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Cruel Doubt

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A Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener.

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

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1393 people want to read

About the author

Joe McGinniss

34 books242 followers
Joe McGinniss was an American journalist, non-fiction writer and novelist. He first came to prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the President 1968 which described the marketing of then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon. It spent more than six months on best-seller lists. He is popularly known for his trilogy of bestselling true crime books — Fatal Vision, Blind Faith and Cruel Doubt — which were adapted into several TV miniseries and movies. Over the course of forty years, McGinniss published twelve books.

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5 stars
946 (34%)
4 stars
1,042 (37%)
3 stars
625 (22%)
2 stars
118 (4%)
1 star
26 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews
168 reviews10 followers
December 13, 2016
One of the best true crime books I have read in a very long time. Fascinating pre-trial legal maneuvering in a very complex case, as the attorneys for three defendants sought the truth of the matter and tried to ethically and professionally represent each of their clients while protecting the emotional needs of the one surviving victim. The defendants, the sister, the surviving wife/mother victim, all of the attorneys, the judge that heard the case, the investigators, medical examiner and psychiatrist as well as other family members, were all portrayed in depth....I felt like I knew them, and became drawn into each of their inter-related dramas .
Profile Image for Tanja Berg.
2,279 reviews569 followers
May 18, 2014
This book is obviously well-written, but I did not like it. There were too many unanswered questions. I particularly disliked the fact that the jury sentenced one boy to death based on hear-say, incosistent evidence of his supposed two co-conspirators who both had the obvious motive of saving their own skins. So yes, in the United States of America, it is perfectly possible to be sentenced to death without a single shred of physical evidence. That in itself should be argument enough to abolish the death penalty.

In the summer of 1988, Bonnie is awakened by the screams of her husband Lieth being bashed to death. She herself barely survives. Down the hall, her daughter Angela sleeps the whole thing through and does not awaken until the police show up. Her son son Chris, away at campus, becomes hysterical but can't find his car keys nor his car and is driven home by the police. The murder investigation moves interminably slowly, until someone off the radar makes a deal and confesses.

The problems with how the story played out are mainly the fact that the dinner Lieth at between 7.0 and 8.30 pm is undigested and Bonnie did not call for help until 4.30 am, by which time dinner should have passed through the digestive system. The other issue, of course, is how Angela could possibly sleep through a violen attack on her parents. I did not find these issues sufficiently answered. However, this is real life, and in real life, all ends to not tie up neatly and the truth isn't always told but the people who could tell it.
Profile Image for Jill H..
1,638 reviews100 followers
January 16, 2018
This book started out well but it started going downhill about half-way through. It became repetitive and the subsequent trial was a real snooze inducer. It is the true story of a family in NC in which the father is beaten and stabbed to death in his bed and his wife is left barely alive. Although they are a very non-social couple, they apparently have no enemies and it does not appear to be a robbery that went wrong. The local police do a terrible job protecting the crime scene so there is little evidence with which to work. There are two survivors....a son who is a failing student at NC State and is heavily into drugs and the Dungeons and Dragons game, and a teen age daughter who is basically a cipher. Enter the SBI (the state version of the FBI) who bring the necessary experience to begin the investigation which leads to an arrest(s).

The author fills out much of the book praising the saintliness and martyrdom of the wife....it begins to border on the ridiculous. The reader realizes that this woman has suffered a horrible experience with more to come but we understood that the first time the author mentioned it. It did not need to take over the narrative.

