“In Cold Blood”: THE Original True Crime Story

Read This Iconic, Genre Originating Book

The other weekend, I have finished a really absorbing book that my husband recommended, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote:

This book is often considered to be the first true crime novel. It explores a brutal murder of the affluent Clutter family of four in Holcomb, Kansas in the late 1950s.

Capote offers an exceptional exploration of this real-life tragedy, narrating the story of the Clutters before the murders, how the murders happened, and how the murderers were caught.

“In Cold Blood” is non-fiction, but it truly reads like a novel. In part, it is because of Capote’s unique writing style. In part, though, it is because he added some details here and there for literary effect (for example, there are a few dialogues between the family members and their acquaintances that Capote could not have known of).

Capote dedicates a big part of the book to the stories of the perpetrators, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. He explores their unfortunate family backgrounds and tries to find the answer on what made these murderers, murderers.

The part that shook me the most is the concept of a “murder with no apparent motive”. I do not want to spoil anything in the book (and I am not sure how this concept developed in today’s forensic psychology), but the part with the analysis on why they killed was really hard to read.

The “gossip” about this book is the apparently too close relationship that the writer Truman Capote formed with one of the murderers, Perry Smith. I have read various versions of it, from a too personal type relationship or affection, to Capote’s pursuing initiatives of appeal of their sentence out of “selfish” reasons to gather more material for the book. I did not do proper research, and what I said remains just gossip in my eyes.

A really captivating read that will not leave you indifferent. It’s one of the best books I have read in 2024 so far.

As you might know, I don’t post book reviews without a beer recommendation. Books & beers, this is what I do.

Beer of the day will be a hazy IPA by Loch Lomond brewery 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We had a lovely getaway to the Scottish Highlands the other weekend, and this is where I read today’s book and had this beer. I love that this beer has a Highland cow on its can 🤍