As a true crime fan, I’m familiar with this case, what drew you to this story? As a fan of Truman Capote, I was mostly familiar with his in-depth research for In Cold Blood.  But I learned several years ago that he had a fascination with other crimes, especially high-society crimes. This one drew him in because it took place in his milieu, the glitzy, glamorous world of New York, and Ann Woodward could have been one of his “swans”, if not for the fact that he could not stand her.  I was surprised by how much he could not tolerate her, and by how similar the two actually were.  By how hard the two had worked to pursue similar goals – the achievement of a better life within New York’s society, wanting to be surrounded by a “better” class of friends, trying to erase their pasts in order to build a new persona.   How much research went into writing DELIBERATE CRUELTY, and what was the process like? Quite a bit of research goes into such a book.  While Truman Capote is an author who has been studied and deeply researched, the life of Ann Woodward is less well-known,…