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Blind Faith

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The Marshalls were the model family of Toms River New Jersey, living the American dream of all that money could buy. Rob Marshall 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 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...

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

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About the author

Joe McGinniss

34 books234 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
2,501 (38%)
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3 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews
Profile Image for ALLEN.
553 reviews149 followers
September 14, 2018
**SPOILERS**BLIND FAITH is about the American dream gone horribly wrong. A successful New Jersey insurance salesman, his three overachieving sons, and a housewife so perfectionist she prided herself on the special edge on her pancakes form the core of this Joe McGinnis nonfiction bestseller. But late one night in 1984 on the way back home from Atlantic City, the husband, Rob Marshall, pulled over at an unlighted byway of the parkway because, he said, one tire on his Cadillac felt flat. Later, bloodied, he told policeman that he had been mugged and his wife, Maria, brutally murdered.

It seemed a hard story to sustain -- and indeed it was. BLIND FAITH by author Joe (FATAL VISION) McGinnis is a well-crafted page-turner, best at relating the nuts-and-bolts detective work that led to Rob's arraignment and conviction for murder. It seems Rob had become estranged from his perfectionistic wife and taken up with the town flirt, "Felice," who needed more money for successful maintenance than Maria had. Along the way we're treated to the seamy side of little Toms River, New Jersey, insofar as a relatively new suburb can have a seamy side.

And that leads to the worst aspect of this book -- author McGinnis HATED Toms River and everything it stands for. He gets his digs in early: it's the town you hit right after FM radio signals from Philadelphia and New York City have faded. The one that got rich by polluting Toms River (which isn't really a river at all, he says, but an estuary of Barnegat Bay along the Jersey Shore). The one that grew so quickly that Locust Street has no more room for locust trees. The one with a pseudo-homey Christmas cookie exchange in the Marshalls' own subdivision that had become a nightmare of over-organization and competitiveness. One reviewer said that you'd think it was a sin to live in a nice house with new appliances, and that reviewer had a point.

Still, there's enough intensity in this drama of the middle-class American dream gone terribly wrong to warrant its reading. One note: the mass-market paperback, available at a good price, has none of the B&W photos that the original hardbound volume did.

(Spoiler): Robert O. Marshall died in prison in February of 2015.

(Photo): Maria and Rob Marshall, one month before her murder.
Image result for rob and maria marshall toms river nj
Profile Image for Tanja Berg.
2,238 reviews553 followers
May 4, 2014
Rating 4* out of 5. Another solid delivery by Joe McGinniss. Not as long or captivating as "Fatal Vision". I was afraid that reading the two after another would bore me, but the stories were sufficiently different to prevent this.

The story is that of Rob Marshall, upstanding member in his community, whose wife Maria is killed one night, in a dark parking lot. Soon it becomes apparent that Rob has serious debt problem and an affair with the town slut, Felice. Rob also had a million and a half life insurance on Maria. His three sons and the community are in shock.

Despite the fact that the facts seem rather obvious from the start, the laying out of them is still interesting to follow. This book is superbly written. I wish all authors could write as well as Joe McGinniss and I will definitely be reading more of him. If for nothing else, then just for the beautifully crafted prose.
Profile Image for Shaun.
Author 4 books215 followers
November 21, 2015
4.5 rounded up to 5

As a fan of true crime this was right up my alley. I really appreciate Joe McGinniss' (author of the much acclaimed Fatal Vision) style of writing, and this story of a "country club" father of three who hires a hit man to murder his "perfect" look-but-don't-touch Barbie-doll wife to pursue the other woman, the town tart named Felice (as in friskie yet married Felice) and collect 1.5 million in insurance money (the last policy taken out the day of her murder)which he needs to pay off his gambling debts (really) seems cliche, which is what makes it even harder to swallow...seriously, what was he thinking?

Good stuff. Well-written. Poignant themes, particularly with respect to the 3 boys who end up torn between wanting to believe in their father, but also needing to convict their mother's killer.

