From award-winning Wall Street Journal reporters Justin Scheck and Bradley Hope (coauthor of Billion Dollar Whale), a revelatory look at the inner workings of the world's most powerful ruling family, the royal family of Saudi Arabia, revealing how a rift within that family produced Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS, a charismatic leader with a ruthless streak.

Mohammed Bin Salman is the 34-year-old Saudi Crown Prince whose sudden rise to prominence stunned the world -- both in the overtures made to Western leaders and corporate America, as well as the allegations of his extreme brutality and excess, including the contention that he ordered the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. While stamping out dissent in the Saudi royal family, he has made a habit of exhibiting his extreme wealth, including buying the most expensive home in Europe (a $70M chateau in France) and one of the world's most expensive yachts.Blood and Oil is a gripping work of globe-trotting journalism about the world's financial underbelly. Hope and Scheck show how MBS's sudden rise coincided with the fraying of the simple bargain that had been at the head of U.S.-Saudi relations for 80+ years: oil in exchange for military protection. The rise of MBS comes with enormous risk: The Middle East is already the world's most volatile region. Add to the mix an ambitious prince with extraordinary powers, hunger for lucre and nuclear power, and a willingness to break anything -- and anyone -- that gets in the way of his vision, and the stakes of his rise ... are alarming. If his bid fails, Saudi Arabia has the potential to become a dangerous failed state and magnet for Islamic extremists. And if his bid to transform his country succeeds, even in part, it would have reverberations around the world.