Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

The Silicon Valley startup in question is Theranos. Perhaps you heard of it: the company, led by the young, Steve Jobs-wannabe CEO Elizabeth Holmes, that was going to disrupt health-care with pin-prick blood tests from Walgreen's to the battlefield. As it turns out, despite breathless magazine profiles and a $9 billion valuation, the technology consisted almost entirely of lies. I find few stories more page-turningly pleasurable than white-collar crime gone wrong (see Enron), and Bad Blood, written by the Wall Street Journal reporter who took the company down (with the help of a few courageous whistleblowers), did not disappoint. It's a familiar tale of Silicon Valley workaholic puffery, but with two differences: the high-powered investors, from Kissinger to Murdoch, who got suckered by Holmes, and, more importantly, the many lives her fakery put at risk.