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annieb123
Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.
Deliberate Cruelty is an immersive and well written true-crime biographic retelling of Capote's fascination with the Ann & Billy Woodward murder of 1955 written and retold by Roseanne Montillo. Released 1st Nov 2022 by Simon & Schuster on their Atria imprint, it's 328 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out in 2nd quarter 2023 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
Truman Capote had a fraught relationship with many of his friends (and most of his family, apparently). After the publication of In Cold Blood, he became sought as a social companion and he had a talent for ferreting out gossip and innuendo. The author, Ms Montillo, does a dispassionate and somewhat clinical job of researching, reconstructing, and reporting Capote's seemingly endless disdain for the members of the beau monde with whom he associated.
Although it's written in a lurid "true crime" style, the author does an impressively rigorous job of annotation and the chapter notes and bibliography are well done and informative.
Four stars. Recommended for fans of true crime and historical novels as well as Capote fans.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.