In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was described by its author as a non-fiction novel.

The novel was first published in 1965 and at the time this style of writing, perhaps even the template for a new genre, was fresh and new and bold. Almost 50 years later and the disturbing images are as fresh, vibrant and malevolent as when the ink was wet.

The style of writing has no doubt inspired generations of writers since, but their imitation has done little to diminish the power of Capote’s work. Whether it was wholly accurate or not is for journalists and scholars to debate, but for the reader, his vision was compelling and his perspective on the crime, and especially as a character study, almost a biography, on the criminals is hypnotic.

Critics may take umbrage with Capote’s sympathetic depiction of the killer’s plight, and perhaps such an argument has great merit, since the murderers showed no mercy to their victims, but Capote’s contribution lies in his objective illumination of all the surrounding facts and details of the crime. The author began with the crime scene outlines of the victims as they were stenciled on the floor of an upper middle class home in western Kansas and rippled outward until his narrative covered the lives, background and family dynamics of the victims, their murderers and the laws and cultures that had produced both.

A staggeringly detailed account of a brutal slaying, Capote has left us with a rich literary gift that should be on a list of books that must be read.

"It wasn't because of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it's just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it."

Classics are classic for a reason! Capote did an amazing job of telling the story of The Clutter Family murders. Hickock and Smith were cruel, cowardly, nightmarish criminals and I'm happy they were brought to justice.

A couple of weeks back, a disgruntled former senior inspector Rolando Mendoza from the Manila Police District shot and killed eight Hong Kong tourists ending the hostage crisis drama that lasted for around 10 hours. This took place at the Quirino Grandstand in the heart of Manila, Philippines. The whole nation was stunned while watching the images unfolding on TV screens. The whole world watched with us as the events are covered by CNN. Mendoza's demand was for him to get his job back. He was about to retire in a year's time when he was kicked out from the service due to allegation of extortion.

Each of us, including me, quickly say Mendoza is wrong. It is wrong to extort (forcibly ordering a chef to eat cocaine!). It is wrong to carry a firearm (he was no longer in service). It is wrong to take people as hostages (especially tourists!). It is wrong to kill (eight innocent unarmed foreigners!).

But... have we heard his side? (he is already dead) Have we at least heard the people he was close with? Do we know exactly what went into his mind why he did those senseless and brutal shootings?

That is what Truman Capote (1924-1984) did in his nonfiction novel, published in 1966, In Cold Blood. He was so good at it that my heart cried for the killer, Perry Smith. Yes, the murder of the whole Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas in 1959 was wrong. Smith and his partner, Dick Hickock should not have gone to the house with the intent of robbing the family. Then when they did not find the safe (supposed to contain US$10,000), Smith shot each of the people in that house (they ended up getting a measly amount of US$50, a binocular and a portable radio). I felt total raging hatred for Smith and Hickock. But when their own life stories were presented by Capote, at first I did not know what to feel (he came from a broken family, he grew up with strangers, his father humiliated him, all he wanted was to have a good education, when he was small he cried looking up at the moon as he thought it was so beautiful). Until that scene when Smith was taken back to his cell after the verdict was given. That scene when he extended his hands so the warden's wife could hold them... That scene followed by the one with the squirrel missing Smith in his cell... Capote's narration reaches out to your heart so that it bleeds pity and empathy for a wrong person.

The book screams to us: is capital punishment right or wrong? Prior to this book, I used to react to this question with a shrug and "yes, it is right". Then I normally add that as a father, I feel the pain of my daughter whenever she cries (due to sickness or whatever), etc. In short, no debate needed, I was totally in the side of the victim (pp.336 "I believe in hanging. Just so long as I'm not the one being hanged"). However, in this book, Capote opened my eyes to the other side of the argument: the background of the killer (he is also a victim of the society, he could be schizophrenic: feeling totally detached from himself at the time of the killing, taking the killer's life does not give him opportunity to change, taking the killer's life is a pure and simple act of revenge).

