In Cold Blood

I was first drawn to Capote’s book because it’s an amazing hybrid—a page-turning, true crime story about the Clutter family murders in Kansas that reads like fiction. Capote and I are both products of the Deep South, so I knew to expect lyrical writing and rich details, two elements I treasure in a novel.

When I drive from my home to visit my son in Florida, I go through Monroeville, Alabama, where Capote grew up next door to Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), and I think of how she helped him interview friends of the victims and… show more.

I think this book is the classic true crime to show the power of using fictional devices for fact-based narratives.

Truman Capote explored the psyches of a killing team, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, as he reported on the 1959 quadruple homicide of the Herb Clutter family in Holcombe, Kansas. He wasn’t a journalist, but he adopted the role, hedging his work as “narrative nonfiction.” I learned a lot about this technique for my own work.

With him was his childhood companion, Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), and she helped Capote gain access to the inside story.… show more.

This is the first book I read (a long, long time ago) that infused a real-world incident with the fiction that surrounds telling a good story.

Using the horrific murders as a backdrop, we get a vision of the perpetrators and the victims, their lives, their quashed hopes, and the people left to tell the story. It was at my initial reading of In Cold Blood that I saw a storyteller (Capote) crafting a story around an event – a series of events.

As a fellow storyteller, I couldn’t get enough…I still can’t. I read the book every few years,… show more.

Every once in a while, you dig into your TBR pile for a popular title, and into your hand comes a masterpiece. In Cold Blood is one of the most spine-tingling stories you will ever read.

From meeting the family who is murdered in cold blood prior to their tragic deaths to intimately knowing the sick minds of the killers who commit the crime, In Cold Blood is a frightening true story told by a master storyteller.

One of the most spectacularly written true crime books you will find. But be warned: It can get quite graphic in parts, and… show more.

This book started a new way on how this genre is written. It’s a fiction novel, where the author adds his imagined dialogue to keep the story flowing.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.… show more.

For me, Capote’s “non-fiction novel” is the beginning of the modern true crime genre. 

Written in 1966 it details the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas by Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.  There is now criticism of some details contained within the book and how Capote went about his research – as well as his ethical stance. In particular, it might be argued that the Clutters are poorly drawn within the narrative and too much space is given over to what might have driven Hickock and Perry to kill. 

However, the book is atmospheric and, above all,… show more.

This is the ultimate crime thriller. Yes, I know it is of the true crime genre, but there is no better crime thriller than In Cold Blood, as far as I am concerned. 

This book proves that true crime doesn’t have to read like it was lifted from the pages of your grandmother’s detective magazines. Nor does true crime have to be written like something from the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Capote brings the characters to life—murderers, victims, and survivors. And even though you know how it will end, In Cold Blood reads like a thriller because that is just… show more.

The grandfather of all true-crime-based fiction, this one skews close to the actual facts. It’s the terrifying story of the brutal murders of the Clutter family in Kansas by misfit criminals. Its chilling narrative remains with me to this day, largely because of how well Capote describes the killings in the deep of night in what should have been a safe space—the family home.

Always on the Top 100 Lists of Best Books Ever, Capote's masterpiece tells the story of the senseless, brutal killing of a rural Kansas farming family in 1959. It is beautifully written from start to finish, and in a somewhat understated way. He defines his book as a “nonfiction novel,” employing fictional storytelling devices based on actual facts of the murder investigation and the various colorful town characters. Gripping and unrelentingly emotional, this book will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page.

Has there ever been a better—or better-written—true crime story? I ate this up with a spoon, and it was a sensational best seller in its day, but seems nearly unknown now. In this harrowing masterpiece, Capote, annoying little dweeb that he was, shows why he was a great writer. The killing of the Clutter family in their home in 1959 may seem small stuff when we’ve become almost numb to mass shootings, but Capote weaves, with maximum skill and suspense, a beautifully-structured tale of murder, misfits, and the lost innocence of small-town America. You might want to sleep with the… show more.