In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Groundbreaking in its time and engaging at first, since you simply have to know who would do such an awful thing. But once the perpetrators were caught and brought to trial, reading the rest of the book was a chore."

2 Stars.

Pros: Capote was good at drawing the suspense out at first, hooking the reader into needing to know who did the terrible crime.

Cons: This book went on for about 100 pages too many/There were no redeeming or likable qualities at all about Dick/The murders just didn't seem to make any sense, hence the title In Cold Blood.

Full Review:

George H. Clutter and his family are a hard working bunch. He owns a farm and runs his business well and honestly. He has two grown daughters, one married and the other engaged, and another daughter in high school as well as a young son. His wife, Nancy, suffers from a nervous disorder, and has been to treatment for years upon years with no apparent remedy. They live their lives honestly. They are good, hard working, intelligent, kind people. And one night, they are all brutally murdered.

Dick and Perry are two paroled burglars who have met up together to "settle a score" as Dick says. Perry seems to be an involuntary and slightly unwilling victim. But Dick convinces him that the plan is foolproof. And so, they murder the Clutters and escape. For months on end the police look for any sort of clue that might lead them to solve the grisly murders and nothing is apparent until a former cell mate of Dick's confesses to talks they had while they were in prison together.

I kept reading long after the crime, the arrest and into the trial because I just had to know what happened. I had to know how the book ended. But I felt nothing for Dick or Perry. I felt no remorse from either of them, Dick was a coward, Perry was emotionless and stunted. As characters they just had no redeeming qualities and by the trial, I just wanted the damned book to be over with.

I learned something with this novel though, that true crime is not my genre. All the months upon months of legal jargon etc, it just let me feeling frustrated and impatient. The beginning of the book did hook me, I wanted to know who killed the Clutters and more importantly why, but when I found that out, the revelation was dull, nonsensical and pointless.

Comments

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