In Cold BloodIn Cold Blood
What it's about
In November 1959, Herb Clutter, a prosperous farmer, his wife and their two teenage children were murdered in their home in Holcomb, Kansas. Truman Capote read about the case in the newspaper and traveled to Kansas with his childhood friend Harper Lee to report it. Over six years he followed the investigation, the capture of the two killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, their trial, and their years on death row, telling it all like a novel.
Why it's worth reading
It spent months at #1 on the New York Times list and is on the Modern Library's list of the best nonfiction. It practically invented the true crime genre and the "nonfiction novel."
You'll love it if you liked
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America or And Then There Were None
Good to know
It's not graphic, but the murders are described. Capote took liberties with some details and scenes, which later reporters documented.
By the numbers
- Readers60 out of 100 · counts 40%+27
- Critics59 out of 100 · counts 14%+9
- Bestseller77 out of 100 · counts 32% (its stronger lane)+28
- Buzz0 out of 100 · counts 15%+0
Critics and Bestseller are two ways to earn a place: a book's stronger one counts more. Buzz rewards recent bestseller weeks and prizes, so older books start at zero.
On the Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction list. #1 New York Times bestseller (14 weeks at #1). 4.09★ from 761K Goodreads ratings.
Where it ranks
- #71 of the 519 classics we rank
- #188 of the 1,404 books we rank
Bestseller
- #1 New York Times bestseller (14 weeks at #1)
On the lists
- Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction
Reads as
Gripping, True story, Dark
