Houston is the garden spot of murder in the western hemisphere--in fact, it has the highest incidence of violent death of...

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BLOOD AND MONEY

Houston is the garden spot of murder in the western hemisphere--in fact, it has the highest incidence of violent death of any town on earth. And the money there prompts people to live more lavishly than a Renaissance prince. When a well-known plastic surgeon built himself a hundred-thousand-dollar ""music room"" in which to play his imperial grand piano and 108-speaker hifi system (it had four miles of wiring in the walls), and then found out that his wealthy wife intended to divorce him from room and all because of his philandering, he apparently poisoned her--but was never convicted of a crime. In revenge, her father (evidently) put out a ""contract"" on the musical surgeon and he in turn was murdered. The assassin and his female accomplices were brought to trial--but the assassin himself was shot to death. Did the poisoned (?) wife's father, who is still free, actually hire the assassin? You decide--and Thompson knows just what you'll decide. This is his most assured and ambitious book so far (he wrote Hearts, Riehie, and Lost), somewhat over-novelized, but nonetheless a drama as tight as a sudden adhesive tape over your mouth in bed. Nondecaffeinated all-night reading.

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 1976

ISBN: 0786709472

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

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