Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century

by Roseanne Montillo

Exploring the darkly intertwined fates of infamous socialite Ann Woodward and literary icon Truman Capote, sweeping us to the upper echelons of Manhattan’s high society—where falls from grace are all the more shocking.

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.

“A 20th-century morality tale of enduring fascination” (Laura Thompson, author of 'The Heiresses', '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'.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Biography, Crime, Audiobook, Historical

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2022

About the author

Roseanne Montillo is the author of two other works of nonfiction, The Lady and her Monsters and The Wilderness of Ruin. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College, where she taught courses on the intersection of literature and history. She lives outside of Boston.

Reviews

[Sharon Orlopp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to Deliberate Cruelty on audiobook and really enjoyed it. Ann Woodward killed her wealthy husband, Billy, in 1955. Truman Capote published his iconic true-crime book, In Cold Blood, that was about the brutal murders of four members of the Clutter family.

Ann Woodward and Truman Capote came from very similar backgrounds and often felt like outsiders looking in at rich socialite events. Capote often stated he was working on his next book, Answered Prayers, which had strong similarities to Ann Woodward murdering her husband.

Fascinating book.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truman Capote and Ann Woodward didn't know each other, but their childhoods and quest for acceptance, are similar. Ann married into a prominently social family and Truman finds acceptance into higher society due to his writing and his friendship with prominent women, who were referred too as his swans. A chance encounter, years later, after the shooting death of her husband and her flight to Europe to avoid scandal, would entwine their fates to a devastating conclusion.

Was quite taken with this book, was more familiar before reading with Capotes story, had never heard of the other. If you liked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I think you will enjoy this. Well done and so interesting.

ARC from edelweiss.

[Kim ~ It’s All About the Thrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rarely read #nonfiction but I wanted this book the second I heard about it!! 😍Thank you so much to @atriabooks for sending me this gorgeous gifted copy!! 😘😘 I loved it! Why?? Umm just listen to this…😳

Little Ann Eden from Kanas is determined that she is going to be a socialite..🥂..no more taxi 🚖 cab company for her…she has her sight set on William Woodward… of Hanover Bank 🏦 and Belair Farms… 🐎one of the most prestigious racing stables… she did land him..😳… however Ann was fine for an affair.. but he wasn’t going to leave his wife..😬… sooo he set her up with his son Billy.. 😬🙄.. um okay..😂 Well Ann did it!! She is now hanging out in the most exclusive circles of NYC…👠👜💍… she living large… sooo why would she murder her husband?!! 😳🤯 Whattt?! Did she get away with MURDER?? You be the judge!😏

The other storyline is of Truman Capote’s rise and fall. I knew very little about this man. I found his story so fascinating. 🤔How did he make himself one of the most sought after guests in every inner circle of NYC??? Granted he was an author ..but this man was hanging with celebrities… royals… 🤷‍♀️heck Jackie Kennedy’s sister!!! They were his “swans.” 🦢🦢🦢Damn this was intriguing!!🤯

These two stories intersect in a bizarre turn of events… let me tell you… what a wild ride this was!! 🤐Unbelievable how this is true… I loved learning both of their stories… and it was mind blowing 🤯 at times. So well written that I felt propelled back into time.

This was my first book by by @roseannemontillo and I loved it

[Dianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I blame Domenick Dunne for not enjoying this more. In 1985, he published “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” a splashy and riveting fictionalized account of the murder of socialite William “Billy” Woodward by his wife, Ann, in 1955. What a fabulous popcorn novel that was! I must have read it 10 times - I loved Dunne’s writing (all of his books are excellent) and how he captured his characters so brilliantly. I knew vaguely about the murder it was based on, but I had no idea how well researched and executed his book was until I read “Deliberate Cruelty.”

