Review: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A deserved true crime classic. Capote's masterstroke is to make you feel sympathy for one of the murderers (Smith) while never shying away from the horror of his crime or the fact he didn't express remorse. Hitchcock (the other murderer) is portrayed less sympathetically - generally because, unlike Smith, he never really accepts responsibility for his actions.

David Wilson, in his book about the Victorian serial killer Mary Ann Cotton, says that murderers are often caught because they make a mistake rather than because of the skills of those trying to apprehend them. This is certainly true of Hitchcock and Smith. Although they left few clues at the crime scene itself, they practically left a trail of breadcrumbs to themselves afterwards. It's their arrogance and inability to consider the consequences of their actions that are the cause of their undoing - the exact same traits that led them to kill in the first place.

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