Blood and Oil

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What to expect

Longlisted for the 2020 Financial Times / McKinsey Business Book of the Year

"Blood and Oil is the fascinating and highly entertaining tale of Mohammed bin Salman's rise to power. With fly-on-the-wall reporting and palace intrigue worthy of Machiavelli, it will keep you turning the pages at a fast clip until its tragic denouement. And more importantly, it will leave you with a deep and nuanced understanding of the Crown Prince's thinking and its implications for Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East." - John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood

Thirty-five-year-old Mohammed bin Salman's sudden rise stunned the world. Political and business leaders such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair and WME Chairman Ari Emanuel flew out to meet with the Crown Prince and came away convinced that his desire to reform the kingdom was sincere. He spoke passionately about bringing women into the workforce and toning down Saudi Arabia's restrictive Islamic law. He lifted the ban on women driving and explored investments in Silicon Valley.

But 'MBS' began to betray an erratic interior beneath the polish laid on by scores of consultants and public relations experts like McKinsey & Company. The allegations of excess and about the brutality of his regime began to slip out. Then there was the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family by holding three hundred members in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel for months, he continued to exhibit his extreme wealth, including the purchase of a $70 million chateau in Europe and one of the world's most expensive yachts. It seemed that he did not understand nor care about how the outside world would react to his flexing of autocratic muscle.

"This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. It also can be read as a Shakespearean story of utter greed." - Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command

(P) 2020 Hachette Audio

Critics Review

Hope & Scheck confront us with the conundrum of a young man who is doing good by his Kingdom - brilliantly describing how the enigmatic Crown Prince is bringing progress to Arabia as we would see it in the West - while operating with a ruthlessness and absolutism that make the stomach curl. Blood and Oil is compelling reading. We are challenged and enthralled on every page.
Robert Lacey — Author of The Kingdom and Inside the Kingdom
Blood and Oil is the best book I've read about the Middle East. It gets deep into the most opaque place on earth, without a false note anywhere. Not to mention the book is a wonderfully readable page-turner, and indispensable if you want a glimpse of the future of Saudi Arabia and the world.
Robert Baer, author of See No Evil and Sleeping with the Devil
It will leave you with a deep and nuanced understanding of the Crown Prince's thinking and its implications for Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East
John Carreyrou, author of Bad Blood
This is as close to the truth, to the real story of the corruption, vulgarities, horrors, and lies of the Kingdom and its current despot as we are likely to get. It also can be read as a Shakespearean story of utter greed.
Seymour Hersh, author of Chain of Command
Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck chronicle the truly incredible story of MBS's rise in the deep, multidimensional way that only experienced Wall Street Journal reporters can do. The book reads like a novel, but it also plays the critically important role of illuminating a real person who is going to shape our world in ways we would all be better for understanding.
Bethany McLean, author Saudi America and co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room
Blood and Oil is a revelatory book that resonates with a stranger-than-fiction quality as the authors' analysis of the Crown Prince's brutishness, outlandishness, and reformer's mentality is as riveting as it is profound.
Bryan Burrough, author of Public Enemies and co-author of Barbarians at the Gate
A gossipy account of the rise to power of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, offering detailed insights into his ascent and his business, family and political relationships
Financial Times
It is lively and well written, and it draws a sharp portrait of the man at its heart
New York Times
If you've ever wondered what would happen if limitless money met limitless power, wonder no longer, it's all here. This book is by turns terrifying, disturbing and ghastly, but written with a light touch that forces you to keep reading
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
Blood and Oil really is a riveting page-turner, a descent into a nest of vipers, a chilling profile of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known by his initials MBS
The Irish Times

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