Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial

Hardcover
$15.46

Paperback
$40.36

Learn more

Read for Free

OR

Digital List Price:	$25.99
Kindle Price:	$20.21 Save $5.78 (22%)
Sold by:	Amazon.com.ca, Inc.

Promotions are applied when you make a purchase

Read with our free app

You have subscribed to ! We will pre-order your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we’ll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the author

Thomas Thompson

Follow

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

by Thomas Thompson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 2,768 ratings

See all formats and editions

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you borrow the Kindle edition of this book with your Kindle Unlimited membership. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

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).

Print length

484 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Open Road Media
Publication date

Dec 13 2016
File size

5699 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

Enabled
Enhanced typesetting

Enabled
See all details

Report an issue with this product

Sarah Goodwin
6,816
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $9.99
Terry Hayes
93,304
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Burl Barer
1,315
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $14.99
Andrea Bartz
15,447
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99
Julian Sancton
3,337
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $13.99

Popular Highlights in this book

What are Popular Highlights?

“The law is fairly clear on this. If you owe a duty to a person and if you fail to perform it, and death results, then you are guilty of homicide.”
Highlighted by 115 Kindle readers
If you tell yourself something long enough and hard enough, then it becomes impossible to distinguish between what really happened and what should have happened.
Highlighted by 113 Kindle readers
Any lawyer who knows his way to the courthouse also knows that the system is majestic and at the same time maddening, corrupt, and pliable to the whims of politics, influence, and money.
Highlighted by 89 Kindle readers

Product description

About the Author

Thomas Thompson was also the author of such titles as Hearts, Richie, Lost, and the compelling best-seller Serpentine. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01NBJYHPW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (Dec 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: #239,356 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #30 in Southwest United States History eBooks
- #454 in Criminal Biographies
- #500 in Murderer Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.3 2,768 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Thomas Thompson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

L.J.R.esq

For true, true crime affectionados A MUST READ!

Reviewed in Canada on April 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

TOCruisader

Excellent true crime “novel” of the 1970’s!! Love it!!

Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Good used edition!

Helpful

HuskyHollow

Totally enjoyed this book

Reviewed in Canada on October 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

Can't believe I hadn't run across this yrs ago. I wasn't familiar with the story but the author skillfully developed the twists and turns. The old adage that "truth is stranger than fiction" comes to mind.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Dr. Ezzat F Guirguis

Verbose

Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

A novel yes but a blow by blow of court hearings a boring detailed dissection of the personalities of every single character in the novel is more than any stomach can handle.
Thrives spuriously on page after page of boring innuendo and grubby characters does the novel no credit. Boring beyond words. A decadent writer describing a de attend society

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Gwen Schwarz

Really Good Read

Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

Very suspenseful, fast-paced, and good character development.

Helpful

C. J. Nunn

A very "Gripping" read!!

Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2001

I read "Blood and Money" years ago, not long after it was released. Since that time, I have read many, many books, some good and many bad...This was one book I will never forget. Being from Texas as I am, I read about a wealthy family from my home state that was embroiled in a scandalous murder investigation. How John Hill killed his wife (I'm not giving anything away saying this..it was in the news)was nothing short of horrific.In the book, there were parts that seemed to drag on, although all parts of the investigation must be considered to understand how the murder was committed. It has its surprises!!! Once you get into the relationships in this book, you won't want to put it down! If you like a good mystery, you won't be dissappointed.

Reviewed in Canada on July 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

Excellent read

Reviewed in Canada on September 17, 2022

Verified Purchase

It was interesting at first but I found it boring in the end- I skimmed the last few chapters and just read the last chapter. Too many unnecessary details, I would never want to read any of this author’s books again!

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Werner Thomas

Better than fiction

Reviewed in Germany on February 24, 2019

Verified Purchase

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

Clem

Houston's most infamous murder story

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

When Steven Spielberg signed up to direct the movie Jaws, he read the novel as part of his preparation. He then came away with an astute observation. The book, he stated, made the majority of the characters so unlikable, that you ended up rooting for the shark. I felt that way a bit after reading this gruesome, sad, true-story. I had a very hard time liking any of the characters.