88 reviews
August 18, 2013
I had read McGinniss's "Fatal Vision" and loved it, so I had assumed I would love "Blind Faith" as well. Unfortunately, it was difficult to get into, tended to plod along, and was 100% predictable. I knew within the first few pages what was going to happen and why the killer did it, so for whatever reason I guess I kept reading the book to torture myself? I love a good page-turner, something I cannot put down and want to read all day and all night - this was not that book. I actually dreaded sitting down and reading it, which is never fun. Maybe I kept waiting for something bold and unexpected to happen? It was like the guy who wrote this book and the guy who wrote "Fatal Vision" were two totally different people. I don't remember pages and pages of a meaningless conversation between two people in "Fatal Vision", but there was plenty to go 'round in this book. After the first half of the book, I started skipping paragraphs and whole pages that seemed endless and pointless, thinking I could go back and read it if I thought I missed something later; but not to worry, I had some foresight in skipping those pages and paragraphs. This book could have been about half the size, and I would not have blamed McGinniss for adding some "dramatization" to it, because it certainly needed it.
Profile Image for Kimberly Hicks.
Author 1 book196 followers
January 31, 2013
The title of this book pretty much sums it up for the Marshall children, who not only lost their mother to a horrific murder, but also their father who made sure to do away with his wife. Can you imagine wanting to believe your surviving parent is innocent of having his wife murdered, only to learn, he is guilty? I don't know how the Marshall boys survived that horrendous experience.

Robert O. Marshall got exactly what he deserved and I'm so thankful his sons finally lifted their blinds and saw their father for the monster he truly is.

OUTSTANDING true-crime story told as only Joe McGinniss can tell it. You will not be disappointed.
Profile Image for Carla JFCL.
438 reviews14 followers
January 28, 2011
I thought this was a terrific book, in one of my favorite genres: true crime. Joe McGinnis does a great job of telling these stories, and told this one so well that I wanted the opportunity to choke the lying, cheating, greedy, murdering, scumbag-sack-of-crap Rob Marshall myself. The murder happened in 1984 and the trial was a couple of years later, with the book shortly after that. Now I'm going to do some research and see whether Marshall's death sentence was ever actually carried out. If not, he'd damn well still better be serving his life sentence in prison (if he didn't die of something else in the meantime.)
Profile Image for CatBookMom.
1,001 reviews
February 7, 2016
The Prosecuting Attorney in this murder trial described Rob Marshall really well:
"...this defendant is a coward, he's self-centered, he's greedy, he's desperate, he's materialistic, and he's a liar."
He left out only one thing: Marshall was amazingly stupid in how he set up the contract killing of his wife, and it didn't take LEOs long to figure out the trail.

Marshall did not get the death penalty that the jury voted for him; he spent 30 years in prison and died in Feb 2015 of natural causes.

Not quite a 4-star rating. I wish McGinniss had issued an addendum to the ebook release, to update what happened to the Marshall sons.
Profile Image for Dawn.
678 reviews14 followers
February 19, 2013
I don't typically read true crime, but I was drawn to this because it happened in Toms River. What I didn't expect was that Toms River actually becomes a character in this book. The contempt and disdain McGinniss feels for the town and its people comes through loud and clear. It's like he blames Toms River for Maria's death. It was so strange for me, reading his impressions of Toms River that in no way match up with my experience. Maybe it was different in the 80's, or maybe it's because I didn't run with the country club crowd that features heavily in the book, but it was like reading about a strange town that I'd never heard of or set foot in, not a town that I lived most of my life in. I actually became offended by McGinniss's venom.

As for the book, I found it interesting. I liked the way the first part was about the Marshalls' perspective and the second part was about the perspective of law enforcement. Once again, McGinniss's contempt comes through when he talks about areas he thought detectives and prosecutors dropped the ball. Some of the writing was a little cheesy. For example, he compares the three hit men to Snow White's dwarfs and then says, "But Snow White had been dead since September and the net around Rob Marshall was tightening fast."

I would have given this book four stars, but I was really annoyed that McGinniss changed the names of the hit men and the mistress. I can understand doing that for some of the minor players, but these were major people involved in the crime and trial. The trial had to have been heavily covered in the press at that time, meaning all their names were a matter of public record. Even in the days before the Internet, people would have known their names. The fact that he changed them for no discernible reason made me wonder what else he changed. How much of the book is fact and how much fiction?

He clearly did a lot of research, but one little nitpicky thing he got wrong really bothered me. It's something a lot of people get wrong, but I can't believe in all the people he talked to, no one told him that it's Toms River High School East, not Toms River East High School! Come on, all three of the boys went there. I'm sure they told him the real name of their school.

