> Skip to content
[]
Play sample
  • Published: 9 October 2001
  • ISBN: 9781588361653
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

In Cold Blood

A True Account of a Multiple Murder and its Consequences




New edition of the Penguin Essential of the book that made Truman Capote's name

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)—and haunted its author long after he finished writing it.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. 

In one of the first non-fiction novels ever written, Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

  • Published: 9 October 2001
  • ISBN: 9781588361653
  • Imprint: RH US eBook Adult
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

About the author

Truman Capote

Truman Capote was born in New Orleans on September 30, 1924. In 1948 his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was published to international critical acclaim, assuring Capote a place among the prominent postwar American writers. He won the O. Henry Memorial Short Story Prize twice and was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His other works include Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Grass Harp, and the nonfiction masterpiece In Cold Blood. He died on August 25, 1984.

Also by Truman Capote

See all