A sangre fria (Spanish Edition) (original 1965; edition 2009)

Something between reportage and novelization. Unexceptional in other respects, I found the killers inability to discern the immorality of their acts unnerving. In fact the whole book was unnerving yet strangely compelling. ( )

I picked this book up because:
1 - it's narrated by Scott Brick and
2 - according to one of the goodreads features, this book is one of the most common books that my goodreads friends have read and enjoyed.

Well, my friends are right! Although I wasn't thrilled with the idea of reading a non-fiction book about some gruesome killings, this story captivated me. Capote reconstructs the murder of a model family living on a farm in Kansas. From the beginning, you know the identity of the 2 murderers. The story focuses on their lives - the abuse they endured and the stories of their families and childhood. By the end of the book, I found myself liking one of the killers. If you are on the fence about the death penalty, this is an compelling read. Non-fiction, but reads like a novel and wonderful in audio. Scott Brick sets the pace for this classic. ( )

I was enthralled by the tale in the book, but I was also relieved to finish it tonight! Part of my fascination with the story was that it happened before I was born, but the executions didn't happen until I was heading toward the Terrible Twos.

Current "True Crime" stories seem to be a lot more detail-oriented; still, Capote crafted this story so that I had as much detail as I needed (and sometimes more so)! ( )

See! I'm not spending my days solely on crochet.

In Cold Blood is a sort of disturbing read. It's an account of the murder of innocent people -- who had not done anything wrong to their murderers, who had never even met their murderers: whose deaths were, in fact, settled upon by the murderers before they ever saw them. It's an account that explores the hows and whys. Of course it's going to be disturbing. There's also an emotional distance from it that somehow makes that feeling worse.

It was a slower read than I expected, packed with detail, and with atmosphere. You could almost believe you know the murdered family (distantly, perhaps: you've seen them around, you exchange hellos with them), and even more so, the two murderers.

Disquietingly good. ( )

This book is a peculiarity. At once a compelling novel-style piece of work, yet also a minutely detailed reconstruction of the murders of four members of the Clutter family on November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas.

I was somewhat familiar with this book, as well as its subject but had held off from reading it for years. I think I had built it up to be much gorier than it was, in actuality. While certainly some details were difficult, Capote's style manages to arouse, if not empathy and compassion for the two men convicted of the crime, at least a gnawing need to get to the root of "Why?".

Some details are tricky to believe. Conversations, particularly between Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, were so meticulous in their depth and detail I wonder how this was fully possible and/or realistic. Wikipedia notes "Despite the book's billing as a factual "True Crime" account, critics have challenged the authenticity of the book, arguing that Capote changed facts to suit his story, added scenes which never occurred, and re-created dialogue. Capote relied entirely on memorization when talking to subjects in the book, and did not use a tape recorder or take any written notes; this alone may have contributed to several inaccuracies in the book." And some details, while mentioned several times, are never answered. For example, on the day of her murder Nancy Clutter kept smelling cigarette smoke. The source of the odour was never divulged. Her father, Herb Cuttler, was a staunch Methodist and disapproved of alcohol, caffeine and tobacco. Also, Nancy Clutter observed her father had been out of sorts for the three weeks leading up to the murders. Again, this is never explained to the reader.

When Capote learned of the quadruple murder, before the killers were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. He was accompanied by his childhood friend and fellow author, Harper Lee, and together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousands of pages of notes. and Capote ultimately spent six years working on the book. It is considered the original non-fiction novel. Overall, the study of the lives and personalities of Smith and Hickock are compelling studies and the specific slice of the small town and people of the American Mid-West, from 1959 to 1965, were fleshed out so fully. ( )