Most Popular Books by Joe McGinniss

The electrifying true crime story of Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald, the handsome, Princeton-educated physician convicted of savagely slaying his young pregnant wife and two small children—murders he vehemently denies committing.... “Chilling. . . . A haunting resurrection of Crime and Punishment.”—Time Bestselling author Joe McGinniss chronicles every aspect of this horrifying and intricate crime and probes the life and psyche of the magnetic, all-American Jeffrey MacDonald—a golden boy who seemed destined to have it all. The result is a penetration to the heart of darkness that enshrouded one of the most complex criminal cases ever to capture the attention of the American public. It is a haunting, stunningly suspenseful work that no reader will be able to forget. Includes a Special Epilogue by the author OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD

The shocking true story of greed, murder, and a family torn apart. At thirty-nine, Nancy Kissel had it all: glamour, gusto, garishly flaunted wealth, and the royal lifestyle of the expatriate wife. Not to mention three young children and what a friend described as "the best marriage in the universe." That marriage—to Merrill Lynch and former Goldman Sachs investment banker Robert Kissel—ended abruptly one November night in 2003 in the bedroom of their luxury apartment high above Hong Kong''s glittering Victoria Harbour. Why? Hong Kong prosecutors, who charged Nancy with murder, said she wanted to inherit Rob''s millions and start a new life with a blue-collar lover who lived in a New Hampshire trailer park. She said she''d killed in self-defense while fighting for her life against an abusive, cocaine-addicted husband who had forced her for years to submit to his brutal sexual demands. Her 2005 trial, lasting for months and rich in lurid detail, captivated Hong Kong''s expatriate community and attracted attention worldwide. Less than a year after the jury of seven Chinese citizens returned its unexpected verdict, Rob''s brother, Andrew, a Connecticut real estate tycoon facing prison for fraud and embezzlement, was also found dead: stabbed in the back in the basement of his multimillion-dollar Greenwich mansion by person or persons unknown. Never Enough is the harrowing true story of these two brothers, Robert and Andrew Kissel, who grew up wanting to own the world but instead wound up murdered half a world apart; and of Nancy Kissel, a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, a modern American woman for whom having it all might not have been enough. In this singularly compelling narrative, Joe McGinniss—past master at exposing the dark heart of the American family in the bestsellers Fatal Vision, Blind Faith, and Cruel Doubt—explores his darkest and most disturbing subject yet: a smart and beautiful family so corroded by greed that it destroys itself from within. Here is a family saga almost biblical in its tragic proportion but dazzlingly modern in flavor—and utterly unstoppable in its pulsating narrative drive. From the shimmering skyscrapers and greed-drenched bustle of Hong Kong to the moneyed hush and hauteur of backcountry Greenwich, McGinniss lures readers irresistibly forward, as this twisted tale of ambition gone mad and love gone bad rushes to its terrible, inexorable conclusion.

The sordid, #1 New York Times bestselling true crime story of adultery, addiction, gambling debt, and murder in a privileged suburban town—from author and journalist Joe McGinniss. The Marshalls were the model family of Tom’s River, New Jersey, living the American dream and seemingly in possession of all that money could buy. Rob Marshall, a successful insurance broker, 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 while the couple drove home from Atlantic City, 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.

Master storyteller Joe McGinniss travels to Italy to cover the unlikely success of a ragtag minor league soccer team--and delivers a brilliant and utterly unforgettable story of life in an off-the-beaten-track Italian village. When Joe McGinniss sets out for the remote Italian village of Castel di Sangro one summer, he merely intends to spend a season with the village''s soccer team, which only weeks before had, miraculously, reached the second-highest-ranking professional league in the land. But soon he finds himself embroiled with an absurd yet irresistible cast of characters, including the team''s owner, described by the New York Times as "straight out of a Mario Puzo novel," and coach Osvaldo Jaconi, whose only English word is the one he uses to describe himself: "bulldozer." As the riotous, edge-of-your-seat season unfolds, McGinniss develops a deepening bond with the team, their village and its people, and their country. Traveling with the miracle team, from the isolated mountain region where Castel di Sangro is located to gritty towns as well as grand cities, McGinniss introduces us to an Italy that no tourist guidebook has ever described, and comes away with a "sad, funny, desolating, and inspiring story--everything, in fact, a story should be" (Los Angeles Times).

" ... presents a portrait of a man at war with himself, doomed to live in the giant shadow of his brothers, longing to escape, yet afraid to try"--Page 4 of cover

An account of life in today''s Alaska takes in whites, Eskimos, and Native Indians, cities, towns, and wilderness, industry and trapping, and the idiosyncracies, dangers, vastness, and wonders of America''s last frontier.

