
Blood Will Out
The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $17.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stephen Bel Davies
-
By:
-
Walter Kirn
An In Cold Blood for our time, a chilling, compulsive story of a writer unwittingly caught in the wake of a grifter-turned-murderer.
In the summer of 1998, Walter Kirn - then an aspiring novelist struggling with impending fatherhood and a dissolving marriage - set out on a peculiar, fateful errand: to personally deliver a crippled hunting dog from his home in Montana to the New York apartment of one Clark Rockefeller, a secretive young banker and art collector who had adopted the dog over the Internet. Thus began a 15-year relationship that drew Kirn deep into the fun-house world of an outlandish, eccentric son of privilege who ultimately would be unmasked as a brazen serial impostor, child kidnapper, and brutal murderer.
Kirn's one-of-a-kind story of being duped by a real-life Mr. Ripley takes us on a bizarre and haunting journey from the posh private clubrooms of Manhattan to the hard-boiled courtrooms and prisons of Los Angeles. As Kirn uncovers the truth about his friend, a psychopath masquerading as a gentleman, he also confronts hard truths about himself. Why, as a writer of fiction, was he susceptible to the deception of a sinister fantasist whose crimes, Kirn learns, were based on books and movies? What are the hidden psychological links between the artist and the con man? To answer these and other questions, Kirn attends his old friend’s murder trial and uses it as an occasion to reflect on both their tangled personal relationship and the surprising literary sources of Rockefeller's evil. This investigation of the past climaxes in a tense jailhouse reunion with a man whom Kirn realizes he barely knew - a predatory, sophisticated genius whose life, in some respects, parallels his own and who may have intended to take another victim during his years as a fugitive from justice: Kirn himself.
Combining confessional memoir, true crime reporting, and cultural speculation, Blood Will Out is a Dreiser-esque tale of self-invention, upward mobility, and intellectual arrogance. It exposes the layers of longing and corruption, ambition, and self-delusion beneath the Great American con.
©2014 Walter Kirn (P)2014 Audible Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Editorial reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...





What made the experience of listening to Blood Will Out the most enjoyable?
the sensibility of the writer in relation to the enigmatic Clark. Fascinating inspection of both men,What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
I'd probably enjoy it just as well reading it - but the actor has an unbelievable command of accents.Any additional comments?
Brilliant. Part memoir, part mystery.terrific
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Story about unbelievable con man
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Yes, number one the writer of this book was boring, and I found that I was not able to pick up whatever he was trying to put down. So if the story was interesting which from what I could gather it was not, another author maybe.What was most disappointing about Walter Kirn’s story?
The lackluster story, or non story if you will.What three words best describe Stephen Bel Davies’s performance?
Complex yet boringDid Blood Will Out inspire you to do anything?
Try another book.Any additional comments?
Key point, the name Rockefeller always sells.Walter Kirn not write
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Is there anything you would change about this book?
It could be shorter, more linear.What could Walter Kirn have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Walter Kirn's voice is perfect to read his own books.Would you listen to another book narrated by Stephen Bel Davies?
Yes.Do you think Blood Will Out needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
No.Any additional comments?
Listen to Walter Kirn on NPR Fresh Air. It will give you the best clues on his subject.Hear the Fresh Air review first
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What did you love best about Blood Will Out?
Didn't really love it, but I was fascinated by the gullibility of the narrator/author, the evilness of the main character, and the overall bizarreness of the events that the book recounts.What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
Most interesting was how thoroughly and devastatingly the villain of the book conned just about everyone.Which scene was your favorite?
I didn't really like any of the parts involving the poor dog.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Revelation of how an innocent person was taken advantage of and murdered.Any additional comments?
Just bizarre.Bizarre and interesting in an icky sort of way
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You must read the Mark Seal book first
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What made the experience of listening to Blood Will Out the most enjoyable?
The story of the author's (sometimes self-serving) friendship with a psychopath and killer is truly fascinating. It's well paced and keeps the listener's interest.What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The psychopathy of the book's subject, and the self-reflective relationship of the author to the subject.Have you listened to any of Stephen Bel Davies’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No.Fascinating Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I immediately recognized certain situations that Walter discussed, these were very much like my own experiences.
I’m a big fan and found myself laughing out loud at insane situations and feelings brought on by contact with unusual “persons.”
Dealing with a psychopath
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Although this book was a disappointment to me, I liked Kirn's writing style enough that I will look for other books by him. The narrator did an excellent job of reading this story.
Lacked substance
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
fascinating tale
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.