime

Within the first pages of “In Cold Blood” Capote paints a picture of an ordinary, sleepy town of Holcomb, Kansas. The violent murders of an entire family in November, 1959, shocked the community, not only because the Clutters were a well-respected family, but because the crime seemed to lack any purpose.

Truman Capote’s work “In Cold Blood” has often been dubbed the “first true crime” nonfiction. I put this book off for years because true crime really isn’t my thing, and the disturbing subject o Within the first pages of “In Cold Blood” Capote paints a picture of an ordinary, sleepy town of Holcomb, Kansas. The violent murders of an entire family in November, 1959, shocked the community, not only because the Clutters were a well-respected family, but because the crime seemed to lack any purpose.

Truman Capote’s work “In Cold Blood” has often been dubbed the “first true crime” nonfiction. I put this book off for years because true crime really isn’t my thing, and the disturbing subject of this book was something I really didn’t want to explore. I felt like I needed to be in the right frame of mind. I did recently pick this up and read it awhile back and, reflecting on it, I think that Capote does take the right approach in creating his book, maintaining a less-sensational, more journalistic approach.

Capote spends a good deal of time alternating between the perspectives of the Clutter family and those close to them and also following the movements of Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock. Capote does let us see into glimpse of who the Clutters were, and the loss that those of the Holcomb community felt at this awful and senseless murder. We see the reactions of those in this small community, and how they try to make sense of this case.

I also think Capote does an apt job of letting the story unfold to us, and showing various people and circumstances surrounding the Clutter murder case. The investigation into this, and Alvin Dewey’s relentless pursuit of these killers, was compelling. Compelling despite the fact that we know how everything will turn out before we even begin reading.

While the aftermath of the sentencing of the two killers puts some closure to this case, I really thought the last part of the novel, as we wait for Perry and Hickcock to be executed, was the least interesting. It also seemed like Capote was subtlety trying to create a little smudge of sympathy for the killers.

For the most part, though, I believe the Capote does an effective job maintaining his distance, and just letting the story tell itself. ...more

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Aug 19, 2009 Jim Townsend rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A chilling, true account of the heinous murder of a family of four, the investigation, capture, arrest, trial, conviction, and execution of the two men responsible. Well researched and written, deserving of its status as a classic.

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