Truman Capotes In Cold Blood Novel vs Movie Essay

The book, â€Å"In Cold Blood†, is a nonfiction story by Truman Capote. This book presents one of the worst murders in history. It was a best seller worldwide, and turned into a successful movie. As usual the movie does not stand up to the book. If you want more knowledge of the townspeople, victims and more insight into the trial, more background details of the murders, you should read the book. If you are interested in history and a good murder mystery all in the confines of a book cover, read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. While reading the book â€Å"In Cold Blood† you are introduced to the Clutter family one by one. You learn that Herb Clutter is the head of the house. He is well liked and respected by the townspeople. Mr. Clutter was a†¦show more content†¦The tone is set quickly and effectively. With the book and the movie you â€Å"are not being invited into fictional believe and deaths, into the imagination, but into the absorbing reality of flesh and blood†. (McCabe 561). The good people of Holcomb do not like strangers, but are faithful to their neighbors. Truman Capote traveled to Kansas in the fall of 1959, â€Å"with a footlocker of comestibles sufficient to support a few weeks of life in the forbidden land†.(Literary Classics 2). The population of Holcomb was untrusting and suspicious of anyone alien to it. In due time Mr. Capote became as much a fixture of Finney County, Kansas as the roadside signs welcoming you to their fair city. During the investigation the reader gets totally involved with Alvin Dewey, the main detective in the Clutter investigation. â€Å"When they find Smith and Hickock, Capote makes the reader wants to cheer aloud for the investigators.† (Manaly 1). The movie is not as involved, you do not get as caught up in the investigation while watching the events of their capture unfold, as you do while reading Capotes reenactment. The trial was scheduled to start on March 22, 1960. The novel follows the trial extremely close. Mr. Capote was there in Garden City where the trial would be held. The defendants’ lawyer asks for Smith and Hickock to be sent to a state mental hospital in Larned, for evaluation, Judge Tate