DOWN TO THE BONE: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Publishing a True Crime Book in Today’s Litigious World

By Caitlin Rother

My deadline was only four months away—and I had 90,000 words written—when I finally obtained crucial discovery and source materials about the McStay family murder case that I’d been trying to get for nearly 12 years.

I was thrilled to receive this treasure trove of research: I now had thousands and thousands of pages of investigative reports from the two sheriff’s departments that had handled the case, witness interviews, and all kinds of exclusive background information that had never been disclosed publicly.

This is not the kind of material someone can get with a public records request. This is information that law enforcement agencies hold close to the vest, because it provides an inside look at what they did and when, what they knew and when they knew it (or didn’t know it). It also provides a basis for comparison for what witnesses said to detectives and what detectives were thinking at various points in time vs. what they and their witnesses testified to at trial. It also filled in many holes in the backstory that could only be provided by friends and family of the McStays, who were unwilling, for various reasons, to be interviewed. This made me very happy, because I was able to portray who the victims were and what they were going through at the time of their disappearance, without having to bother the survivors during their prolonged period of grief.

This new information enabled me not to only fact-check what I’d already written, but to go much further and much deeper into how this case was handled during the two investigations by the San Diego and San Bernardino County sheriff’s offices and, subsequently, at trial. The decisions that were made (or not made), and who said what when. Who was considered a person of interest, who was thoroughly investigated, and who wasn’t.

So, I read and read and read, going through as many files as I could, all while weaving juicy new tidbits into the narrative framework I’d already constructed. However, with so much new material, I not only had to rewrite and add information, I also had to delete sections that were not as compelling as what I had now received.

This was a mammoth task that required enormous concentration and self-editing skill. I ended up adding about 60,000+ words, which meant I had written a book and a half. That also meant I then had to cut down the manuscript to just one very detailed, accurate and legally safe book in a matter of weeks. By the time I was done, I was exhausted—it took me three months to recover—but I was proud of what I’d accomplished and the book I’d completed.

Joseph and Summer McStay and their two little boys mysteriously disappeared in February 2010. They left or were taken from their home in Fallbrook so abruptly that they left breakfast food out on their kitchen counter. This is where the prosecution’s timeline gets funky, because they say this happened only hours after Joseph had lunch with the man who built waterfalls for Joseph’s online business. After the family was reported missing, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department investigated this as a missing person’s case—despite the red flags of abandoned dogs, prescription glasses and ongoing business deals, and the extended family’s claims that the McStays would not have left town without telling anyone where they were going. Three years later, the detective finally gave up, saying he believed the family had voluntarily fled to Mexico. Eight months later, the family’s skeletal remains were found in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, which now turned this into a homicide case under the jurisdiction of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. About a year after that, Chase Merritt, the business associate who said he was the last person to see Joseph alive, was arrested for killing the entire McStay family, including the two little boys, by bludgeoning them with a 3-pound sledgehammer found in one of the graves.

This book, in short, takes a deep investigative look at this case, the flaws in the two investigations and in the trial that ultimately resulted in Merritt being sent to death row for this family’s brutal murder. Although I don’t take a position on his guilt or innocence, my book challenges the evidence and the handling of this case before and during the trial. It was, in a word, a messy case that leaves many questions unanswered and raises many more.

The McStay family has supported the jury’s verdict and say they believe Merritt is guilty, but he—and other people who contacted me with lengthy narratives explaining why they believed he was wrongly convicted—claim he is innocent. As usual, I present what I learned and uncovered, and I will let readers decide that question for themselves.

As some of you may know, this book, like every other true crime title, went through a rigorous legal review, which has become an increasingly difficult and tedious, albeit very necessary, process. With every true crime book I’ve written, the rules and restrictions seem to grow increasingly tighter, especially for the smaller, independent risk-averse publishers. Often, what was OK with the last book is no longer considered safe. It’s gotten to the point that this process has become so time- and energy-consuming that it’s almost prohibitive, especially the photo permissions part of it, which is why you may have noticed that some of my colleagues are focusing more on crime fiction these days, as am I. I haven’t given up on the genre, but I’m being much more selective these days. Today, the world is saturated with true crime stories on TV and podcasts, which believe it or not, makes it harder to sell books, because people think they already know the story, when in fact, these shows often rely on previously published material.

Combined with some internal issues going on at the publisher, this resulted in three delays of my book’s publication date. This was not only frustrating for me, but also for those readers who had pre-ordered the book and wanted to know the reason for the delays, which I’m still not at liberty to discuss. But I can say with confidence that the book, which was originally scheduled for release in January 2024, is definitely coming out on June 24, 2025, and I’m so excited to finally be able to talk to you all about it!

You’ll find a schedule of all the book talks and signings here. If you, your group, library or bookstore would like me to come and speak or you’d like to interview me for your podcast, please contact me at crother@flash.net.

I hope you’ll come to one of my book talks. I also hope that you’ll check out the new “Katrina and Goode” thriller series (Thomas & Mercer) that’s launching with the first book, HOOKED, 

on January 13, 2026, and a sequel later in the year. I’ve already written the third book and have finished a draft of #4, so wish me luck and stay tuned for news on whether I get another two-book deal when I submit them later this year.

Hope to see you soon!