Blood and Oil

Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power

By: Bradley Hope, Justin Scheck

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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 300 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"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 [rooted] 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)

"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)

A Must Read !

This book is a gripping tale of our current times, a story unfolding under our noses. For readers from outside the middle east and Saudi Arabia, it pieces together important events that have happened in the last 5 years which have significant impact on a global scale. This is no butterfly effect. Rise of such a dictator in a country like SA at the same time as rise of strong men across the world including some strong democracies is a telling sign of problems and divisive issues which are reverberating through the world.

As we struggle to identify the real news from fake news on a daily basis , this book highlights the issues of "pretend progress" versus "actual progress". It helps understand the politics to further selfish agendas of the leaders and the price that is being paid at many levels.

It also highlights complicity of our leaders and businessmen to further their own agendas.

A must read to understand the madness of our world.

Excellent journalism

A fascinating modern history that covers in depth a part of the world that is not much covered in western mainstream press. Highly recommend.

Easy and accessible read

Easy and accessible read for everyone even if you have next to no knowledge about Saudi Arabia. Intriguing and highly detailed account of the current Saudi crown prince’s rise to power. It gives not only the account and biographical events of one person but also wider understanding of Saudi Arabia and the surrounding region.

A smooth read

It's an in-depth story of new Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah. Here you can decipher the mindset of MBN and the evolution in his vision, if there is any.

Living story worth reading

i really like the story. Is a different world where money are gain without work and merit. Is the kind of money that put in power people that dont understand the value and so the story is uniqe and worth reading.

insightful book.

A really good book providing an insight in to the rise of MBS and the Saudi Royal family.

Rehash of Ben Hubbard’s book

Enjoyable had most of the material of the book not being an updated rehash of Ben Hubbard’s ‘MBS - the Rise to Power of Muhammad Bin Salman.

Addictive listening

Great insight to the rise of MBS & the background of the Saudi Royal Family. Very well researched & a truly good read/listen! Highly recommended

A fascinating Insight into Middle Eastern politics

I have been hooked on listening to this audiobook. Middle Eastern politics was something that I previously had little to no understanding of. Especially when it came to Saudi Arabia.

This book expertly details the actions of MBS and gives context as to why these actions are significant, for ignorant listeners such as myself, this context is fantastic for helping to understand significance whilst also improving a basic understanding of how politics in the Middle East functions.

I must also say that whilst the book itself is fantastic and insightful the audiobook version truly stands out with excellent narration. It is clear, concise and easy to listen to. I thoroughly enjoyed listening from beginning to end .

Excellent execution and interesting content

Difficult to follow all the characters involved at some points but its not easy to avoid that, author/narrator does a great job with it nonetheless

Fascinating story

Highly recommend, thoroughly researched and concise. Gives you an insight about one of the most powerful politician at least in the middle east.

Fascinating insight

Thoroughly enjoyed this, though found the Al Saud family tree slightly confusing. Would certainly recommend.

an incredible insight

Such an engaging work and performed brilliantly. It really sews everything together and presents you with the full picture