"THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN HURT HER. THIS IS A WOMAN WITH NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE ..."

With these words from a distinguished North Carolina criminal lawyer, Joe McGinniss entered the bizarre and tangled life of Bonnie Von Stein, whose newly wealthy husband was brutally murdered as he lay in bed beside her. She herself was stabbed, beaten and apparently left for dead.

At her request, McGinniss set out on a search for the truth behind the crime --- only to discover a reality which threatened to eclipse even the worst of Bonnie's fears. As suspicion mounted that her twenty-year-old son had arranged the murder, and an eerie netherworld of leads unfolded, Bonnie staunchly defended him --- and her family.

Probing the dark heart of an American family, McGinniss brilliantly weaves together the twisted strands into a riveting account of apparently ordinary people in a small North Carolina town, whose lives and illusions were shattered one summer night in 1988. A murder mystery, a courtroom drama, a heartbreaking account of a mother's love and courage, Cruel Doubt is a terrifying true story you will not soon forget.

*** GENERAL FICTION ***