In Cold Blood cover art

In Cold Blood

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

In Cold Blood

Written by: Truman Capote
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹1,131.00

Buy Now for ₹1,131.00

About this listen

 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.©1965 Truman Capote; (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc. Americas Criminology Murder Social Sciences True Crime United States

Critic Reviews

"A masterpiece ... a spellbinding work." —Life

"A remarkable, tensely exciting, superbly written 'true account.' " —The New York Times

"The best documentary account of an American crime ever written ... The book chills the blood and exercises the intelligence ... harrowing." —The New York Review of Books
All stars
Most relevant
With his clear and vivid descriptions Truman Capote not only immortalises the Clutters and all the things associated with them but also compels the reader to examine the complex mental states of the murderers whose grusome deeds have stunned us all.

Now had it not been for Scott Bric's rivetting narration I'd have not enjoyed this classic work for these days I don't get time to read anything in print.

Creative nonfiction at its best...!!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book is interesting and well researched. It is a little too slow in parts where Capote has focused on small elements that could have been passed over. The book could have been more crisp. Narration is clear and decent voice modulation. Overall this makes for a good one time listen/read.

Interesting; a little slow

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Scott Brick's narration is excellent, but Capote's writing felt completely wrong.
Capote’s In Cold Blood is often praised as a literary masterpiece, but I found it deeply flawed—both structurally and ethically. I usually rate nonfiction highly, especially when it’s grounded in journalistic integrity. But In Cold Blood felt more like a fictionalized version of a true crime than a faithful recounting. Capote’s decision to write private conversations among the Clutter family—moments no one could have witnessed—was disconcerting. Critics like Jack Olsen were right: this is more a dramatized retelling of a true crime than a journalistic account.
Capote’s obsession with this particular murder case is puzzling. There were other, more gruesome or perplexing crimes at the time—some unsolved—but he spent five years on this one, and never published another book afterward. It feels like this story consumed him, and the result is a narrative that’s bloated and repetitive.
The killers, especially Perry Smith, are given excessive attention. His backstory is retold at least four times—through flashbacks, letters, family accounts, and his own writings. We hear about his bedwetting, his army stint, and his troubled childhood repeatedly. If Capote intended to evoke sympathy, it backfired. I didn’t sympathize with Perry—I grew increasingly angry with the author.
Meanwhile, the victims—the Clutter family—are respectfully portrayed but quickly fade from the narrative. Capote inserts red herrings (like Nancy smelling smoke) that are never revisited, and includes irrelevant details (e.g., a Japanese family, a British woman’s stay in town) that serve no clear purpose.
Even the investigative angle is diluted by tangents into Detective Dewey’s family life and his wife’s dreams. The structure is messy, and the pacing suffers. I had to speed it up to audio to 2x just to finish. Every time the book went back to recounting Perry's backstory, I had to pause, take a deep breath, read and like some 1- and 2-star reviews on Goodreads just to avoid going back to the book.
Compared to Helter Skelter, which sticks to facts and avoids fictionalizing real people, In Cold Blood feels like a betrayal of its genre.

Capote’s Obsession: Perry Over the Clutters

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.