Blood and Money: A True Story of Murder, Passion, and Power

Blood and Money is a superb true crime story, better than most fictional crime novels, as Thomas Thompson recounts: (i) the 1969 murder of a wealthy Houston socialite, Joan Robinson Hill; (ii) the unsuccessful prosecution of Joan's husband (a famous plastic surgeon) for the murder; and (iii) the (alleged) contract killing of the husband by the Joan's father. The book has it all — big personalities, rich and famous people behaving badly, an oil magnate who pressures the local prosecutor to pursue a weak murder case, a controversial autopsy, and an astonishing sequence of murders. In fiction, they would be implausible; but in fact, these really did occur and Thompson has written a gripping and entertaining account.