Bad Blood

John Carreyrou

2018 Winner

Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year

30 March 2023
9781035006779
400 pages

Synopsis

'I couldnā€™t put down this thriller . . . a book so compelling that I couldn't turn away' ā€“ Bill Gates

'A story so incredible you'd think it was fiction' ā€“ James Patterson

Winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award.


The shocking true story of the breathtaking rise and collapse of Theranos, the multibillion-dollar biotech startup founded by Elizabeth Holmes, written by the prize-winning journalist who first broke the story and pursued it to the end.

Seen as the female Steve Jobs, Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was a brilliant Stanford dropout whose startup ā€˜unicornā€™ promised to revolutionize the medical industry with a machine that would make blood testing significantly faster and easier. Backed by wealthy investors, Theranos sold shares that valued the company at more than $9 billion.

There was just one problem: the technology didnā€™t work . . .

Despite threats of legal action, brave whistleblowers started to talk. They revealed a culture of intimidation and secrecy, technology that repeatedly failed, results sent to real patients that were incorrect but upon which life-changing medical decisions were being made, with devastating consequences.

The riveting story behind The Dropout, in Bad Blood, John Carreyrou investigates the biggest corporate fraud since Enron, a tale of ambition and scandal set amid the bold promises of Silicon Valley.

'A tale of corporate fraud and legal browbeating that reads like a crime thriller' ā€“ TIME, The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year

I couldnā€™t put down this thriller with a tragic ending . . . a book so compelling that I couldnā€™t turn away . . . This book has everything: elaborate scams, corporate intrigue, magazine cover stories, ruined family relationships, and the demise of a company once valued at nearly $10 billion
A dazzling story of deception in Silicon Valley . . . You will not be able to put this book down.
Carreyrou tells the story virtually to perfection . . . Bad Blood reads like a West Coast version of All the Presidentā€™s Men.