Interestingly, Rob Marshall will be eligible for parole next year. If even a little bit of this book is true, I hope they never let him out.
Profile Image for Naomi.
4,795 reviews143 followers
February 28, 2015
Joe McGinniss is a really, really creepy guy to me (like I would not want to be alone in a room with him without someone knowing where I was), so I could see him writing this book. Enough so that I could see him being the center of one of his true crime novels. However, Joe McGinniss is the author of several of my favorite true crime novels. Maybe creepiness and true crime go hand in hand. This book is a true winner. It is one that I read about 20 years ago or whenever it first came out and has stayed with me still, enough to where I have followed what happened to the father and know he is no longer on death row...Our system of justice at work again!
Profile Image for Bookish Baddie ♡.
79 reviews12 followers
January 13, 2024
Just wanna say, FCK ROB! evil, manipulative mf. He deserved that death penalty! I’m just mad he died of natural causes before it could be carried out.
Profile Image for Cathi.
225 reviews9 followers
July 17, 2015
So, yes, I love true crime books. This one was so tightly written- the pacing of the trial was somewhat slow (for me), but it's a compelling read. My one quibble, and maybe this is just my feeble brain, is that McGinniss uses aliases for almost everyone in the book and gave the central detective and one of the suspects very similar names. This may have been true for their real names as well, but I would've appreciated a little more differentiation.

Definitely a bit of a period piece at this point, both in the time it took place and certain language in the book. Would recommend to any true crime fans. Purchased from my local 2 Buck Books- I will definitely be back for more McGinniss.
Profile Image for Hubert.
853 reviews70 followers
August 7, 2015
Very engaging! A real-life crime page-turner with characters who deserve either our scorn or our sympathy. The second part of the book (the trial, the sentencing) flows better than the first (I believe.). McGinniss is an excellently prosaic writer, at once satirical yet detail-oriented.
Profile Image for Aura Erickson.
588 reviews7 followers
September 3, 2021
A good true crime story. The story is about the brutal murder of a mother of three. Her husband's addiction to gambling, drugs, and extramarital sex let him to hire someone to murder her.
Profile Image for Ross Wilcox.
Author 1 book42 followers
September 18, 2021
A salacious account of a materialistic man and his shameless murder for hire plot. It's easy to see why it's a classic work of true crime.
111 reviews
May 24, 2025
This book was my grandmothers. It sounded vaguely familiar, so I thought I may have read it before. While I had not read it before, I did see the 2 part series back in the late 80s or early 90s. I like that this true story was broken up into different perspectives: The boys, the investigation, and the trial. Another crime referenced in the book sounded familiar so I tried to look it up but found no information. It turns out other names were changed. I enjoy reading and seeing good old fashioned police work and a prosecutor that doesn't try to cater to criminals. Now that so much time has passed it is good to see that they were right all along. What a shame the actual killer got off only to come clean years later when he in for good. The death penalty should have been imposed. This book also shows the change in morals from the 80s until now which I found interesting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for debra.
4 reviews35 followers
January 8, 2022
“you couldn’t have waited,” he said. “you couldn’t have waited one lousy week so i could have had christmas with my boys.”
“hey, scumbag,” one of the arresting officers said. “they don’t get to have christmas with their mother, why should they have it with you?”

enough said.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kim Hunter .
18 reviews2 followers
September 7, 2020
The commentary from the boys in this book definitely makes this book.
Profile Image for Bob Box.
3,133 reviews18 followers
December 6, 2020
Read in 1990. Bracing true crime novel of a businessman charged with the contract killing of his wife. Intense, well researched and shocking. One of my favorites that year.
Profile Image for Casey St..
22 reviews
June 27, 2021
This book was good but it jumped around a little too much for me. But it was very well written. I wonder if the youngest son ever realized that his father was guilty?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Kathleen Riggs.
564 reviews20 followers
September 9, 2021
GREED, LUST, AND MURDER, A DEFINITE PAGE-TURNER
Blind Faith by author Joe McGinnis is an extremely well written book and I found I could not put the book down. The story is riveting and there are a numerous number of characters in the book so there is a lot of switching back and forth in the timeline of events that leads to Maria’s death and eventually a trial and prison for those responsible. There are good guys, bad guys, investigators, insurance policies, pay-outs, motels, phone records, credit reports, receipts. so, a lot to follow but a rewarding read.
Rob and Maria Marshall live in Toms River with their three children and Tom is an insurance salesman, and his wife Maria is a housewife. Tom believes their standing in the community is very important when they move there. To Tom the image of his family is everything not only the way they dress but the perfect family they must portray to everyone. They drive the right car, mix in the correct circle of people, join the country club and are seen at all the right places (restaurants, friends, diner party’s) in the town of Toms River.
Tom’s life consists of his image he has of himself and leads to a life of adultery, gambling, and drugs and then one night the murder of Maria whilst the couple drive home from Atlantic City. Tom pulled over to check his tire and the story he tells police when they arrive is he gets knocked out and when he came to, he found his wife has been shot dead.
The town that thought Tom could do no wrong soon realise as the police investigate Maria’s murder that when the mask Rob Marshall wore and is taken off nothing is what it seemed.
The sad part is once the trial starts you find Tom is a legend in his own mind and will do anything to get of going to jail. Tom’s only love is for himself, he is materialistic, loves money, is greedy, and lies. He even lies to his three children that he had nothing to do with their mother’s murder and then asks one son to lie for him on the witness stand as it comes to the end of the trial.
I have read a few books by Joe McGinnis and am never disappointed. A true crime thriller of greed, lust, and murder, a definite page-turner, and a book I would highly recommend.
I am part of the ARC group for Wildblue Press and BookSirens and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Profile Image for Shannon.
25 reviews2 followers
Read
June 25, 2022
Having grown up near Toms River and actually worked there for YEARS I was really excited to read this book! I'd never heard of this case and this book was given to me by my mother who remembers exactly where she was when she first heard about the murder. She puts it best, saying "I was out shopping and heard it come over the store radio and said out loud 'The husband did it!' but could never have predicted how WILD the story would be!"

