I remember being so impressed with the woman featured in a 2014, Forbes article, I cut it out and placed it on my daughter’s desk.

“What a role model,” I marveled “What a hard-charging, inspirational genius.”

Turns out I wasn’t the only one impressed with Elizabeth Holmes, the young woman at the helm of Theranos, a Palo Alto start-up, with a valuation in the billions. Her team had created a machine capable of performing hundreds of diagnostic tests on a single drop of blood retrieved from a pin prick. It was revolutionary, a miracle, a true tech blessing!

Problem was, it was as real as a time machine.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by  John Carreyrou is the true story of the rise and fall of both Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. It is an absolutely breath taking account of how a Stanford drop-out in her early twenties was able to dupe a long list of highly respected investors, corporations, business leaders and others into believing the unbelievable and unproven.  It is Silicon Valley’s version of the Emperor’s New clothes, only in this telling it’s all about the young Empress.

My husband and I listened to the audiobook on a recent road trip; it was very well read and completely compelling.  Rest-stops were ‘NASCAR-tire-change fast’ so we could hop right back on I-95 and pick up this jaw-dropping, true story where we left off.

Bad Blood should be required reading for every single college student in business school.

Highly recommended!