“Deliberate Cruelty” is a non-fiction book that covers the Woodward murder and speculates how Truman Capote played a part in Ann Woodward’s ultimate demise. Capote loathed Ann Woodward and wrote a nasty, thinly-disguised story in Esquire magazine about “Ann Hopkins,” a socialite who murders her husband. The story also skewered many of Capote’s closest society lady friends, including Babe Paley and Gloria Vanderbilt. It is speculated that the Esquire story led to Ann Woodward’s suicide. It certainly led to Capote being ostracized by the high society folk he had lampooned and in effect, hastened his professional and personal decline.

The book starts out in a promising fashion, focusing on Ann and her story, but loses steam when it focuses on Capote and tries to intertwine their storylines. About 2/3 of the way through, Woodward bows out of the book and the remainder is about Capote. I was way more interested in Ann, mostly due to my familiarity with her character in Dunne’s novel.

What I personally enjoyed about “Deliberate Cruelty” was discovering how much my beloved “Mrs. Grenville” was based on solid fact. I was shocked by how much of the minutiae in this non-fiction book was already revealed 38 years ago in Dunne’s gossipy best-seller. Dunne would have had to have invented a lot of the dialogue for his characters, but so much of the infrastructure of his novel was solidly based on police reports, interviews, etc.

“Deliberate Cruelty” is worth a read, but doesn’t quite work as a whole. It’s a little awkwardly constructed with the alternate storylines and the character of Ann Woodward is remarkably bloodless. If you are interested in the Woodward scandal and haven’t yet read “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles,” consider reading these books as a pair. It’s like watching a movie in black and white (Deliberate Cruelty) and then in luscious technicolor (The Two Mrs. Grenvilles). Guess which I preferred?

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fates of socialite Ann Woodward and author Truman Capote collided when he made the accused murderess the star of the book that destroyed his career.

I knew about the case of Ann Woodward before I picked up this book. I watched the episode about in on A Crime to Remember (which is by the way an excellent show). As such, this book held no surprises for me plot-wise, though it is indeed a very twisty story. instead.

The author does an excellent job of bringing the setting to life - the rural, rather hardscrabble towns where Ann and Truman grew up, and the cloistered, scandalous world of New York City "high society" that they joined. The story is a fascinating one, populated with clearly defined personalities, and I liked that the author remained ambiguous on the subject of whether Ann's shooting of Billy was a murder or an accident.

However, I did think the two parts of the story didn't always mesh together very well. We were simultaneously following Ann and Truman, who led very different lives, so the transitions between them were not very smooth. Also, I did feel that Ann's history after the immediate aftermath of the shooting was rather thin on the ground - I would have liked to know more. That her story ends before Truman's also made the book feel unbalanced.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Kate The Book Addict · Rating 5 out of 5]

A special thanks to Atria Books and Author Roseanne Montillo for my ARC of “Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, The Millionaire’s Wife, and the Murder of the Century” for an honest review. 📚 ❤️
On sale: November 1, 2022.
This was absolutely one of those books that when you get your hands on it or just read the intriguing title, you KNOW it’s going to be a great read filled with deception and seriously dirty business. Honestly, almost anything with Truman Capote in it is going to have some fun, crazy twists and turns. I really enjoyed this book because it felt like Author Roseanne Montillo and I were best friends sitting at our favorite cafe while she was telling me this beautiful and beyond-belief story, almost like delicious gossip you know you shouldn’t be repeating but you can’t help yourself! Montillo delivers this story with such familiarity you feel like you grew up with these people—be it extremely poor in Kansas with Ann Woodward to the filthy rich with their opulent, overindulgent lifestyles—that you can’t put this book down. The only problem is: Now I’m obsessed with immediately getting Montillo’s other books so I can devour them too!! Happy reading!

[Lisa Leone-campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having been an avid fan of Truman Capote ever since I read In Cold Blood back in the 1980’s, I have voraciously devoured (sort of obsessively) anything and everything written about him. But Deliberate Cruelty goes well-beyond Truman’s notoriously brutal, demeaning and uncaring personality. This book shows the exact reason all his so-called friends decided he was a piranha. It is also the story of what seems to have led to his decent into alcohol which ultimately caused his death.

