"Blind Faith" (published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1989) is based on the 1984 Marshall murder case in which American businessman Robert O. Marshall was charged with (and later convicted of) the contract killing of his wife, Maria. Described as "suspenseful and engrossing reading, with a courtroom drama that is cathartic as well as gripping" by Anne Rice in "The New York Times", it was followed by "Cruel Doubt" (published by Simon and Schuster in 1991). "Cruel Doubt" documents the 1988 murder of Lieth Von Stein and the attempted murder of his wife Bonnie by his stepson, Chris Pritchard, along with two friends, James Upchurch and Gerald Neal Henderson. In its review of "Cruel Doubt", "The Boston Globe" remarked, "McGinniss is the Alfred Hitchcock of the true-crime genre, a genre he often transcends."