Book Log 2016 #6: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

This is one of those books I'd always meant to read, but never got around to actually picking up. That was until Goodreads suggested it, and with it in my mind again I finally read it. And I liked it, seeing how it served as a blueprint for books like The Executioner's Song and the works of writers like Michael Lewis and Ben Mezrich.

Questions about the book's accuracy remain - as seen in reviewing the fact-checking of The New Yorker and claims that Capote covered up a delay in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation's work that may have allowed the killers to strike again. This is troubling if not surprising, as claims of inaccuracy often dog books that blur the line between fact and fiction (I didn't mention Mezrich for nothing). I've tried to approach books in this genre by appreciating the writing while understanding that the narrative has been massaged. It's the degree to which it's been massaged that determines my comfort zone, and I generally think In Cold Blood stays within it.