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Rating: 4.3 (2970 reviews)

Thomas Thompson

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Blood and Money: The Classic True Story of Murder, Passion, and Power Kindle Edition

by Thomas Thompson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 2,970 ratings

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New York Times Bestseller: The “gripping” true story of a beautiful Texas socialite, her ambitious husband, and a string of mysterious deaths (Los Angeles Times).

Joan Robinson Hill was a world-class equestrian, a glamorous member of Houston high society, and the wife of Dr. John Hill, a handsome and successful plastic surgeon. Her father, Ash Robinson, was a charismatic oil tycoon obsessed with making his daughter’s every dream come true.

Rich, attractive, and reckless, Joan was one of the most celebrated women in a town infatuated with money, power, and fame. Then one morning in 1969, she fell mysteriously ill. The sordid events that followed comprise “what may be the most compelling and complex case in crime annals” (Ann Rule, bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me).

From the elegant mansions of River Oaks, one of America’s most exclusive neighborhoods, to a seedy underworld of prostitution and murder-for-hire, New York Times–bestselling author Thomas Thompson tracks down every bizarre motive and enigmatic clue to weave a fascinating tale of lust and vengeance. Full of colorful characters, shocking twists, and deadly secrets, Blood and Money is “an absolute spellbinder” and true crime masterpiece (Newsweek).

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Un-put-downable.” —People

“Thompson’s uncanny skill at evoking a sense of place still had the power to shock me years after I read Blood and Money. . . . Remarkable.” —Ann Rule, bestselling author of The Stranger Beside Me

“An extraordinary book. So absorbing and so suspenseful that even the most jaded reviewer will find it difficult to put down. In comparison, In Cold Blood seems shallow.” —TheWashington Post Book World

“A thoroughly absorbing epic of revenge. It has, as they say, everything—from gossip to grisliness, from savagery to suspense.” —The New York Times

“Required reading.” —Houston Chronicle

“A brilliant work of reportage.” —Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lonesome Dove

“Thompson has done a terrific job on this gaudy story, which can hardly be surpassed for crass opulence, crude energy, and morbid fascination.” —Newsweek

“The most gripping reading of the year.” —Los Angeles Times

“A massive, detailed book . . . [that] reads like a novel. . . . Thompson has, one feels, presented it fairly, dispassionately and skillfully. He may have a bestseller on his hands.” —The New York Times Book Review

“The most complex and interesting of any Texas murder except the Kennedy assassination. Thompson has done a superb job.” —Dallas Times Herald

“The legal reverberations of these events are still sounding through the Texas courtrooms. A formidable nonfiction thriller.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Thompson covers every twist, turn and dark secret of the sordid tale.” —Time

“The best [true crime book] I’ve read.” —Roger Ebert, bestselling author of Life Itself

“[Thompson’s] most assured and ambitious book . . . A drama as tight as a sudden adhesive tape over your mouth in bed. Nondecaffeinated all-night reading.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The high society of Houston’s ultra rich is the setting of a spellbinding account of a mysterious death and the bizarre consequences set in motion by the murderous grudge it produced. A variegated, brilliantly woven documentary.” —Library Journal

“The suspense is continuous. What happens in terms of the law, punishment, and death could, finally, perhaps only happen in real life. Stunning.” —Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Thomas Thompson (1933–1982) was a bestselling author and one of the finest investigative journalists of his era. Born in Forth Worth, Texas, he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and began his career at the Houston Press. He joined Life as an editor and staff writer in 1961 and covered many major news stories for the magazine, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy. As Paris bureau chief, Thompson reported on the Six-Day War and was held captive by the Egyptian government along with other Western journalists. His first two books—Hearts (1971), about the rivalry between two famous Houston cardiovascular surgeons, and Richie (1973), the account of a Long Island father who killed his drug-addicted son—established Thompson’s reputation as an originator, along with Truman Capote, of the “nonfiction novel.” In 1976, Thompson published Blood and Money, an investigation into the deaths of Texas socialite Joan Robinson Hill and her husband, John Hill. It sold four million copies in fourteen languages and won the Edgar Award and the Texas Institute of Letters prize for best nonfiction book. To research Serpentine (1979), an account of convicted international serial killer Charles Sobhraj, Thompson flew around the world three times and spent two years in Asia. His other books include Lost! (1975), a true story of shipwreck and survival, and the novel Celebrity (1982), a six-month national bestseller. Among numerous other honors, Thompson received the National Headliner Award for investigative reporting and the Sigma Delta Chi medallion for distinguished magazine writing.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01NBJYHPW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (December 13, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 13, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5699 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 484 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #162,353 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #23 in History of Southwestern U.S.
- #253 in Biographies & Memoirs of Criminals
- #366 in Biographies of Murder & Mayhem

Customer Reviews:
4.3 2,970 ratings

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Stefanie

Better than a John Grisham novel!