The story is interesting and tragic but the book could have been half the length. I started skimming pages during the trial which is a bad sign. Mediocre read at best.
Profile Image for Della Scott.
474 reviews4 followers
March 2, 2011
This is one of those true crime books that haunts you because, I, at least, had more questions at the end of the book than at the beginning. Joe McGinnis is the author of Fatal Vision, about the Jeffrey McDonald case, and there are some similarities with this one. Both take place in the same part of the country, and both are about family members under an umbrella of suspicion. When Washington, NC resident Leith Von Stein is found stabbed to death in his bed on a summer morning in 1988, his teenaged stepchildren, particularly stepson Christopher Pritchard, a North Carolina State student who spent more time drugging, drinking and playing Dungeons and Dragons with sleazy friends than studying,was a likely suspect. Wife Bonnie was so badly injured that it seemed unlikely that her wounds were self-inflicted or part of an inside job staged to look like a break-in. On the other hand, there was reason to believe that the Von Stein marriage was troubled, and she stood to inherit a great deal of money. I almost bookcrossed this without reading it, becasue I'm getting rid of a lot of true crime books, but am glad I decided to read it. Too bad there aren't more pictures in this edition.
4 reviews1 follower
May 23, 2013
As a North Carolinian, the authors disrespect for the entire state with the exception of UNC was difficult to get past. He spends a lot of time rehashing biases typically ascribed to outsiders and the "UNC" elite of the state. He clearly has no affection for the small towns he describes and practically blames the central crime on NC State University. By the by there are good reasons to go out of the way to visit Washington. It has a cute little downtown along the marina, a little museum about the estuary eco-system and frequent bike races. It also has some of the cheapest rates for docking a sea-worthy boat on the east coast, which means a lot of the doctors from Greenville and further west head to town to sail for the weekend.

While the central story has merit as it details the unique perspective of Bonnie (a victim, suspect, and mother), I agree with other reviewers that it could have been done in less space with more interest. I started reading it with a student who put it down because, "It's basically a list of facts." I also suspect the author was guilty of the same cruelty towards Bonnie that he accuses the police of by treating Bonnie and her family with suspicion.
Profile Image for Teresa.
22 reviews2 followers
January 29, 2013
Bonnie Von Stein 's life was perfect - married to her heart's true love; two nearly grown children; and forever stretching out in front of her. But her perfect bliss was shattered the night an intruder broke into her home, killing her husband and almost killing her.

In "Cruel Doubt," Joe McGinniss writes about this terrible tragedy that would have destroyed a lesser person.

Invited by Wade Smith, one of Jeffrey MacDonald 's defense attorneys to whom readers were introduced in McGinniss's book "Fatal Vision," to chronicle the single worst nightmare a family could face, McGinniss spent the months after the shocking, surprise arrest of Bonnie's own son for planning the murders.

Once again, Joe McGinniss tells a gripping story of pain, pathos, horror, and humanity. He takes the reader through the investigation, trials, and aftermath that left a family in ruins and ended what may have been promising futures for two young men - one sentenced to life in prison and the other sentenced to death in North Carolina's gas chamber.

This is a must read for fans of true crime... and for those who love a good who dunnit.
Profile Image for Carole.
83 reviews8 followers
August 24, 2014
This is actually my second reading. I bought the book right after it was published in the beginning of the '90s. Enough time has passed to allow me to still experience a few surprises in the reading. The writing and telling of this true story is mesmerizing. It's an enthralling look into some complex personalities involved in, both as victims and perpetrators, the story of a heinous murder and the ensuing preparation for a trial. It's McGinniss at his best.

Without giving away anything about the book, I'll highlight a paragraph which details a person's personality:

"...Bonnie was tolerant, not judgmental. What she liked, she did not necessarily expect others to appreciate. What she disapproved of, she recognized others might find of value. She had never sought conflict; indeed, in all her relationships, she had worked to avoid it - even if emotional aridity was the price she sometimes paid. What she would soon discover was that for such a limitation - if, indeed, that's what it was - few had ever paid a higher price...."

Complex legal and moral decisions add to the complexity. Love this book!

