In Cold Blood is a detailed non-fiction novel recounting the story of the murders of Herbert Clutter, a farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife and two of their four children.
Summary of the Book
Herbert Clutter was a successful farmer. He had started out modestly, but no one could tell that now seeing his prosperous farm. He employed 18 farmhands, and they loved him for his fair treatment and good wages. He was blessed with four children: three girls and a boy. The only sad part of his life was his wife's incapacitation due to post-pregnancy clinical depression and physical ailments. Clutter was undoubtedly happy, and everyone assumed he had a lot of money in his house. On November 15, 1959, his world turned into a nightmare. Two former convicts on parole from the Kansas State Penitentiary, Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith decided to contact their former fellow prisoner, Floyd Wells. Wells had worked for Clutter as a farmhand and he told them that Clutter kept a safe full of money in the farmhouse. Hickock immediately saw the chance and hatched what he considered a perfect score. They would rob the money, leave no witnesses and escape to Mexico for a new life. However, Wells was wrong about one detail: Clutter kept no money in the house. He favoured using cheques so that the transactions were always recorded. In a fit of rage, Smith slit Clutter's throat and shot him in the head. The duo proceeded to kill Clutter's wife and two younger children. They ran from the town, and fled to Las Vegas. The story of the quadruple murder rocked America and sent two famous writers rushing to cover the story. Truman Capote and his childhood friend Harper Lee interviewed local residents and investigators on the case as the story unfolded. This book is the result of that investigation, and is considered one of the greatest work on the crime genre by critics at large.
About Truman Capote
Truman Capote was a prominent writer of mid 20th Century American Literature. Among his works are Breakfast at Tiffanys (1958), featuring the iconic character of Holy Golightly, (later made in to a film starring Audrey Hepburn) and In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy upon its publication. In Cold Blood is the reconstruction of the murder of a Kansas farmer and his family in 1959 in which Capotes combination of journalistic and narrative skill leads to the creation of, what he called, the first non-fiction novel. Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the South, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Many of Capotes short stories were published in Mademoiselle and Harpers Bazaar and received literary acclaim. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote his first novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). Flamboyant and socially ambitious, Capote is often remembered for hosting the extravagant Black and White Ball for the social elite of New York. He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin.
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Imprint | PENG MOD CLASSICS |
| Publication Year | 2000 February |
| ISBN-13 | 9780141182575 |
| ISBN-10 | 0141182571 |
| Language | English |
| Binding | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | 352 Pages |
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