And Every Word Is True: Newfound documents reveal Truman Capote’s ‘In Cold Blood’ is not the end of the story- and why Kansas waged a legal battle to suppress their publication

This turned out to be an interesting read, taking me back to the original story first and then filling in even more information with new twists on the case. Something I learned is that the famed author Harper Lee was also very involved in the day to day interviewing and writing up notes to be used for the 'In Cold Blood' book too. A lot of people felt that Capote should have given her more credit in the book other than as a lowly researchist and protege. When her book (To Kill a Mockingbird) was published in July 1960, she was established as a leading literary figure. One of the three original investigators on the case, Harold Nye, kept a personal set of investigative files on the Clutter case as he did on all of his cases, in the event he ever had to testify for trial. After his passing, his son Ronald Nye was looking to sell some of his father’s personal papers and books on the Clutter case to raise some money to help with medical bills. When the KBI stepped in with an injunction to halt the auction, it made him immediately curious about what was in there that is so important all of a sudden to cause this kind of a reaction. What did they not want to get out? 

For one thing, it turned out that Capote’s work wasn’t as completely true as he made it out to be. And it seemed there might be a reason they wanted the files kept private, after all.  There was also a book being written from the papers of one of the killers too, as it turned out it seemed. How would that compare to what had been written so far too? Ron wasn’t giving up his father’s papers without a battle. This is very good historical true crime and I enjoyed it very much. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Gary McAvoy, and the publisher for my fair review.