John Carreyrou, a Wall Street Journal reporter, spent three years untangling the web of lies at the heart of Theranos, the disgraced blood-testing startup, only to be dismissed as a fantasist* by its founder, Elizabeth Holmes. Just weeks after the book was published, she was indicted* on charges of criminal fraud.

Theranos was a rock star in Silicon Valley for its promise of a new blood-testing system requiring just a few drops from a finger tip. In reality, the company’s technology was dangerously flawed and produced wrong results, although that did not stop Holmes from launching a service that carried out tens of thousands of tests.

Earlier this year, she settled civil charges that she defrauded investors who ploughed hundreds of millions of dollars into Theranos and bestowed* it with a valuation that hit US$9 billion, but she still faces a criminal trial.

Reading this book, it is hard not to conclude that her best hope of avoiding jail might be to plead an insanity* defense.

The book is also a harsh critique of Silicon Valley, a kind of nonfiction conclusion to Dave Eggers’ “The Circle.”

In Carreyrou’s telling, the Bay Area takes its cue from two typical American institutions — the religious cult and the university fraternity, which preach loyalty over facts and ethics*.(SD-Agencies)