Profile Image for Lynne.
675 reviews16 followers
April 29, 2018
This book describes the mystery of the brutal murder of Lieth Von Stein and the violent attack on his wife, Bonnie, as they lay sleeping in their bed. In Cruel Doubt, the author considers all attempts to solve this heinous crime from every angle: that of the local police and state investigators, as well as attorneys representing all sides in the crime. Joe McGinniss covers the investigation in great detail- which may be his downfall. At first, I found this book to be very interesting, but by the end I was more than ready for it to be over. I think the description of the investigation would have more successful if the author had left out some of the somewhat repetitive detail in the middle of the story and shortened the overall length of the book by about 100 pages. Also, the novel (realistically) ends with many unanswered questions and doubts about what happened that fateful night in the Von Stein household.
Profile Image for Roger.
65 reviews1 follower
April 25, 2024
This book should have been titled, “The Life and Times of Bonnie Von Stein” because about 97% of this book was devoted to repeatedly going over and over and over about how this Bonnie Von Stein thinks, feels and persists in refusing to accept the fact that her moronic, immature, self-centered son, “Chris” couldn’t have plotted to kill her husband. Was never so glad to have finished a book in my life………..long and boring!
Profile Image for Tom.
22 reviews1 follower
February 24, 2018
It was an ok read and kept me occupied when I needed distraction. It reminded me that once upon a time in the eighties Dixiecrats still existed.
Profile Image for Kristen Montgomery Breh.
44 reviews16 followers
August 19, 2021
Joe McGinniss does a fabulous job at painting the nuances of this incredible, gripping case. Readers will come to begin to understand the complexities of a Mom’s mind in processing the unthinkable: her son set in motion the killing of his step-dad and her own attempted murder. Great deep dive into all parties’ and victims’ thinking, and how the line between them sometimes blurs.

A quick, brutal read for any true crime reader.
Profile Image for Leslie.
385 reviews10 followers
June 27, 2016
Hm...this is hard. The book is better written than 3 stars. The difficulty is that it's a true horror story, which turns out to be wickedly unsettling. Also, although I have no memory of this case - I was 10 when the murder was committed - I was living in Raleigh, had friends we visited in Little Washington around this time, and have close ties to NC State, so it feels very close to home. And I feel somewhat like I stopped to watch a train wreck.

One of the other reviews says that there are too many unanswered questions at the end. I think that's because it's not a novel. The statement made me think of the aphorism, "The Devil's in the details." In this case, it's untrue - the evil is pervasive and it doesn't matter what the details are. Is it possible that the evil extends even further than it seems to? Yes, of course. But it has enough substance as it is.

At least three people conspired to commit the violent, brutal murder of Leith von Stein and assault and attempted murder of his wife, Bonnie von Stein, in sleepy Little Washington, NC, on July 25, 1988. The three people were Lieth's 19-year-old stepson Chris and two of his friends with whom he played D&D at NC State. The purported motive was an inheritance of $2 million. The jumbled and inconsistent way the story came out made it clear that the boys responsible were incredibly immature, drug-addled, and mentally ill with at least mood and probably also personality disorders. Therefore, it is unclear the extent to which they were fueled by frank, childish, and concrete thinking - "if we kill him, Chris inherits and we live the high life" - versus a weirder but similarly sinister magical thinking - which conflated killing him with advancing along an intricate storyline in the D&D game they were playing.

Chris's poor mother Bonnie, a stoic person to begin with, has probably retreated into a permanently emotionally inaccessible shell. His sister Angela is a shadowy and controversial figure.

The conduct of the lawyers throughout the case was compassionate, strong, and ethical. They were trying to do right by Right, by justice, by the law, and by their clients. With such a sticky, awful, evil mess to deal with, they faced many serious dilemmas. While the rightness of any of their specific actions is open to question, I think overall they did admirably. Reading about the series of crises they faced and how they handled them was one of the most positive and interesting aspects of the otherwise sordid story.

