Blind Faith by Joe McGinness

Blind Faith by Joe McGinness

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Blurb

The sordid, #1 New York Times bestselling true crime story of adultery, addiction, gambling debt, and murder in a privileged suburban town—from author and journalist Joe McGinniss.

The Marshalls were the model family of Tom’s River, New Jersey, living the American dream and seemingly in possession of all that money could buy. Rob Marshall, a successful insurance broker, was the big breadwinner, king of the country club set. Maria Marshall was his stunningly beautiful wife and the perfect mom to their three great kids. 

Then one night while the couple drove home from Atlantic City, Rob, his head bloodied, reported Maria had been brutally slain. Sympathy poured in—until disquieting facts began to surface…and the true story of adultery, gambling, drugs and murder tore the mask off Rob Marshall and the blinders off the town that thought he could do no wrong.

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Review

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard while reading a true crime book.

I read Fatal Vision, another (well known) book by McGinness, and all of the people involved were treated with the utmost respect. Even the killer was treated with respect. McGinness seemed to have respect for the victim in Blind Faith. He definitely had respect and concern for the victim’s three sons, for the one relative who stepped in and tried to help said three sons, and possibly for the prosecutor.

Everyone else, I think was the target of his scorn. And reading the facts of the case, I have to say I can see why they earned it.

This was not a great mystery. I mean maybe a young kid who somehow managed to never be exposed to some of the things people do and the lies they tell might somehow manage to miss the extremely obvious killer, their motive, and all of the stupid things they did to try to get away with it. I can understand why the killer’s children wouldn’t want to believe it.

My experience with New Jersey is mostly peripheral. I used to visit a lot more often, but I don’t live there, and I don’t visit often anymore. My husband grew up down there, though. He was in fact in high school in New Jersey during the time under discussion in this book. (A time when one of the figures in the story was an assistant principal in a high school, in fact.)  He grew up a scant hour away from Tom’s River, the scene of the crime.

As I read to him select passages from the book, designed to delight and entertain, one factor stumped him. “Tom’s River has a country club set?” he asked me, scratching his head.

Like I said, he grew up not far from there. He dated a girl from Tom’s River, during the period under discussion.

Why is this important?  

A big part of the story of the Marshall murder, at least according to McGinness and according to the prosecutor as well, is pretension. It’s keeping up with the Joneses, it’s the idea of a certain degree of affluence that doesn’t exactly hold water outside the bubble of Tom’s River.

Obviously, there’s nothing funny about a cheating husband killing his wife for the insurance money. My heart absolutely shattered for Maria, and for her three sons. I cried as the two older sons had to come to terms with their father’s guilt and try to wrap their heads and hearts around how they felt about him as a father after the fact. I grieved for the younger son as well, for very complicated reasons you’d have to read to believe.

What makes this book such great reading is the people who keep popping up. You’ll laugh at the killer’s pretension, and at his audacity. You’ll absolutely bust a gut at how the people around Rob respond to his attempts to lie his way out of trouble. The affair is like something out of bad fiction, or stories your grandmother used to tell about that woman.

Then the guys from Louisiana get brought in. Watching the Jersey cops deal with any of the Louisiana characters, on any side of the badge, left me gasping for air. Once upon a time I went to a wedding in which a NYC relative married a man from the South, in the South. Watching my NY relatives try to interact with Southerners before the NY contingent had their coffee was a trip, and the Jersey-Louisiana interactions reminded me of that wedding.

I opened this book after I hit two bad romances in a row. I am so glad I did. Blind Faith reminded me that humor exists even in the darkest times, and it reminded me of the human side of everyone we see in one of these stories.