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023

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If you enjoy true crime, courtroom dramas, suspense novels, or plain good writing, this book is for you! Reads like excellent fiction. Engaging from the beginning to the very last page. A couple parts reflect the time in which it was written, and just have to be overlooked. The other 99% of it feels like it was written today.
Very highly recommend to everyone!

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Admiralu

Engrossing Story Dull Narration

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2019

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This was a page turned about the death of a socialite, her husband who was accused of her murder and those who conspired to kill her husband. It's a sad tale with no happy ending. I feel for Ash Robinson, a self made man who loved his daughter Joan and would do anything for her. Unfortunately, her taste in men was less than ideal. Her third husband, a doctor, was an awful man who killed her in a brutal and agonizing way and got away with it. He was later killed himself, as was his killer. The first section covers Joan, the second Jon Hill and the third covers the three conspirators who plotted to kill Jon Hill. Only one was convicted. A thrilling, page turner, including the trial at the end, I was sad not to see a footnote to find out what happened to the remaining participants. Bios of all involved, from doctors, to lawyers, police officers and more enhance the narrative and illuminate the story. I read this book using immersion reading while listening to the audio book. The narrator read the book with a dry voice that took a while to get used to. It was done in a monotone and would've been better with a more animated personality. A fantastic book nine the less.

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Loretta Dillon

The Greatest True Crime Book Ever Written

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2010

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Perhaps on a handful of occasions, you come across a story that can paradoxically alter and reinforce your understanding of the human condition. A story so rich in complex and interesting characters, their lives narrated with such vivid detail and telling dialogue, they have to be real people and not the imagined composites of a novelist. A story set so perfectly in a place and time in history that you come away believing for a while that you lived there, traveled the streets, overheard conversations or had supper with the denizens.

Of the hundreds of books I have enjoyed reading, like an endless buffet of delicious meals, there are few and far between the luscious delicacies found in Thomas Thompson's book, Blood and Money. This sumptuous feast requires slow, deliberate relish in order to luxuriate in every chapter like exquisitely prepared courses served in the finest restaurant. Before I had finished the first chapter of the book, I began to pace myself to allow the rare beauty and satisfying depth of this engrossing experience to linger.

Thompson's masterpiece made him famous, along with introducing the Robinson family to a worldwide audience. He tragically died at age 49 from an illness he acquired while researching another superb work, Serpentine, a riveting and bizarre true story about a serial killer who preyed on tourists in multiple continents. Were not Thompson's career cut short, I would be happily standing in line for his next offering. As it is, I have read and enjoyed every one of his books. His thorough understanding of human nature, exhaustive research and attention to detail, and his virtuoso ear for vernacular, anecdote and irony vaults his work far above the usual pulp suspense or crime genre into the category of great literature, along the lines of William Faulkner, James Joyce, or Dostoevsky. None of the reviews, dust cover blurbs, or quotes from publishers do justice to this book; there are no superlatives that can overstate its brilliance.

Blood and Money is set in Houston, Texas, from its beginnings as an uninhabitable swamp to its colorful and extraordinary ascension as a major power metropolis in America. Every influential player in the story is traced from childhood to his or her participation in the intricate drama, which at its core is a familiar tale of love, betrayal, murder, money, and revenge. Ash Robinson, a rags to riches hero, indulges his talented and popular daughter, Joan, to virtually anything her heart desires, including private education, champion horses, and three deadbeat husbands, the last of whom, plastic surgeon Dr. John Hill, probably murders her with a mysterious concoction of bacteria. I don't want to spoil the story, but suffice it to say I believe John Hill facilitated Joan's demise, if not precipitated it out of greed and expedience. Hill is a portrait of narcissism: self-serving ambition, reckless indulgence, cold and calculating cruelty, and with an overly protective, self-righteous mother who defends him to the bitter end. Some of you, like me, may despise Hill so intensely by the first half of the book, you begin rooting for the "bad guys" to escape punishment.