P.S. - The TV movie made from this book was one of Gwyneth Paltrow's early roles. She played Angela.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for SueCanaan.
568 reviews40 followers
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February 8, 2024
I won't give stars to a true crime book, but I'm here to say the audio of Cruel Doubt was absolutely painful. Narrated by Stacey Keach, an actor from my youth, I initially was excited to hear his once familiar voice. But, alas, just because you can act does not mean you can adequately narrate an audiobook and keep listeners awake. Zero attempt to bring the thing to life, and that, sadly, made me just want the whole thing to end. Thankfully, this true crime story was only 4 hours long.
Profile Image for ♥ Marlene♥ .
1,697 reviews146 followers
September 4, 2009
Very well written but I noticed I started to get a bit annoyed because it appeared the author believed anything Bonnie van Stein told him. I want to read jerry Bledsoe's book about the same case. I've heard that he had access to the other defendants. I am not sure if the real killer(s) was punished enough. 3.5
Profile Image for Debdanz.
861 reviews
August 13, 2007
this is an extremely redundant, repetitive account of true crime- the 1988 murder in NC by a drug using, D&D playing NCSU student and his friends. could have told the same story just as effectively in 100 pages.
Profile Image for Nicole Gust.
83 reviews
August 4, 2011
was a slow read for me so that normally means it is not that good.
Profile Image for Erica Barthel.
9 reviews
June 18, 2013
It really irritated me that there were no photos of the subjects in the book nor can I find photos on the web for Bonnie, Angela or Leith.
Profile Image for Kathleen Riggs.
588 reviews21 followers
February 10, 2023
How Much Pain One Women Has To Endure.
I loved Fatal Vision, and am a great fan of Joe McGinnes, his writing style, and the way he tells his story’s. I certainly was not disappointed reading Cruel Doubt, and Joe has done a great job on this book.
The story is about Bonnie Von Stein 's who was married to her true love Leith Von Stein. She had two nearly grown children from her first marriage but one night her life was turned upside down and shattered the night an intruder broke into their home, killing her husband leaving Bonnie herself who had been stabbed, beaten, and left for dead lying beside him.
How does your child plot to kill his parents? Three bored teenage who are flunking out at tec, who all are obsessed with Dungeons and Dragons alcohol and drugs like cocaine and LSD go from fantasy to commit a truly heinous crime. The two friends decide after Chris tells them his parents have come into millions of dollars after Leith’s parents died to help Chris get rid of them and Chris promises that they will be rewarded, and he will happily share some of the inheritance with them when the insurance comes through.
Sadly, under their drug induced state it eventually and sadly led to them committing this atrocious crime. Chris is Bonnie’s son and she is terrified of who did this to her and Leith and wonders will they come back and finish her off. Bonnie never believed one of her children planned all of this. Chris of course had an airtight alibi the night of the murder and attack on his mum, so Bonnie does not suspect him or his sister who tells the police she slept through and never heard the screams from her parents’ bedroom next door.
This book is more than a murder story, as you read about a very complex case. When do the lawyers tell Bonnie that her son Chris planned all of this. The attorneys for three defendants sought the truth of the matter and they ethically and professionally represent each of their clients while protecting the emotional needs of the one surviving victim Bonnie whilst leaving her alone in a house with the boy who was being prosecuted for her attempted murder.
This is a true story of how much pain one women has to endure a very sad case of a mother who loses her husband, is a victim and a year later finds out her only son is guilty of this shocking crime, but Bonnie still stands by Chris. I found it heart wrenching that, Bonnie Von Stein after losing her husband and almost losing her life, tells the story from everybody's point of view. I had more questions at the end of the book than at the beginning and wonder if we will ever find out the real truth of what really happened that night.
Profile Image for Jami.
49 reviews11 followers
March 12, 2019
this was a very well written book. engaging.

but the story is crap. that this book could be written, that some of the details could be put out there for each one of us to read, and that there is nothing any of us can do to change any of it.

