annieb123's Review of Deliberate Cruelty

by Roseanne Montillo

This scintillating and glittery look at the darkly intertwined fates of infamous socialite Ann Woodward and literary icon Truman Capote sweeps us to the upper echelons of Manhattan's high society-where even the richest cannot escape murder and infamy.

When Ann Woodward shot her husband, banking heir Billy Woodward, in the middle of the night in 1955, her life changed forever. Though she claimed she thought he was a prowler, few believed the woman who had risen from charismatic showgirl to popular socialite. Everyone had something to say about the scorching scandal afflicting one of the most rich and famous families of New York City, but no one was more obsessed with the tale than Truman Capote.

Acclaimed for his bestselling nonfiction book In Cold Blood, Capote was looking for new material and followed the scandal from beginning to end. Like Ann, he too had ascended from nobody to toast of the town, but he always felt like an outsider, even among the exclusive coterie of high society women who adored him. He decided the story of Ann's turbulent marriage would be the basis of his masterpiece-a novel about the dysfunction and sordid secrets revealed to him by his high society "swans"-never thinking that it would eventually lead to Ann's suicide and his own scandalous downfall.

Page-turning and deliciously fascinating, Deliberate Cruelty is a haunting cross between true crime and literary history that is perfect for fans of Furious Hours, Empty Mansions, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

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.

Reading updates

9 April, 2023: Started reading

9 April, 2023: Finished reading

9 April, 2023: Reviewed