This sharp sliver of true crime spotlights Ann Woodward ... In reciting all this plainly, I am perhaps mirroring the straightforward style of Montillo, a research librarian and author of several works on nonfiction, who takes a coolly detached 'just the facts, ma’am' approach to this sordid series of events ... Not quite 'the murder of the century,' as Montillo’s title proposes, but a vertiginous spiral of social death.
Montillo... makes her case plainly but persuasively ... It goes without saying that Deliberate Cruelty is awash in salacious material, but Montillo handles it with narrative skill — and deliberate fairness.
Montillo, a research librarian and author of several works of nonfiction, makes her case plainly but persuasively ... It goes without saying that Deliberate Cruelty is awash in salacious material, but Montillo handles it with narrative skill — and deliberate fairness.
Deft... observing that in many ways Woodward and Capote were cut from the same cloth, outsiders smitten with high society, and first-class re-inventors of their own lives.
Deliberate Cruelty uses straightforward language to get at an enticing plot and colorful characters ... Montillo outlines with careful clarity Capote’s steady emotional and mental decline ... To call Capote’s and Woodward’s lives intertwined, as Montillo does, though, sometimes seems a stretch.
Montillo’s deeply researched exposé of the untimely downfall of glittering icons haunted by fundamental insecurities and entrenched demons is a dishy true-crime, literary critique mash-up.
Engrossing ... True crime fans particularly interested in bloodshed among the upper classes will enjoy this dark look at two intertwined and unhappy lives.
The author's fascination with Woodward and Capote is evident in her elegantly novelistic retelling of their lives and the strange connections and parallels that linked them ... This engaging, well-researched book will appeal to true-crime aficionados, Capote fans, and anyone interested in a darkly intriguing story well told. A compelling mix of true crime and literary biography.
