The book tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family, consisting of Mr. In Cold Blood is said to have been his undoing. In Cold Blood took six years for Capote to research and write, and it took an incredible toll on Capote, personally - so much so that he never published another book again.
In Cold Blood was originally published in four parts in The New Yorker and then released as a novel in 1965. For Truman Capote, it was the last in a series of great works, which included Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Other Voices, Other Rooms, and The Grass Harp. Although this writing style had been used before, the craft and success of In Cold Blood led to its being deemed the true masterwork of the genre. The book is written as if it were a novel, complete with dialog, and is what Truman Capote referred to as “New Journalism” - the nonfiction novel. In Cold Blood tells the true story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959.
