Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power Audiobook

Quotes

• “Fascinating and highly entertaining…With fly-on-the-wall reporting and palace intrigue worthy of Machiavelli, it will keep you turning the pages at a fast clip.”

  — John Carreyrou, New York Times bestselling author

• “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, New York Times bestselling author

• “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, New York Times bestselling author

• “Hope and Scheck confront us with the conundrum of a young man who is doing good by his Kingdom…while operating with ruthlessness and absolutism that make the stomach curl. Blood and Oil is compelling reading.”

  — Robert Lacey, New York Times bestselling author

• "[A] meticulous, highly relevant narrative…The cast of characters and Al Saud family tree are especially helpful. An excellent work of impressive research on a dangerous world leader.”

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

• 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

• 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

• [Blood and Oil is] lively and well written, and it draws a sharp portrait of the man at its heart....Hope and Scheck have done a great deal of digging and have unearthed some eye-popping tales.

  — The New York Times Book Review

• 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 of Saudi America and co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

• A crisp page-turner of a book teeming with telling detail...Blood and Oil is particularly good on the link-up between the Saudi sovereign wealth fund and Masayoshi Son of SoftBank....There is plenty more in Hope and Scheck's splendid book.

  — Financial Times

• An engrossing new book....Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck... deliver a vivid portrait of treachery and power grabs in the Saudi royal court, and attempt to uncover what drives some of the young royal's often reckless decision-making.

  — NPR.org

• Hope and 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 ruthlessness and absolutism that make the stomach curl. Blood and Oil is compelling reading. We are challenged and enthralled on every page.

  — Robert Lacey, bestselling author of The Crown and Inside the Kingdom

• Explosive.

  — The Times (UK)

• Excellent.

  — Forbes

• 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

• If you thought you knew Saudi Arabia, such as any outsider could, you didn't -- and for as much as you understood the Kingdom and its politics, you don't.... Blood and Oil is a fantastic narrative read into the sweeping changes that Mohammed bin Salman has taken and is taking in Saudi Arabia. It is exceptionally well written, a compelling read.... Blood and Oil is a great addition to contemporary writing on Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman.

  — Joshua C. Huminski, The Diplomatic Courier

• A fascinating look at how MBS came to power, that a lot of people didn't see coming.

  — Yahoo! Finance

• For once, the publisher's hype is true. 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.

  — The Irish Times

• In Blood and Oil, Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck have gone to painstaking lengths to lift the veil on the character of a young man shaking up the country, and beyond. The result is a gripping page-turner.

  — Reuters Breakingviews

• A fiery book with never-heard-of revelations about the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

  — Albawaba

• A captivating book on the world's financial underbelly.

  — Corporate Compliance Insights

• Details some jaw-dropping incidents of corruption.

  — InsideOver

• A superb portrait.

  — Coda

• [A] valuable new account...an important addition to the alarming portrait of the unstable, murderous 35-year-old who rules the oil-producing kingdom.

  — Mondoweiss

• Blood and Oil is a fascinating glimpse into the politics of oil, and how staggering wealth and unchecked ambition created what most would consider a true monster...Blood and Oil unfolds like a fast-paced suspense thriller with the grandiosity of a Shakespearean play...an excellent read, an important book.

  — The Premise Pod

• This is brave, rigorous, and commendable work.

  — MoneyControl

• A thorough delineation of the rapacious, ambitious new economic plan for Saudi Arabia by the heir apparent to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman....Wall Street Journal reporters Hope and Scheck diligently chart the rapid rise-and recent faltering-of MBS....[A] meticulous, highly relevant narrative...an excellent work of impressive research on a dangerous world leader.

  — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

• Scheck and Hope follow the money, emphasizing the crucial role that billion-dollar development projects, investment funds, and public stock offerings played in securing MBS's legitimacy among international elites and the chaotic and highly transactional Trump administration. The authors also caution that MBS, just turning 35, remains a work in progress.

  — Booklist (starred review)

• A masterful biography...This fast-paced, well-researched book is an excellent primer on current U.S.-Saudi relations and Middle Eastern dynamics, and will also draw in those interested in palace intrigue.

  — Library Journal (starred review)

• Hope and Scheck take a comprehensive and alarming look at Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman....[They] marshal their research into a page-turning narrative that persuasively casts MBS as a grave danger to the region. This detailed exposé rings true.

  — Publishers Weekly