I bought this book from a second-hand bookstore at P50 (around US$1) last year. My brother says that we used to have a copy of this when we were kids in the province. He also says that my late father read and liked this so he read it too. I was young then and not interested in literature. Last Wednesday was my father's 13th Death Anniversary so as my way of remembering him, I picked this from my to-be-read pile. One good decision I made. This book is life-changing.

I have 51 friends here in Goodreads. More than half of them are Filipinos. Some of them are Americans or Europeans. Not a single one of my Filipino friends has this in any of his or her folders (read, marked-to-read, currently-reading, wish-to-read, etc). None. All the Americans and Europeans have read this book and rated this with either a 5 or a 4. Last Friday, I saw brand-new copies in a popular bookstore. Oftentimes, I also see many second-hand copies in other bookstores. It is not thick (only 343 pages) and it is an easy read.

My theory: there are so many killings and murders in the Philippines that Filipinos are either desensitized already or Filipinos are fun-loving people so we do not want to read books or watch movies that we already experience in real life.

My opinion: this is wrong. We need good books like In Cold Blood to widen our perspective on important issues like in this case, capital punishment. For all we know, we could have already set biases and prejudices clouding our judgment and views. In fact, in one of the TV news programs last week, I saw no less than Senator Miguel Zubiri calling for the return of capital punishment in the country.

I am not saying that Rolando Mendoza was right in taking those tourists as hostages and killing them in the end. No! All I am saying is that we should not be too quick to pass judgment on him or the likes of him. Voices should be heard.

Tuve este libro en mi biblioteca por mucho tiempo. La verdad es que nunca me llamó la atención y por cosas de la vida decidí leerlo para ver que tal... y wow!! Quedé gratamente sorprendido con la decisión que tomé y es uno de los mejores libros que he leído en bastante tiempo. Después de leerlo me puse a leer un poco más acerca del contexto y el autor y resulta que al parecer es una mezcla de ficción con realidad.
En cuanto al libro en sí, me gustó mucho la forma en que toda la historia fue relatada, iba cambiando desde el punto de vista de los personajes y la descripción tanto de la vida de los asesinos como de la vida de los Clutter iba tomando forma y fue muy fácil interesarse en ellos. Lo mismo pasó incluso con los personajes secundarios. Hubo días que no hacía nada en mi trabajo y en vez de eso leía este libro.
Me resultó muy interesante que se pusiera todo el contexto y se hablara de la vida e infancia que Hickock y Smith tuvieron, y de esa forma no eran solamente los malos de esta novela porque sí, si no que eran malos con fundamento, había una explicación detrás, lo que a mi entender le da un plus muy grande.
Totalmente atrapante y con un ritmo genial. Me encantó y no tengo nada malo que decir. Lo amé.

This honestly is one of the best books I have ever read and it certainly was the best non-fiction book I have ever read.
I was utterly captivated by it, from start to finish. The way it was written was just so perfect and fitting - incredibly suspenseful and matter of fact, but still with a touch of emotion.
I think the official term for this book is "non-fiction novel" and while I get why it gets this label, I personally wouldn't actually call it that. Sure, it has the quality of a novel and shares some of the characteristics, but there is something else there, something that makes this specific book unique. Even though it's as captivating as a novel, it doesn't exactly read like fiction. I was always painfully aware that this is NOT a made up story, that all of this has, in fact, really happened. The whole thing was told with so much intensity that you just KNOW that all of this HAS to come from real life.
It was extremely easy for me to picture everything in my head, literally everything! There was an entire movie playing in my head while reading and I loved. every. single. second. of it.