The center of this true story is Ash Robinson. Ash is an ambitious, wealthy oil man who finds his niche in the city of Houston, Texas during the oil boom of the 1930s and 1940s. This is a man who does not suffer fools gladly, and you get the impression that he would step on his mother’s neck if he could make a quick buck doing so. Ash and his wife can’t have children, so around this time, they adopt a (some say Ash’s illegitimate) baby girl. The little girl’s name is Joan. Ash becomes mightily smitten, and spoils her mightily.

Living in the uppity River Oaks subdivision (where the richest of the rich live in Houston), Joan, not surprisingly becomes a bit of a spoiled brat. With her rich Daddy doting all over her, she’s soon becomes an expert at horse riding and quickly amasses a room full of trophies and ribbons as she grows into adulthood. After one competition, Joan and Ash are repulsed that she only wins second place, and she throws her ribbon in disgust at a hotel porter. In addition to being very rich, she’s also quite attractive, so she finds herself being courted by a bunch of young rich men that are drawn to her despite her filthy mouth and chain smoking tendencies. Her first two marriages quickly fail, yet one gets the impression this is because wealthy Ash doesn’t want to share his trophy daughter with other men, and interferes quite heavily. Such is the life of the rich and famous.

And then she meets John Hill. John is a young up and coming plastic surgeon. Living the life of the rich and famous is just what such an ambitious young man needs to further his career. Soon Joan and John are married. At this point, Joan now becomes a victim with John taking center stage as a bizarre, off-the-wall manipulator. The marriage falters after a few years. Almost overnight, Joan goes from being slightly sick to becoming deathly ill. By the time Joan is taken to the hospital, she’s dead.

For obvious reasons, Ash is convinced that his monster son-in-law killed his beloved girl, and a man with this much power and clout will stop at nothing to bring about a murder conviction. At this point in the narrative, the story has the appeal of a Peyton Place drama, but once the detective work and murder trials begin, the book does get a bit bogged down with too many details. Despite much of the evidence, John is never convicted of killing his wife. His new wife, Anne, is a bit of a weird-duck, and seems almost as unstable as the rest of these bananas. Anne and John’s marriage goes off the rails as well, and she testifies that John told her that he actually did kill Joan. Hearsay and proof are two different things, however.

So then John moves onto wife #3. Things finally seem to be going well, until they come home from a vacation and find an intruder in their house who shoots and kills John. A random act of violence? Or a ticked-off wealthy father-in-law hiring an assassin to get revenge? Here’s where the narrative again changes. Now, the focus on the book is finding John’s killer who managed to escape the scene of the crime.

As the case progresses, we find ourselves no longer within the sheltered wealthy community of River Oaks, and instead, immersed in a world of prostitutes, pimps, runaways, and drug addicts. Good detective work finds the people who actually pulled the trigger, but then they (and we) want to know ‘why’. In other words, “Was Ash Robinson behind this?”

So we then proceed to a long, lengthy trial where the author seems to relive every single detail of the trial and the alleged connection. Again, the story is good, but it almost feels like we’ve moved on from Peyton Place to a rerun of Law and Order.

I felt this was a very satisfying read, albeit a tragic one. I was reminded again how having gobs of money can never make anyone truly happy. Even without the murders and deaths, you’re left to believe that the people, had they lived, would have had a very shallow existence. This book was the rage in Houston when it was released in 1976 (about 7 or 8 years after the incidents occurred), and it might not have the same appeal now that it’s been 40 years later, but it’s still a very good, yet sad read.

NOTE: John Hill’s second wife Anne actually wrote an account about John and Joan several years after this book was released. The book was much more cookie-cutter, but I read it as a 15-year-old for a High School Civics class, and I found it very good as well. That book was called “Prescription Murder” and is since out of print, but one might find it with some digging. Unlike this book that tends to paint Anne as loopy as a loon, you definitely don’t feel that way about her after reading her own account. Strangely, she seems to hint that John, being a plastic surgeon, faked his death, received extensive cosmetic surgery, and ended up moving to Mexico incognito. There was even a television mini-series based on the book called “Murder in Texas” starring Andy Griffith and Farrah Fawcett.

20 people found this helpful

weewummin

one of the best true crime

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract and engage customers	Amazon Business Everything for your business	Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Warehouse Deals Open-Box Discounts

	Whole Foods Market We Believe in Real Food	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust	Blink Smart Security for Every Home

OR

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

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

Customers who bought this item also bought

Product description

About the Author

Product details

About the author

Thomas Thompson

Customer reviews

Top reviews from Canada

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries