Book Review: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote is a gripping story not so much about the act of murder, but of how two men can commit premeditated murder against a family of four they have never met. Capote’s ability to attribute distinctive voices to the principal characters (victims, murders and police) as well as his evocative descriptions really kept me engaged.

I was worried initially about his portrayal of the murders considering the vividness of his descriptions. In the end, the description of the murders themselves seemed somehow short in description; just enough to tell it as it was, but not too much to cause one to avert the eyes. Actually, what was more haunting to me was the story of the murderers from childhood to the time they were captured.

Recently, a high school teacher caused a stir when she wanted to have her class read In Cold Blood. At first, I couldn't figure out what the debate was about as the readers would be high school students and the murder itself wasn’t anything worse than high school students would see in a horror film. But somewhere around the halfway point of the story, Capote really began describing the murderers’ upbringing and what may have caused them to become capable of premeditated murder. At that point, I could understand the debate.

Mind you, it’s Capote’s writing skills and wealth of research that really made this novel so effective. The opening scene, taking us into the town of Holcomb, Kansas was very so evocative, I had my son listen as I read the first three pages out loud to him. He was really impressed.

Also, Capote’s discussion about insanity pleas as a defense and how these two murderers became poster children for psychiatry in criminal cases was very interesting.

My only critique is the lead investigator and wife’s story dragged at times compared to the rest of the compelling novel.

In Cold Blood, is a very good, read and it is dark. I’d recommend it as a book for adults, but could see the book being used as a teaching tool in a senior high school classroom.