The book was certainly a page turner. I really enjoyed the way it was set up in three parts-first the family's side and then the investigation's side-saving the trial for last. I think I blew through it in just two days. It almost reads like fiction, the dialogue (which is honestly probably fabricated) and details are woven in seamlessly and feel really natural. A lot of true crime books can feel weighed down by information and it can feel like a chore to read excerpt after excerpt. Never did I feel like the pace slowed or got bogged down. The boys were probably my favorite part, my heart goes out for them and I can't imagine going what they had to go through.

I did find it funny how often Toms River was described as ritzy or opulent. Having spent great a deal of time there... it's absolutely not. Perhaps it has changed since the 80s, perhaps the residents are people who want to LOOK like they have money (which is certainly a possibility having read the book), but no one around here would call Toms River a hub of wealth and prestige. You'd have to travel twenty miles north for that. Also some of the twists at the end won't be shocking for anyone familiar with the area either-let's just say it certainly had a reputation the past couple years.
534 reviews10 followers
April 16, 2018
Joe McGinniss plays loose with calling this a true crime thriller. The story the book is based on is all too true but, the dialogue throughout the book would have been impossible for McGinniss to know. Also, the characters in the book, other than the victim and her family, have had their names changed in the book. The guy who actually pulled the trigger even has his name disguised. I read this book many years ago and didn't think much about the names. In this day of the internet it is all too easy to find out who the actual characters are and what has happened to them over time. I won't spoil it for others who might want to read the book and then follow up on line.
Profile Image for Anita Smith.
268 reviews43 followers
March 26, 2017
I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. There was just way, WAY too much backstory on the conspiracy part and Louisiana. I just started flipping through those pages because I was so bored. I would have rather had that page space dedicated to more of the history of Rob and Maria Marshall's marriage through the years, and when exactly things started to change. I found myself skipping through a lot of the book just to get to the end already, and by the time I did get to the end, I was just kind of over the whole thing. There are much better true crime books out there.
Profile Image for Jane.
414 reviews
January 3, 2010
One of the most remarkable reads of all time in the crime non-fiction genre. Because of a stepfather's love, a wily and brilliant killer was finally brought to justice, after the US military had given up on the case. His name was Freddie Kassab, and what stands out for me was this gentleman's absolute devotion to running down the killer, even after the woman's mother herself had lost heart. His name was Freddie Kassab, and he was a tremendous person.
Profile Image for Charlene.
875 reviews694 followers
October 19, 2016
The best true crime books provide some type of novel insight about the criminal justice system or human nature, often difficult to do without adding too many opinions that ruin the book. This book certainly was not polluted with opinions aimed at telling the reader what to think, which was the best part about this book. However, it shot too far in the other direction and seemed to provide only the most surface representation of this crime.
Profile Image for Ti.Me.
579 reviews13 followers
September 27, 2019
When you're married to an insurance salesman and turn up dead in his car, widespread suspicion starts immediately. The perfect mother, loving sons, a marriage of 20+ years and a country club lifestyle - devastated by a shocking killing. By whom? Why?

With a thriller feel, Blind Faith takes us from family life to crime scene to memorial mass, then on to the interrogation and court rooms, with quotes and facts from all key individuals involved.

A 5-star job by Joe McGuiness.
Profile Image for Perri.
1,499 reviews59 followers
November 12, 2015
A great read for those who enjoy the true crime genre. The first third is the crime, the second the investigation and the third the trial. It's incredible that A. murderers think they can get away with their crimes and B. sometimes they do.
Profile Image for Carl J..
43 reviews
October 1, 2024
McGinniss at his best

The book is a page-turner, grippingly told and engagingly written. I’ve loved McGinniss’ writing since his days in newspapers. Gone too soon, but his bright legacy remains.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 190 reviews

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