As in the Shakespearian tragedy, Macbeth, there are quite a few dead bodies before the end of the saga, and by now most of the survivors have passed on to the big oil rig in the sky. Unlike in most crime books, however, the reader is privy to an energetic biographical history of the lawyers, judges, prostitutes, pimps, gamblers, ruffians, cops, oil men, socialites, and even some famous Texan politicians, which could only be accomplished through massive research, countless interviews, and dissecting court transcripts and newspaper reports in an investigative fervor unmatched by many writers. Thompson was a journalist with obvious connections and charisma, in whom nearly everyone confided like a priest at the last rites.

Joan Robinson Hill is the most ambivalent character in the book, followed in a close second by her father, Ash, whose relationship with her was akin to worship. Unlucky in love, Joan is nevertheless adored by her family and friends, if not most of Houston, and represents the quintessential independent woman: talented, passionate, strong-willed, temperamental, philanthropic, and a devoted mother to her only child, a son she shared with the wretched Hill. Joan is no saint, but her failings and flaws are so endearing, she is someone with whom you can imagine being good friends or at least a doting admirer. Her death is only the beginning of a complex series of relationships, crime and murder.

If I tell you anything else, it will ruin the suspense. Buy a copy of Blood and Money. You will want to own this book, and savor every piquant page.

6 people found this helpful

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Eve S.

Starts to drone on, too long

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2019

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This was an interesting true crime novel that has all the elements: a glamorous rich beautiful woman, a possessive controlling father and his arch enemy a manipulative, greedy dishonest husband. I enjoyed reading about Joan Robinson Hill, Ash Robinson, John Hill, and the development of Houston in the early oil years. Here is where the book went wrong for me: I felt as if the author was reaching desperately to make the book longer, so he threw in page after page of information that was irrelevant and not interesting. If he had streamlined the investigation, organized his thoughts about the murderous trio and written about the trial in a more concise fashion, this book would have been 4 to 4.5 stars. Unfortunately, since I found the book 35% 'skimmable" it is a 3 star book for me.

4 people found this helpful

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Werner Thomas

Better than fiction

Reviewed in Germany on February 24, 2019

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A RICH AND HEAVY TALE ! And it's true ! You will forget everything around you !

L.J.R.esq

For true, true crime affectionados A MUST READ!

Reviewed in Canada on April 25, 2017

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A truly great read. An older book, thus a long read........... thank goodness. So, so well written, a story that twists and turns, I loved every minute of it. Much to convoluted to go into plot specifics, it has all the ingredients us TRUE true crime readers need. I have found some of the newer books to be to short, moreover some of the great authors have gone down hill. The only criticism I have is, on my Kindle read, no photographs! I would have loved to see each and every character in this book.

One person found this helpful

weewummin

one of the best true crime

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2017

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first read this in the 80s. and so began my love of true crime books. the early ann rule books are some of my favourites and often reread. this book is such a great read. very "meaty" and well written. was thrilled to find in kindle store.

2 people found this helpful

Pop culture man

A brilliantly written classic

Reviewed in Australia on January 30, 2017

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This is the story of some sensational events, including murder, in Houston in the late 1960s. It is brilliantly told by the author.

It is a long book, as Thompson takes time to draw in-depth portraits of all the many key players.
In these portraits, he tells the person's life history, building layer by layer a picture of their character which enables the reader to understand why that person behaves the way they do. These portraits are fully rounded, whether the person in question is rich and powerful or from lower social and economic echelons. For Thompson, this is a study of character more than anything else.

The narrative never drags, so crisp and instructive is Thompson's prose.

He covers the complex trial processes and tactics with clarity and conciseness.

So startling is the story it would be a good read in the hands of even a pedestrian writer. In the hands of Thompson, it is a classic.

One person found this helpful

KIERAN

Great

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2023

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Really enjoyed this book. A little long and confusing towards the end but a magnificently told and tragic story of love and loss.

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