that a prosecutor can convince a lawyer to convince his client, the victim, to change her story to fit the uncorroborated narrative of a man with everything to gain from his lies. so that the prosecutor can convict a man who says he wasn't there and there isn't a shred of evidence to place him there.

it's disgusting.

law enforcement should be prosecuted or penalized when they fuck up a crime scene, too.

why haven't we done anything to change or fix our justice system?
423 reviews
February 14, 2021
When it comes to dysfunctional families, truth becomes stranger than fiction in this true crime book. Just like the investigators, the reader tries to figure out who is telling the truth and who finds it easier to just lie, and then determine who is guilty and who is innocent. Throughout the book I learned information I hope I'll never need about polygraph tests, lawyers who are willing to let their clients lie under oath, and judges and juries who are supposed to understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty, but are more likely to believe the opposite. I also learned the inscription on Pete Seeger's banjo -- "This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender" -- an appropriate thought for this book.
534 reviews10 followers
April 12, 2018
I read this book many years ago but when I came across it at Goodwill recently I thought I would give it another try. McGinniss is very thorough in his telling of this very sad story. Though it gets a bit bogged down with so much detail, it is understandable why the writer does so. Just as Dungeons and Dragons played such a big part in this story, one can see how this same scenario could be played out with the video games of today. It is interesting to search the internet today and find out what happened to the perpetrators in the book, as well as the victim that survived. Good true crime story.
Profile Image for Michelle Tackabery.
Author 1 book12 followers
April 2, 2019
I listened to this to compliment my reading of Blood Games by Jerry Bledsoe, which was a far superior book. While this work benefits from direct access to the victim and her children, the only revelation it holds is the suspected relationship between Angela Pritchard and James Upchurch, and the possibility (likelihood) that Neal Henderson participated in the murders. On the whole, however, for what was a full year of access to the family, McGinnis returned a poor, poor piece of work.
Profile Image for Carl J..
43 reviews
December 2, 2024
Spellbinding McGinnis magic

Joe McGinnis may be the best story teller I know. Sure it’s a true crime story and that means it’s got a real world beginning, middle and end, but the way McGuinness unwinds the yarn draws you in as if spellbound. Highly recommended to any fans of the true crime genre. And the courtroom and other legal underpinnings of the case making a must-read for anybody interested in or certainly who is practicing the law.
Profile Image for Connlou Ross.
302 reviews6 followers
November 20, 2017
(c)1991 I loved the book. Just the way it was written draws the reader in from the get go. I have to admit I googled the survivor when I first started reading the book. As a reader I couldn't read fast enough to see who would be indicted for the murder and attempted murder. I wanted to know who was involved and I have to admit I was shocked. This was a book worth picking up.
Profile Image for Martha K Countess.
16 reviews2 followers
December 3, 2021
Fascinating true story of a crime

If you want to know how much a mother can love her children, even in the face of the most awful betrayal, this is the book for you. This book delves into the psychology of how much children suffer at their abandonment by a parent. This is a true story of how much pain is too much, why some of us can survive it when others cannot.
79 reviews
November 19, 2022
This was one of the best true crime books I ever read. Most of the first chapter was a transcript of the 911 call from the scene of the crime. I had to take a breather before starting chapter two. The facts of the case were so bizarre and inexplicable that I couldn't wait to see where they were leading.
Profile Image for Pattie aka Grand.
441 reviews2 followers
April 7, 2023
Before there was the Murdaugh case in Beaufort SC, there was this case in Beaufort, NC. A family torn apart, a city shocked by violent behavior, and lots of money the motivation. This case was the son murdering his stepfather and the lose ends more readily tied up, or as the epilogue reveals, were they?
74 reviews1 follower
March 10, 2025
Spends too much on the characters that are not as interesting as the author make it to be.

I feel like I've learn the entire history of this Bonnie character, and I'm like only made it halfway to the book. I dont know what else the next half going to be because the case at this point is pretty damn clear
Displaying 1 - 30 of 104 reviews

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