If you are looking for a murder mystery with a bunch of weird, but very plausible twists, this is the book for you. The book opens with a very shocking murder in Jordan - Hare Stadium at the Iron Bowl, the annual Alabama - Auburn grid iron classic. The plot thickens to involve people on all levels of society, including very high officials in the SEC. I was happy to see that a some of my favorite characters from Woodfin's previous novel, "The Sickle's Compass: A Novel of Love, War, and Alzheimer's Disease," returned in this book.

I read the first couple of chapters, was interrupted and couldn't get back to the book until the next day. When I resumed reading, I stayed up until 2 a.m. the following night to finish, because I was physically incapable of putting the book down.

I give this book my highest recommendation and eagerly await the author's next novel.

This was an intreging read with lots of twists & turns in the plot as it developed the story line. I found it hard to put down at times. I'd highly recommend this book!

The author should have included more details of corruption in the NCAA.

Highly recommended. This is the fourth book by Woodfin I have read and I was not disappointed. This one is firmly up to his usual high standard. Suspense, a multiplicity of well developed characters, nice settings, and a well-crafted plot. Get it. You won't be disappointed either.

What could be more fun than a murder in broad daylight in front of thousads of fans at the biggest football game of the year? Nothing. Except following a great cast of characters as they unravel the mystery ad solve the case. This is a fast paced page turner filled with memorable characters and great dialog. A fun read.

"Money is Thicker Than Blood" is a fast paced who-dunit set in the deep south, where football is a religion and team rivalry runs deep and strong. While it appears that passion run amuck is the reason for a star football player being shot to death in a game, the truth is more chilling and complicated. Woodfin knows his subject and creates a likeable set of characters.

Sherwood (Shot Glass Reynolds) detective for Nashville PD and a former player, has an uncanny knack for piecing together obscure facts and coming up with a big picture. FBI Agent Slam Virgil drafts Shot Glass and his rookie partner, Josephus "JJ" Jeffers, to help solve the murder. While police procedure and probable behavior takes a back seat to story in this book it was an enjoyable read, even for someone who doesn't like or know about football.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book for an honest review. I was not compensated and no promise of a positive review was made or expected.

MONEY IS THICKER THAN BLOOD: MURDER IN THE SEC
by Stephen Woodfin
Copyright 2011 by Stephen Woodfin and Gallivant Press
Published in eBook format by Venture Galleries, LLC

For readers who like murder mysteries, with more than several offbeat goofy offbeat Southern characters, strong but cynical law enforcement characters and twists and turns, this book will be a real pleasure. Add to that great and humorous humorous one liners, such as "That's not income, that's cash" and, one of the lines that epitomizes one of the main running backdrop flavors to this book, "In Lee County, a person is a football fan first, a Christian second."
Running with the theme of football further (pun intended), the book grabs your attention with the first (of many subsequent) murder occurring in plain view of a staduim full of fans with no clue as to the perpetrator. This furnishes the opening for three investigators who happen to be attending the game, to meet and begin their complementary collaboration that takes all three of them all over the Gulf South and requires the unique talents of the three to solve this complicated case.
The two detectives of the Nashville Tenn. police department, Sherwood "Shot Glass" Reynolds, and Josephus "JJ" Jeffers, and FBI Special Agent "Slam" Virgil converge on the scene of the murder seconds after it occurs and quickly agree to team up. My only criticism of the book is a mild one; their meeting and being joined to work on the case is a bit too convenient and would not happen in real life, but this is fiction for pleasure and one is supposed to suspend the critical voice of everyday reality in reading escapist literature for fun and I found myself instead, grinning inwardly and being glad this contrivance was fashioned quickly by the author to get the story rolling. And this book starts off in good literary mystery action style in a hurry with the defining riddlle of the book hitting the reader literally before one sees it coming and engages the reader immediately in very entertaining fashion. Indeed the first murder comes out of nowhere and intrigues the reader from the first few pages, wondering "How could anyone murder an athlete in front of thousands of cheering fans watching his every move?" Further, the mystery is masterfully laid out as there is no hint or clue to the identity of the perpetrator, and the reasons for such a publicly viewed crime are beyond comphrehension.
The rest of the book is spent watching the investigators piecing together the motives, history, reasons, commission of the crime and its archtects through their travels, interviewing recalcitrant interested parties, all with varying though with opposing roles in the genesis of this many layered and historied crime that goes back three generations. Appropriate cynical treatment is granted iconic figures with each their own brand of corruption epitomized again by pithy, sardonic and hilarious one liners, such as, "My business is pleasure," and "He read verse 13 aloud: `Thou shalt not kill.' He closed the Bible and put it back on the shelf. `Those commandments are greatly overrated,' he said to himself."
The description and gradually evolving portrayals of the various factions of the villians are very entertaining but also intriguing. Just as you think you have the assignations of guilt figured out, i.e., who did what and why, the author pulls a 180 degree NASCAR turn, reverses course and you are left wondering once again, "Who did it?" and "Why?" As the book progresses this literary sleight of hand increases in mocking complexity as you revise again and again your own detective hypotheses to fit the abruptly contradictory revelations uncovered by the trio of detectives. Near the end of the book as more and more starts to get a teeny bit clearer (at least you think it is...), the villains are divided into two camps, the good `bad' guys and gals, and the really 'bad' bad guys and gals, as details come together like a foggy picture coming into focus more and more with each scene and illusory piece of clarifying evidence. By the end, one has a new empathy for some of the initial villains and views them entirely different to your own satisfied surprise.
By the end you realize you have only begun to get acquainted with the three heroes and hope that the author will further define them for us in sequels.
Notice: This reviewer was furnished a courtesy copy of this book with which to perform this review. The reviewer has no relationship with the author or publishers.
Frank B. Miller MD