In Cold Blood

Book #9 - In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

Having seen Capote first gave me an interesting perspective as I read this true-crime classic. If you've seen the movie, you know all about Capote's sympathy for the killer, Perry Smith. Clearly Capote felt that Smith was an intelligent and creative person, though one who was mentally ill and should not have faced the death penalty. But the portrait he paints of Smith in the book was much more balanced than I anticipated. He shows how dangerous Smith was, and he clearly felt that Smith should be punished for the horrible crimes he committed. This was a person who simply did not see value in human life, and never felt remorse for killing four people.

In the age of Court TV, we're used to this form of storytelling - crime is committed, details emerge, suspects are captured, tried, sentenced. What's different about In Cold Blood is that Capote manages to hold on to the supreme creepiness throughout every section of this story. Long after we've heard all the details, it's the workings of the killers' minds that begin to give us chills. After they've been tried and sentenced, it's the conditions and characters they find on Death Row that keep the reader up at night. This is one of those works that is both beautifully written and a well-crafted story, but what elevates it to its classic status is that you can't stop to muse about its merits because you can't seem to turn the pages fast enough, and it's getting late, and you know you won't be able to put it down until it's done.