This is an oldie but I do enjoy good True Crime and it was on sale (or free with membership!) I fell in love with the whole genre after I tried to read the completely fictional Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris 1988) and was so put off I thought, “Who cares what people can make up?”  And, annoyed, I hit the nonfiction shelves and found Ann Rule among others.  That was back in 1989 or so and I followed her writings for several years.  I also enjoyed a couple of Joe McGuinness books back then,  but not Blind Faith (that I remember but it’s been over 20 years).  I still read a good true crime book if it grabs my attention but I don’t look for them now. 

*******
Blind Faith 
by Joe McGuinness – 1989 
Read by Gibson Frazier 13h 1m
Rating:  7 / true crime 
*******

This book was very controversial after it came out. McGuinness used many pseudonyms and has admitted having to wind his way through conflicting evidence and reports and choosing the most likely.   I think I picked up on that as I read.  Marshall late wrote a rebuttal book (like O.J. Simpson did.) 

There are lots of kinds of True Crime books.  There are the books which focus on the procedural aspects of one crime or how the cops got their guy.  There are family and psychological thrillers which focus on the killer and his issues (this is Ann Rule) especially concerning one particularly heinous crime.  There are serial killer chases which I can stand only sometimes but a few have been excellent.  I’ve kept following the genre for years but lately really only reading the ones which get a lot of press – I don’t go hunting them down anymore.
 
In this book the beautiful wife of the socially prominent and apparently rich Rob Marshall, an insurance salesman, is killed in a brutal roadside murder made to look like a robbery.  The couple has three sons who try their level best to remain true to their father’s story but they don’t all succeed. (And this is a major focus of the book.).  Rob Marshall, their father, has a number of strikes against him –  adultery with plans for marriage, insurance on his wife’s life, what look like payments to supposed hit men – it goes on.  

It gets convoluted because of the lies on the part of Marshall and his contacts and their contacts – everyone had lies and then they contradict themselves so  It’s pretty confusing for awhile.

But spoilers in True Crime are like most any other nonfiction – they don’t bother me a bit because this incident might be in the media or history books or anything.  In fact if I know stuff in advance it helps me to better understand the thrust of the book and get into it more deeply. 

https://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/29/nyregion/it-s-not-us-toms-river-says-of-protrayal-in-book.html