It all started with Truman’s hatred of a socialite named Ann Woodward who was married to banker Billy Woodward. In 1955 Ann either accidently or intentionally shot and killed her husband Billy one night thinking he was a prowler in the house. But because of Ann’s position in society, she was never actually charged with a crime and her punishment was to be ostracized to Europe alone without her two children.

Ann’s upbringing was similar to Truman’s in there was no stable relationship with their parents, they were left to be raised by relatives and grew up very poor. Later in life both would reconnect with their mothers and take care of them. Could this have been the impetus for what Truman did and why? No one will really know.

After Capote hit it big with In Cold Blood, the first non-fiction book ever written, he became not only the talk of Manhattan, but was also invited to every party, lunch, dinner or vacation in which the elite had. He became their entertainment, telling stories and making them laugh. Although Ann Woodward was not one of his admirers.

So, when years later Truman decided to write a book about Ann killing her husband, no one understood why. But write he did and not only about Ann, but about all those friends, all women he had met and seduced into telling him their secrets. These women were known as his “swans” and they took him everywhere, on vacation, to lunch, to parties. They gossiped to him about the people at those places and about the intimate details of their own lives, thinking Truman was a true friend.

But Truman had no interest in secrets. He had more interest in celebrity. So, as he was writing the book, he received an offer from a magazine to excerpt some of the juicy details he had been writing about which included Ann and unbeknownst his female friends, them.

Ann Woodward heard about Truman’s magazine story and never read it. She killed herself just before it was published. Truman never up until the day he died understood or blamed himself for her death. He also lost all of his swans as their juicy bits of gossip were printed and although their real names were never used, the veil as to who they really were was not very high. The embarrassment they all lived through would change many of their lives forever, again with Truman never understanding what he actually had done.

Without his flock, Truman became a shell of himself and although he tried to make amends with a few of them, he was dumped from their society never to return. And thus, his spiral began in earnest.

Deliberate Cruelty is the perfect title for this story. In Capote’s life he ruined many a friendship and relationship, but it seems, to keep his fame he would destroy lives, even if it meant someone’s death without an iota of regret.

Thank you #NetGalley #AtriaBooks #DeliberateCruelty #RoseanneMontillo for the advanced copy.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this immediately following reading Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era, basis for the new 'Feud' miniseries - primarily because the subject of THIS, Ann Woodward, is not mentioned at ALL in Leamer's book - despite being played by Demi Moore in the TV adaptation. So I was curious at the omission.

The reason is fairly simple - Ann was not really one of Capote's 'swans', and although she trafficked in the same rarified circles, they did not socialize together. Her connection was really only that Capote utilized the sensational shooting of her husband as material in his short story 'La Cote Basque 1969', part of his unfinished novel Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel, which led to his societal ostracism - and Ann's suicide. (Oddly enough, it actually is in error about such, stating Ann took Seconal sleeping pills. In actual fact, according to two sources on her Wikipedia profile, she took cyanide).

So this suffered from a lack of Truman's presence in most of its pages, a rather hurried 'catch-up' on all his swans in the final chapters, and the fact I already knew much of the details, due to Dominick Dunne's fictionalized retelling of the story in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles. Aside from that, this is really rather pedestrian reportage as far as the writing itself goes, although it was a fast, engaging read nevertheless.

My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just read Deliberate Cruelty: Truman Capote, the Millionaire's Wife, and the Murder of the Century, by Author Roseanne Montillo .

This is a true crime, nonfiction story about the socialite Ann Woodward who shot and killed her husband Billy Woodward who was a wealthy banking heir. The year was 1955.

Ann Woodward claims that she thought he was a prowler, who had broken into their home late one night, as there was a great deal of talk of one being in their neighborhood.

