Review: _In Cold Blood:_ A superb look at true events.

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One of the books that I had promised myself this year that I would read has been Truman Capote's classic biographical novel, In Cold Blood. I had known that it was a story about a multiple murder of a family in Kansas, but that was all. On a November morning in 1959 in a small town in Kansas, the bodies of four family members were found in their home. Each one had been bound and killed with shotgun blasts. There were not any witnesses, and it was though the killer or killers had come and vanished into thin air. The town was Holcomb, out in the middle of nowhere, with a slightly larger town, Garden City, nearby. The people were hardworking, simple, religious and the news of the murder swept through quickly and left plenty of fear in its wake. Evidence was collected, and the few scanty clues pulled together. There was hardly anything that led to whomever it was. For one lawman, Al Dewey, the case quickly became an obsession, and one that would consume him over the months ahead. For the next fourteen months nothing was found, except for a story from a jailhouse snitch. But then the pair of killers were found. There was a confession, but what everyone was curious about was the why. When the answer finally came, it surprised everyone, and revealed the true tragedy of the Clutter family and their deaths. What really surprised me the most about this story was how much I cared by the end of it. The story of the Clutter family shocked me to tears, and while I could certainly feel pity for Perry Smith, there was nothing but loathing for Dick Hickock. Smith, I felt, could have been so much more if he had grown up in a more caring and nuturing enviroment. A child of an alcoholic, dysfunctional family myself, I could certainly understand where he came from. And contrarily, Hickock came from a caring family, but was twisted and alienated enough to where he could not see the value of anyone's life. Where this book works is Capote's writing style, which spares the reader nothing, all of it told in beautiful prose. He does not glamourize anything in the story, not the Clutters, not the murderers, nor the lawmen who tracked them down and saw that justice was done. Not everyone will agree with the death penalty, a controversy that still continues in the United States to this day, more than fifty years after the murders of the Clutters. But where to draw the line? Now with the prisons overflowing, and stories of murderers and predators being released to inflict more misery on the public, the question of what to do remains a vexing one. I personally think that the death penalty is called for in certain cases, where there is no hope of the killer being rehabilitated, or where the crime is particularly heinous, but that is only my opinion. For anyone who is interested in reading about true crime, this would make a very good start. Not only does it delve into the pasts of both victims and murderers, but the people who knew them, and in doing so reveals a part of America that today we look back with a great deal of nostalgia. Capote's writing style is evocative, clear and intense in spots, with at times lyrical beauty in the narative. This particular edition is from the Folio Society, a publisher of fine editions from the United Kingdom. Not only were there photographs in black and white, but also an introduction by Rupert Thomson. As with books that I've purchased from this publisher, the physical feel of the book is a delight, beautiful printing and creation. Overall, this gets a very solid five star rating. Very much recommended. In Cold Blood: A True Account of Multiple Murder and Its Consequences Truman Capote, introduction by Rupert Thomson 1865, 2011; The Folio Society