Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee

Cep notes that the true-crime genre is an old one dating back to the ancient Greeks. The genre gained traction in the bustling, violent American colonies almost immediately. True crime was “lucrative” (211) for publishers, especially newspapers, but not particularly respected in literary circles.

Capote’s In Cold Blood changed all that. Capote brought the techniques of fiction to nonfiction, all while claiming that what he wrote adhered strictly to the truth. Despite Capote’s public claims that what he wrote was completely factual, the surviving members of the Clutter family and investigative writers shared substantial evidence that Capote’s version of events was pure fiction in some instances. Harper Lee, who was there during the research and had intimate knowledge of the notes on which the book was based, felt uncomfortable with the liberties her lifelong friend had taken. They began to drift apart; Capote was deeply envious of Lee’s success as well. By the time In Cold Blood was published, the two saw each other infrequently, and Capote later cut Lee off completely.

Lee’s mission in writing her true-crime book was to tell the actual truth. Her subject matter was closer to the truth to begin with. Lee was well aware that racism injected unfairness and injustice into the legal system, that heroes can have character flaws, and that victims can be unlikeable.