The book is also about Truman Capote, who was an icon and bestselling nonfiction Author of the book “In Cold Blood.”

I really do not read a lot of true crime books, and thought the Author did a good job with this one, but I did become a little bored with the storyline about two thirds into it.

#NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley, the Author and Atria Books for my advanced copy to read and review.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

DELIBERATE CRUELTY: TRUMAN CAPOTE, THE MILLIONAIRE'S WIFE, AND THE MURDER OF THE CENTURY
BY: ROSEANNE MONTILLO

Roseanne Montillo who teaches Creative Writing both at Emerson and Tufts, both about an hour away, from where I live, has clearly done her research when crafting this epic tale. She has even included a Bibliography at the end. How she managed to include so much about not just Truman Capote, but his "Swans," as he called his lady friends juxtaposed with Ann Woodward, wife of William Woodward, Jr. and his murder by Ann has amazed me. It was a very interesting reading experience. How this Author managed to compile all that she did, truly amazes me. There is a lot of information compacted into not a large amount of pages, is a stunning achievement in and of itself.

Here you will read and learn about Ann Woodward's lineage as well as her husband's and she also traces Truman Capote's lineage. The name that we all know --the infamous Author who is Truman Capote is not the name he was given at birth. The dates of all incidents included that are so richly detailed in this true literary history are staggering.

At the end of October in 1955, during the night-early morning, Ann Woodward shot and killed her millionaire husband with a shotgun in their home. She said that she heard a noise and her dog growling and she aimed the shotgun which hit her husband William Woodward, Jr., who was at the end of the hall. The police who investigated heard that two lights were on by someone outside who was a witness, but didn't actually see the shooting. Ann said that there weren't any lights on. So there is certainly room for ambiguity. William Woodward, Jr. and Ann Woodward had been sleeping in separate bedrooms for months. He had recently changed his will as she was a socialite showgirl of coming from no money. That day he went to Kansas where Ann was from, and found out that her father was very much alive and that Ann had lied to him saying that her father died. Ann's Mother-in-law Elsie Woodward didn't like Ann and thought that her son had married beneath him, bribed Ann to give custody of their two sons over to her and Ann did in order to avoid a trial. She was cast out of the life of privilege that she was used to living.

Truman Capote whose mother remarried Joe Capote, who was Truman's stepfather, is how he changed his name. This book goes into great detail about all six of the parents of Truman Capote, William Woodward, Jr and Ann Woodward. For the sake of brevity of this being a review, which for purposes of keeping it brief, I would urge you to read the book because it is fascinating and all true. Truman Capote did not like Ann and she didn't like him, but the pen is sharper than any weapon as evidenced by Truman Capote's "Swans," whom he betrayed them all when Esquire published a chapter from the book he hailed as his masterpiece. This mysterious book was never discovered that he kept saying that he had written. Once hailed as one of America's greatest writers, after he published, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which was optioned for film starring Audrey Hepburn in, 1961 after his book was published in, 1958. He published, "In Cold Blood," which he called his "nonfiction novel" in, 1966. I have a nice copy of that book and it is very well written as those two works gave Truman Capote his literary acclaim and made him famous.

Both Truman Capote and Ann Woodward were self destructive in their actions. Ann took her own life when she learned that Truman Capote was going to publish a chapter including how she killed her husband, along with publishing all of his women friends secrets, who were known as "Swans," private lives and their families private lives that they told Truman in confidence, he decided to publish. He went downhill after his women friends turned their backs on him and never spoke to him again. Most all of them, the (Swans), felt that he betrayed them except for Jackie Kennedy's sister Lee. His manuscript was never found of the book that he kept talking about rivaling Marcel Proust. I am grateful to have read an early ARC of "Deliberate Cruelty'. I LOVED IT!

