Cruel doubt /

The bare facts: Bonnie and Lieth Von Stein were savagely attacked in their North Carolina home; Lieth died of stab wounds and severe beatings; Bonnie survived, inheriting Lieth's two-million-dollar estate; Angela, Bonnie's daughter was in the adjoining bedroom but was not attacked; Bonnie's son, Chris, was away at college in Chapel Hill. The few pieces of evidence: a burned map, written in Chris's handwriting, giving directions to the Von Stein house; a blood-splattered paperback; a mysterious bag. The suspects: James Upchurch, a college friend of Chris' and the charismatic leader of a group of college kids who spent long hours role-playing Dungeons & Dragons and taking drugs; Neal Henderson, a burly genius and college dropout. The unfolding scenario: a fascinating tangle of conflicting evidence, conflicting loyalties, and a mother's stoic, at time almost irrational, belief in her child's innocence. Fatal Vision author McGinniss was brought into this case at the request of Bonnie Von Stein, and his literary prominence may explain the high level of accessibility he received from victims, investigators, and suspects. Chris was lost in drugs and medieval fantasies. He was failing college, and his rich stepfather was unsupportive. Suspects Upchurch and Henderson never quite receive the character detailing the Von Steins get, but both men's testimonies reveal copious discrepancies. McGinniss is clearly sympathetic to the family, yet is objective enough to stress that they seldom appeared either likable or grieving and that the evidence, though circumstantial, is daunting. The sense that many facts remain hidden is quite inescapable. Look for a second treatment of the Von Stein killing in November, as Bitter Blood author Jerry Bledsoe's Blood Games appears. Expect to hear a lot about this headline-grabbing case in the coming months. (Reviewed Sept. 1, 1991)0671679473Peter Robertson

McGinniss's ( Fatal Vision ) forceful account of a 1988 murder plotted by avid players of the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons spent two weeks on PW 's hardcover bestseller list and was a Literary Guild special selection. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Like Jerry Bledsoe's Blood Games ( LJ 9/15/91), McGinniss recounts the terrible events of July 25, 1988 when Lieth Von Stein was fatally stabbed and his wife Bonnie severely injured. Suspicion quickly focused on Chris, their son, and his friends, college students immersed in a world of drugs, alcohol, and the game Dungeons and Dragons. While Bledsoe's more straightforward account focuses on Chris and his friends, particularly James Upchurch III, who was found guilty of the actual murder, McGinnis tells the story from Bonnie's perspective, portraying a widow who relentlessly pursues the truth about the crime while acting also as a loving mother, unwilling to accept the truth about her son's involvement. In a book that's more a psychodrama than a detective story, McGinniss has drawn a riveting portrait of parental devotion that flies in the face of the truth. His reputation as a brutally honest storyteller ( Fatal Vision , LJ 9/1/83; Blind Faith , LJ 1/89) will attract many readers. Highly recommended.--Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Reporting on the same crime as Jerry Bledsoe in Blood Games (see above), McGinniss (Blind Faith, 1988; Fatal Vision, 1983, etc.) again shows why he heads the ranks of true-crime authorsdelivering a page-burner of shifting suspicions, macabre ironies, and reversals of field too extreme for fiction. In the early morning of July 25, 1988, in the town of Washington, N.C., Bonnie Von Stein, 44, and her second husband, Lieth, were attacked in their bedroom by a stranger wielding a club and a knife. Lieth was killed and Bonnie survived with stab wounds, head lacerations, and a collapsed lung. Having almost no clues, detectives turned their attention to Bonnie's college-age son and daughter. When the children were brought to intensive care, they seemed bored by their mother and completely indifferent to their stepfather's death. As she recuperated, Bonnie also seemed too cool, too efficient to the local gumshoes. When it was discovered that Lieth had left two million dollars, she too became a suspect. Eventually the investigation narrowed to Chris Pritchard (Bonnie's son) and his college buddies. Instead of going to class, they played weeks-long games of Dungeons & Dragons, acting out fantasies fueled by alcohol, Ecstasy, pot, and much LSD. Eleven months after the attack, Pritchard was charged with murder and a long manhunt began for the ``Dungeon Master,'' a shady figure named Moog. Pritchard had sent Moog and another player to his family house: If they killed the parents, there would be enough money for Ferraris, top-end stereo equipment, and serious computers. Covering the trial, McGinniss draws a chilling portrait of Pritchard's lawyer agonizing over the good chance he has of getting Pritchard off. The lawyer dislikes Pritchard's insolence and tells his colleagues he fears the boy will murder again if acquittedso he cuts a deal with the D.A. ensuring that Pritchard will not be executed, but will do life. Exciting reading that edges out Bledsoe's account and, no doubt, will hit the charts and find a home there.