In Cold Blood (Part Two)

By the end of Part One I had that feeling that most of the story had been told, and wondered how the author was going to sustain the interest level of the reader.  Sure enough, the plot flags a little and the urgency, if not the tension, seems to abate.  A more jaded reader might give up on the book at this point, but that would be a mistake.  At the beginning of part two, I thought, Aha, this has evolved into a detective story!  The introduction of a new main character, Agent Dewey, in charge of the investigation, and his three main assisting detectives was new, welcome territory.

Some detective work is covered here, but it alternates with long passages describing the travels of the murderers to Mexico and back.  Many pages are dedicated to an in depth analysis of the lesser of the murderers, Perry Smith.  We begin to wonder if the author is so proud of all his research into the case that he is determined to include as much of it as he can get away with, even if the reading gets tedious.  But if the reader is content to go with the slower flow, there are many rewards to be found in this section.

Only toward the end of this section was I reminded that earlier in the book, the motives for the murder were rather glossed over, and that the references to the person or persons who supplied the murderers with the information about the victims were very vague.  As Agent Dewey tries to establish a motive, we realize that the author has cleverly withheld that from us.  Were the murderers misled by their informants into believing that there were valuables worth a substantial amount of cash in the house?  If so, did the mysterious (to us) informants know the family and have a grudge against them?  The conversations we are let in on between the two murderers give us no clue that they found the outcome unsatisfactory.  There are even a couple of suggestions that they were satisfied with it.

So the lengthy character study of Perry Smith might be leading to an understanding of why he might turn himself in, out of guilt or a suspicion that it was inevitable that he would be caught after all.  The fact that he is a very conflicted individual, with a sensitive side and a conscience is certainly drawn out in detail.  This is in stark contrast with his partner Dick, who seems in many ways to embody the heartless, conscience-free monster that we have come to associate with crimes of this type.  The section ends with them hitch-hiking back into the US, and Dick’s passing up a ride with a trucker because he wants to find a car with someone in it they can kill in order to confiscate the car and the victim’s wallet.

Missing from this section are several of the characters that were so poignantly introduced in part one, such as the boyfriend of the slain young girl.  I keep expecting him to come back into the story and play a role in the aftermath.  Several of the close friends of the family were described in enough depth to suggest that they would make a return appearance as well.  And more of the details of the detective work by Dewey and his men will surely bring us some nifty surprises in the two remaining sections, Parts Three and Four.

Next segment: Part Three