Publication Date: November 1, 2022

Thank you to Net Galley, Roseanne Montillo and Atria for generously providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#DeliberateCruelty #RoseanneMontillo #Atria #NetGalley

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an uneven book. Non-fiction or fiction, jumpiness and then re-telling what you told. It's a poor pace and a poor copy for anything that has tension of crime or long term relationships. Those especially. So because of that obvious and repeating terrible habit in the first 40 to 50 pages, I very nearly made this a DNF. But after reading other fare, all non-fiction per chance, I did come back to this one. Twice.

And then some of the connections to tangents became more obvious. And there WAS more repeating what was already told (out of time sequences also, and more than just a couple of times) but at least you got a better, deeper grasp of crux personality onus, aims, desperations etc. For instance you know about the two boys and then all of a sudden 50 pages later she is pregnant with the second boy. Not in flashback either. It's as if the entire base copy was never edited for continuity or repeat exact sentencing.

Still! Maybe it is because I lived through this period which is history to most readers for this fare today to be so slogged with at least half of this repeated information? Nevertheless, I doubted before I read this that either character was worth this length, and I am remaining to the same direction / opinion in telling others about attempting this read; studying these two characters is like doing sonar in a puddle. So much other good non-fiction of intrepid folk is out there. This is the shallow, mean, and self contained for any approach to "happy". Suicide potential from nearly their birth days. So not all that much fun to read.

Liking a person's style in clothing or appearance, or their writing product ability or any type of art or display exposures and acts of societal interchange- that is not the same as liking the person themselves. Or admiring any of their core qualities either. This seems to equate the two as if they were nearly equal.

Read this only if you have interest in the celebrity or social high class worlds of NYC during the 1950's-1960's. Or care about great detail of the pecking order for the entire. Petty now, pettier then.

The photos were excellent. Duplicity was evident at the cores. For most it was evident and obvious. Even from afar and also for those much closer to their poverty or bereft childhoods.

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an interesting book. I happened to have read “Capote’s Women “ recently, and this was the perfect companion to that book. I have always been fascinated by Capote and his Swans and this book speaks about his Swans and his ugly duckling,Ann Woodward.

Though I knew the general story, this excellent retelling was fascinating. For those that are interested in Ann’s story, I urge you read “The Two Mrs Grenvillles” by Dominick Dunne. It is also an excellent TV miniseries with an incredible cast.

Montillo captured the stories of Capote and Woodward and I enjoyed reading this book. Thierry are several other books that will help the reader delve further into these fascinating characters, as well as movies.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this interesting ARC I think my readers will enjoy it and will follow up with more books on these fascinating subjects.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

11/22

[Maria Almaguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Going through books like potato chips these days since I'm recovering from a broken wrist! This one is shelved under true crime and while there is a murder, the real crime described in this disturbing book is gossip and its ability to literally, if arguably indirectly, kill. I know next to nothing about writer Truman Capote, except that he wrote the chilling In Cold Blood and created Holly Golightly, portrayed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I had no idea he wrote a scathing story about his uber rich so-called friends and society people that got him ostracized for the rest of his life. Ann Woodward, the former showgirl/model turned society wife, was similarly shunned (also, ironically, by Capote). This was hard to put down, but the shallow and sad people left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
Well researched and well written.

Re-read after seeing Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, much better the second time

[Jill Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

There’s nothing like a well-written true crime book, combined with a high society setting, to get my little reader’s heart racing. And that is exactly what Roseanne Montillo has given readers in her new book, “Deliberate Cruelty”. The extended title, “Truman Capote, the Millionaire’s Wife, and the Crime of the Century” tells exactly the who’s,, where’s, when’s, and why’s were. I’m not sure it really was “the crime of the century”; we’ve heard various crimes from Leopold and Loeb in 1924 to OJ Simpson in 1993 described in that way.