Something I also very much appreciated was the fact that Capote didn't insert himself into the story. If you do some googling, you can find out how interesting his research journey was. To give you a short summary: He drove to the area of the crime shortly after it happened, accompanied by his childhood friend Harper Lee (yes, that Harper Lee), they talked to residents and investigators and together they collected over 8.000 (!) notes; later Capote also talked to the perpetrators directly - altogether he worked six years on the book.
I'm sure he would have had lots to tell about this whole journey and I'm sure it would have been interesting as well. HOWEVER, it would have been ill-fitting and inappropriate in a book about such a serious topic. Capote concentrated on what's important - why and how these murders were committed and who the killers and, more importantly, who the victims were. The whole thing just seemed really respectful, everyone got the amount of time and space they deserved.
I make such a big deal out of this because I've seen it happen before, someone writing a non-fiction book and them making a lot of it about themselves and their own life, making the whole thing part-memoir. When I pick up a book about a certain topic I expect to read about this topic and not about the authors life! So yeah, I am very much thankful that Capote focused on the right things here.

All in all, this truly was just a magnificent book. Seriously, I could write down every single positive adjective in the English language and all of them would express what I feel.
I recommend it to everyone, even to the people who aren't particularly interested in true crime, simply so you can experience some wonderful and well thought out writing.

Wayyyyyy too much detail about everyone even peripherally involved

This started off on a slow burner but then become hooked by the 2nd Chapter of which there are only 4. The fact that this is a reconstruction of that murderous night of the 14th November 1959 makes this a gripping read and Capote does this very well.

In Cold Blood is a non-fiction recount about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas on a November night in 1959. Admittedly, I knew very little of the story prior to reading this book, as this took place well before my time, nearly 30 years before I was born. This is the first Capote book I’ve read and despite the somber subject, I found it to be an engaging read.

It’s impressive that Capote was able to reconstruct the story, background and investigation with the level of detail provided throughout the book. I felt like a thorough picture was painted of who the Clutter family was, as well as who the two murderers were. Troubled pasts and pent up resentments are no excuse for the horrific crime they committed, though it was interesting to rewind and see how the killers had reached this point. I was not unhappy to see justice ultimately served in this case.

I enjoyed Capote’s writing style in In Cold Blood, a leisurely build - initially two “separate” stories that undoubtedly, knowing the premise of the book, will intertwine at some point, and continue keep you engaged all along the way.

The first "novelized" true crime non-fiction!

Dateline 1959, Holcomb, Kansas: Herb Clutter, a wealthy, well-respected God-fearing Methodist farmer, his wife and two children are brutally murdered in what modern police parlance would term a home invasion. The Clutters, dispatched without any apparent motive, made particularly poignant victims. Mr Clutter, a hard-working, successful farmer, allowed no drinking on his farm. Generous to a fault and yet prudent with his money to an extreme, he paid for everything by cheque. His attractive daughter, Nancy, an attractive young woman well-behaved to an extent that would baffle the modern teenage generation, loved to bake and regularly attended 4-H meetings. The son, Kenyon, also a good homebody who respected his father's word as law, loved to putter in their home workshop. The only cloud on their family horizon was Mrs Bonnie Clutter prone to debilitating fits of anxiety and depression.

IN COLD BLOOD, arguably the ground-breaking first book in the true crime genre that might be called "novelized" non-fiction, tells the story of the family, their murder, the murderers, the investigation that led to their capture, the trial and ultimate execution by hanging. Truman Capote's extensive investigation allowed him to reach into the very minds of the murderers and to re-write a story that allows readers to witness how the events leading up to the murder and the actual murder might have taken place in real time BUT from the point of view of the killers themselves, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith.

That the killers were twisted sociopaths is apparent throughout the book. Witness the banal, bleakly noir but paradoxical and utterly shocking statement that Smith made regarding Herb Clutter's murder to Capote during one of their interviews, "I didn't want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."

