And Every Word Is True
Adult; Memoir; (Market)
Truman Capote’s bestselling book “In Cold Blood” has captivated worldwide audiences for over 50 years. It is a gripping story about the consequences of a trivial robbery gone terribly wrong in a remote village of western Kansas.
But what if robbery was not the motive at all, but something more sinister? And why would the State of Kansas launch a ruthless 4-year legal battle to prevent new details of the State’s most famous crime from being made public?
Based on shocking new details discovered in the personal journals and archives of former KBI Director Harold Nye—and corroborated by letters written by Richard Hickock, one of the killers on death row—“And Every Word Is True” meticulously lays out a vivid and startling new view of the investigation, one that will keep readers on the edge of their seats as they pick up where Capote left off. Even readers new to the story will find themselves drawn into a spellbinding forensic investigation that reads like a thriller, adding new perspectives to the classic tale of an iconic American crime.
Plot/Idea: 8 out of 10
Originality: 8 out of 10
Prose: 8 out of 10
Character/Execution: 7 out of 10
Overall: 7.75 out of 10
Assessment:
Idea: McAvoy revisits an infamous crime immortalized through Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Relying on newly uncovered documents, the author brings fresh insights to the case with extensive elaboration on the Clutter murders, its investigation, and Truman Capote himself.
Prose: McAvoy writes in a clear-eyed, no nonsense prose style ideally suited to the true crime genre. The author capably and meticulously details information in a manner that will keep readers engaged.
Originality: By combining elements of true crime and memoir, McAvoy offers an immersive account of an infamous murder case. Most unusually, McAvoy raises compelling questions about the veracity of Truman Capote's accounts and the role that In Cold Blood played in influencing public opinion.
Execution: While McAvoy doesn't arrive at definitive truths concerning the Clutter murders and rehashes well-established details, he shapes new theories about the case, casting archival and forensic materials in a new light.
Date Submitted: October 04, 2019
Reviews
McAvoy, a dealer of collectible manuscripts and other memorabilia, delivers an often captivating addendum to the Clutter family murder case, immortalized in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. When Ron Nye, the grown son of police investigator Harold Nye, finds a box of his late father’s papers, he contacts McAvoy about selling the material. Beyond his interest in the correspondence between Capote and Nye, McAvoy’s curiosity spikes after the Kansas attorney general demands the papers, claiming them to be the property of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Challenges to the veracity of In Cold Blood are in no way new, but McAvoy offers fresh details relating to Capote’s embellishments and omissions, such as leaving out details concerning Bonnie and Herbert Clutter’s marriage and family reputation. McAvoy also explores the possibility that the killers, Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith, were hired, as suggested in handwritten documents by Hickock. Intriguingly, he also addresses the potential influence of law enforcement on Capote’s work: “a case could be made, then, that In Cold Blood was as much a product of the KBI’s guiding hand as it was Capote’s flowing pen.” McAvoy’s disclosures are provocative, if not earthshaking; most notably, McAvoy echoes Capote’s potent prose style and deep humanizing of his subjects, while broadening the conversation about truth, intention, and narrative representation. (BookLife)
