Book #17 In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood

Length Of Time In Possession : Roughly 6 months 

In Cold Blood is the infamous true crime work by Truman Capote. The book is a journal of a serious crime from the 1960's in which four members of the same family were brutally murdered. Motive unknown. Capote takes the crime from its very beginning to the ultimate conclusion of the sentence, focusing both upon the lives of the killers and the victims.

The research is incredible and the lives and the psychologies of all involved are dealt with in depth. 
As you read about all American girl Nancy Clutter, her honest hard working father, sensitive brother and mentally ill mother, it is almost like reading a novel as the attention to even the small details is huge.

With the criminals too we get not just the crime they committed but their full back story, their personal histories and the views of their families.

The crime took place in Kansas and Truman Capote's curiosity was aroused by a small 300 word article in the New York Times, stating the brief facts of the case. Accompanied by his friend, the even more famous writer Harper Lee the two went to Holcomb, Kansas and gaining the trust of the locals, took thousands of pages of personal accounts, before publishing five years after the crime.

As a work, it is seminal, as it was the first of it's kind, and all other true crime works follow in its footsteps, particularly those with a fictional rather than factual style and tone, I think particularly of Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil.

There have been several films made about this story, both about the murder itself and Capote's involvement in documenting it.

I would recommend this novel not only if you like Crime/True Crime but if you like well written non fiction in general

8/10

Destination : I borrowed this, and will return it.