Montillo’s book is the story of Truman Capote and Ann Woodward, both crashers into New York’s 1940’s and 50’s High Society. Both came from somewhat sketchy beginnings but Capote used his writing talent, while Ann Woodward used her beauty to gain a foothold on the Upper East Side society ladder by marrying Billy Woodward, scion of a banking family. To say Billy Woodward’s family didn’t like the social-climbing Ann is an understatement. They loathed her. (It didn’t help that Billy’s father had had some type of relationship with her when she was an up and coming model and dancer in a nightclub before passing her along to his son.) Billy and Ann married during WW2, but the marriage was not a success. There were both physical and verbal abuse between the two.

In 1955, at their Oyster Bay home, Ann shot Billy after mistaking him for a burglar. Cops were called to the house, followed by the press. How did Ann Woodward mistake her husband for the burglar operating in the area? Billy Woodward was naked when he shot. The “accident” story was actually accepted by Billy Woodward’s mother who publicly supported Ann because she wanted to avoid the growing scandal. Ann Woodward lived her remaining years quietly on the edge of the New York society.

But the story doesn’t end there. By the end of the 1950’s, Truman Capote had found fame and his fortune by his writing. He wrote both fiction and non-fiction, and was about to publish “In Cold Blood”, his account of the murders of the Clutter family in Kansas. But Capote had also become involved with six or seven wealthy society matrons like Babe Paley and Slim Keith. At the edge of the group was Ann Woodward. She and the other “Swans” gave Truman earfuls of gossip and secrets about themselves, and often, of the others. They thought they could trust him. They couldn’t. In 1975 he sent out copies of “Answered Prayers”, where he skewered the women he had been adopted by.

The repercussions of “Answered Prayers” were immediate. Read Montillo’s excellent book to get the whole story.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

When Ann Woodward shot and killed her husband Billy Woodward in 1955 Truman Capote became obsessed with Ann and decided he wanted to write a novel based on this tragic event. During this process both their lives spiral out of control and this book details all those events.

At least it was supposed to. Turns out it’s not just the story of the clash of Ann and Truman, but it’s a biography of both of their entire lives in alternating chapters. The purpose of this was to show how very similar both of their upbringings were.

So where was this obsession that Truman had with Ann. Hell if I know, other than the very brief chapter at the beginning of the book. There is none of that again until you get almost 200 pages into the story. “Murder of the Century”, it’s hardly that. Repetitive it certainly is. Not the great story it was presented to be.

1.5 stars for the lack of what the book was supposed to be about. Three stars for the general readability. Thus, the two star rating. I felt let down by what I was expecting of it.

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably only deserves 1.5 stars. This book is just tiresome. It's a good 100 pages too long--there really isn't very much story here, and Montillo just spun it out by adding in reams of needless detail, mostly about who said what to whom. It's extremely repetitive--I don't know how many times we were told that Ann Woodward's mother-in-law hated her, but too many. The parallels between Truman Capote (and especially his mother) and Ann Woodward are interesting, but could have been established much quicker--and much less repetitively. The book goes on for 50 pages after the story about Ann Woodward and the murder/accident ends, just to drag out that Capote parallel. Where was the editor???? In fact, except that the people featured here are now dead, this book is pretty much the same scandal-mongering gossip that she accuses Capote of. I am certainly disinclined to read anything else by Roseanne Montillo.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read my fair share about Capote after becoming enamored with Other Voices, Other Rooms many years ago. Having read The Two Mrs. Grenville’s (also years ago), I was vaguely familiar with the Woodward murder. It never would have occurred to me to draw parallels between Truman Capote and Ann Woodward which is exactly what the author does in Deliberate Cruelty. Both were desperate to belong to “America’s moneyed aristocracy,” both succeeded and spectacularly fell from grace. This is their story. Please note that the writing is crisp and the research is extensive. Always a good thing.

[MM Suarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book wasn't exactly what I was expecting it was entertaining perhaps because I have always enjoyed reading about both the Cafe Society of the 1950's as well as true crime. I also liked the background stories on Woodward and Capote, but the book got a bit repetitive at times.