IN COLD BLOOD is an extraordinary compelling work, seminal and pioneering in its nature, that plumbs the depths of a motiveless multiple murder and brings the reaction of the community and a shocked nation to life. Small wonder that there is controversy to this day about the effect that writing this novel might have had on Truman Capote himself. There is little doubt that the effort left him a very changed man.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

Book Blog | Bookstagram

I also want to be that girl who reads classic novels and has a nighttime face routine and wakes up early to take her dog for a walk and exercise.

But if my reading experience with In Cold Blood has taught me anything, it’s that I’m none of those things and classic novels are boring as shit. I got out of bed this morning fifteen minutes before I needed to leave the house and I don’t give a fuck.

Okay… maybe that’s a bit dramatic. I give a tiny baby of a fuck. And not all classic novels suck.

Honestly, I’m super disappointed that I didn’t like this. I feel like I should have. It’s almost a rite of passage to read this book. It’s so popular and influential and changed a genre…

And I didn't like it!?



In Cold Blood was written over a period of seven years and published in 1966. It was not the first true crime novel ever written, but it is the first to bring the true-crime genre to mainstream culture. Capote created the blueprint. He’s a trailblazer.

But, I'm sorry, this is boring as hell.

The novel details the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Capote learned of the murders before the killers were captured and became obsessed with the quadruple murder. Capote travelled to Kansas with fellow author, Harper Lee, and together they interviewed the small farming community, including the killers, taking thousands of pages of notes. The killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and later executed by the state. Capote followed the case right up to the bitter end and then published his masterpiece. It became an instant success and is the second-biggest-selling true crime novel in history.

And still, I didn’t like this.



For one, I found the amount of detail and description to be suffocating. Capote took the information given to him and extrapolated on it until it was three times bigger than what he started with. His writing is both factual information and also extremely exaggerated. He filled in any empty spaces with his assumptions, fictionalize drama and unsubstantiated information, leaving no room to breathe. And that case itself is pretty straightforward, so it's not too surprising that Capote felt he needed to spice things up with bullshit.

The most interesting part of this novel, at this point for me, is the controversy behind it – that Capote changed facts to suit the narrative he wished to tell. He added scenes and manufactured dialogue and passed it off as “100% factually accurate,” and would later walk that back.

“I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it…” – true-crime writer, Jack Olsen

I’m torn between what kind of star rating to apply here. On one hand, had this been just any book that I picked up, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. But it is a classic that helped to create an entire genre. You have to respect that, despite its factually questionable status and the overwrought detail.

I’m in a good mood though because weed was just legalized in Canada, so I’m giving it an extra 1/2 star for catching me on a good day.



⭐⭐½ | 2.5 stars rounded down

as a massive bookworm and true crime enthusiast, i have no explanation for why its taken me so long to read this. maybe its because i prefer my true crime stories in the form of documentaries and podcasts. regardless, i was super excited to finally pick up the book that is considered the first true crime novel and pioneered the nonfiction subgenre.

what really surprised me about this was how capote didnt just stick to the crime and the trial. the novel-like prose explores the familys life, the community of holcomb, and the psychological complexities of the murderers.

after reading more about the process of capotes research and writing of this crime, it makes sense why he spends so much time talking about the murderers backgrounds, childhoods, relationships, and connections to each other.

for those who are only looking for facts about the crime, i would stick to the wikipedia page. for those who want in-depth character profiles, then this is the book for you.

↠ 3.5 stars

What can you say about this book that has not already been said. This one has been on my to-read list forever. Just never enough time to read so I decided to give this one a shot via audio, my first audio book. I loved it. I spend so much time in the kitchen that it was perfect and I flew through this one. The narrator was awesome. I'm looking forward to hearing more of his work. Now, the story, naturally it is quite gripping. Capote does such a wonderful job with not only building up the story on the Clutters but also the story and empathy for the killers. I feel odd saying how much I enjoyed this story when it is such a gruesome story. But I felt the same way about Helter Skelter. I've heard that Capote was obsessed with this story and it shows in the level of details that he has placed into this story. I would suggest this book to any book lover.