The son of renowned author Joe McGinniss—celebrated for works like The Selling of the President and true crime blockbusters Fatal Vision and Cruel Doubt—delivers a raw and deeply moving memoir that explores the complicated bonds between fathers and sons, set against a backdrop of fame, addiction, and the relentless pursuit of redemption. Joe McGinniss was a paradox: a brilliant writer whose dazzling achievements were overshadowed by personal demons. At age twenty-six, he became the youngest living person to top the New York Times bestseller list, for his book The Selling of the President about Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign. Shortly after, he walked out on his wife and their three young children. His oldest son, Joe McGinniss Jr., went on to become a writer himself, known for his critically acclaimed novels The Delivery Man and Carousel Court. In the memoir Damaged People, McGinniss Jr. vividly recounts his affectionate yet stormy relationship with his famous father, capturing moments of tenderness and humor amid the chaos and tension. The prosaic commitments of full-time fatherhood held little appeal for Joe McGinniss, a superstar author who proudly relished the freedom to chase stories anywhere his curiosity led. He rose to prominence with a trilogy of true crime blockbusters in the 1980s and early ’90s, Fatal Vision, Blind Faith, and Cruel Doubt. Notoriously, he found himself the subject of Janet Malcom’s The Journalist and the Murderer, a book accusing him of manipulating one of his subjects. Controversy would dog the rest of his journalistic career, as he was accused of falsifying details in his 1993 biography of Ted Kennedy and his 2011 biography of Sarah Palin. His life was a turbulent mix of success and scandal, marked by alcoholism, depression, and an obsessive dedication to his craft that often left his family struggling to stay afloat. Now a father raising a son of his own, McGinniss Jr. wrestles with the legacy of his upbringing and his father’s self-destruction, striving to create a stable and nurturing environment for his child. The pressures of modern parenting—ranging from competitive school admissions to the mental health challenges that today’s youth face—force him to confront long-buried demons of ambition and obsession. Damaged People dives deep into the heartbreak of unfulfilled expectations and the beauty of second chances, offering an unflinching look at what it means to grow into a more compassionate and present parent. Bringing a novelist’s storytelling skills to this deeply personal story, McGinniss Jr. delivers a poignant tale of grace, resilience, and growth, showing us that even in the face of fractured relationships, there’s hope for healing and a brighter future.

After three years of research, McGinniss presents his already controversial and much anticipated investigative chronicle of Sarah Palin as an individual, politician, and cultural phenomenon.

Joe McGinniss Jr., who is “poised to become one of our sharpest observers of life in America at the start of the twenty-first century” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), returns with one of the most engrossing, unnerving, and exhilarating novels in recent memory: a viscerally absorbing look at the seductive—and destructive—cutting edge of marriage. Nick and Phoebe Maguire are a young couple who move cross-country to Southern California in search of a fresh start for themselves and their infant son following a trauma. But they arrive at the worst possible economic time, cemented into the dark heart of foreclosure alley and surrounded by neighbors swamped by debt who set fire to their belongings, flee in the dead of night, and eye one another with suspicion while keeping shotguns by their beds. Trapped, broke, and increasingly desperate, Nick and Phoebe each devise their own plan to claw their way back into the middle class and beyond. Hatched under one roof, their two separate, secret agendas will inevitably collide. “A fearless novel about a family and a society on the brink…Harrowing but, against all odds, ultimately tender” (O, The Oprah Magazine), Carousel Court is an unforgettable vision of contemporary life. It has the ambition of our most serious literary work and the soul of a thriller, managing to be simultaneously sexy, scary, and powerfully moving. Most of all, it offers an unflinching portrait of modern marriage in a nation scarred by vanished jobs, psychotropic cure-alls, infidelity via iPhone, and ruthless choices. “Fast…Foreboding…Joe McGinniss spins an edgy tale, often laced with a reporter’s eye for the little details that make characters pop” (The Washington Post). He leaves you simultaneously gutted and grateful—and curious what your partner is up to on that electronic device across the room.

Joe McGinniss - journalist, investigative reporter, and horse racing obsessive - recounts the heartwarming story of veteran trainer P. G. Johnson who, in sixty years as a leading trainer at all three New York tracks, had never had a "big horse." Then, in his seventies, he bought a mare, bred her, and produced Volponi, who won the Breeder''s Cup Classic in 2002.

A search for the vanished American hero and the causes of his demise takes the form of an autobiographical commentary on the hero''s traits and attractions and on contemporary celebrities who might have achieved hero status.

"A gripping literary thriller and an auspicious debut" set against the surreal excess of Las Vegas from the author of Carousel Court (George Pelecanos, author and award-winning writer/producer of The Wire). After attending college in New York, Chase returns to Vegas and is drawn into the lucrative but dangerous world of a teenage call-girl service with his childhood friend Michele, a beautiful Salvadoran immigrant with whom he shares a tragic past. Over the course of one extraordinary summer, they will confront the violence and emptiness at the heart of the city and their generation. At once stark and electrically atmospheric, horrifying and hopeful, The Delivery Man is an ambitious literary novel as well as a fast and absorbing page-turner—and a powerful indictment of a society in which personal responsibility has been abandoned, lust is increasingly mistaken for love, and innocence is an anachronism. "A dead-of-night story surehandedly told in a pared-down, teeth-bared style reminiscent of Joan Didion." —Janet Fitch, New York Times–bestselling author of White Oleander "[A] brisk, bleak debut novel . . . offers unflinching glimpses at mores in free fall . . . searing . . . memorable . . . not for the faint of heart." — The New York Times Book Review "McGinniss offers a fresh take on the seamy side of Vegas by focusing on the wasted lives of burned-out teens hooked on drugs and money." — USA Today "It''s sex, drugs, and a slew of lost souls . . . engrossing . . . Could The Delivery Man be this decade''s Less Than Zero?" — Marie Claire "Grim, convincing, and compelling . . . The Delivery Man really delivers." — The Washington Post

Three people meet by accident in San Francisco.