[Sarah W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ann Woodward was a glamorous socialite with an unhappy marriage and things only got more complicated when she shot her husband in the middle of the night, thinking he was a burglar. While she was never found guilty of murder, society shunned her and Ann struggled to rebuild her life over the next two decades. But when Truman Capote included her among the high society figures (his swans) featured in his uncompleted novel Answered Prayers, Ann couldn't bare the rehashing of her past and she took her own life. The drama of this book feels like a novel, but the tale of Capote and his swans is real enough. I enjoyed this book, complete with high society scandals, especially as it highlighted portions of the story I hadn't encountered previously.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating!

[Adrienne Teague · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have an unhealthy fascination with Truman Capote. I have read several things about him and his "Swans", but this added lots of information. About Ann Woodward, I knew she had killed her husband and eventually committed suicide, and I knew Capote had ostracized all his friends with his Esquire article, but I didn't realize the two events were connected.

It is not a long book, but all the pertinent info is there and the comparisons made between Ann and Truman are fully supported. It's a compelling story. I kept reading and reading until suddenly I was at the acknowledgements.

[CaraDico · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thank you to Roseanne Montillo, Atria books, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

As a big fan of Dominick Dunne, I first read "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" back in the 90s when I was living on the Upper East Side on the same block as their old residence on 86th Street. I was fascinated by the Woodwards, and the mystery surrounding the murder. So I was overjoyed to see another book that told of this family, with the added bonus of Truman Capote and result of his obsession with society women in the 50s and 60s, with his eventual downfall of society. This seemed to be two books in one as there doesn't seem to be a strong connection between Ann's suicide and Truman, other than he wrote a story about her that was never finished. There is one part that tells the background and marriage of Ann and William Woodward and what happened on that night in 1955, and there is another that talks about Truman Capote's obsession on writing about the story of the Woodwards, which he either never completes or it is never found after his death. I enjoyed both "stories" but felt they could have been different books.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was kindly sent to me by the publisher through a Goodreads giveaway.

I enjoyed the intersection of two nonfiction biographies but I wished the author had spent more time discussing Capote's relationships with his swans. I wanted to see a story written more in the vein of Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, which had more meat to it. While I enjoyed the story, I felt like it was somehow lacking. Capote just came off as a vicious hanger-on, which perhaps he was, but his motivations for his cattiness were never really clear, unless it was his status as an outsider that made him want to ruin the lives of his friends, enemies, and himself alike.

[Debbe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a stretch. The author should have written separate biographies as her research seems solid. Each could have been a chapter or less in the other’s story.

[WM D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deliberate cruelty is a good book. Upon reading it I thought it was a true crime but discovered that it focused on the relationship between the two of them.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tragic but fascinating story I had never heard about.

Socialite Ann Woodward shoots her husband Billy Woodward, banking heir, in the middle of the night. Was it an accident thinking she was shooting a prowler; or was she seeking revenge for his unfaithfulness? Although her story is tragic on its own, it is when Truman Capote decides to write a book on her life, basically butchering her with his pen, we see his "deliberate cruelty". There is much cruelty that went on New York's high society - hard to know who is a friend and who is an enemy. But reading about the beauty, wealth, glittering parties and lifestyles of the rich and famous made for an interesting book. Author Roseanne Montillo researched those in this book very well, especially Capote and Woodward. {hardback, audio}

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deliberate Cruelty is a well written book. It’s also an enveloping read. I inhaled it in one sitting.
I had never heard of Ann Woodward so I read her story with great interest. I was less enchanted with Truman Capote. I’ve never had much regard for him; in fact he’s a vile, vicious person who reaped what he sowed.
Comparing the two lives was an interesting prospect, but I skim read all the parts about Capote because they didn’t interest me. He was a puffed up very small person.
An interesting book all around.
Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for the early read.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars