A larger-than-life account of family, greed, and a courtroom showdown between Big Oil rivals from the New York Timesâ bestselling author of Private Empire.

Pulitzer Prizeâ winning author Steve Coll is renowned for â his ability to take complicated, significant business stories and turn them into quick-reading engaging narrativesâ (Chicago Tribune). Coll is at the height of his talents in this â rivetingâ tale of one of the most spectacularâ and catastrophicâ corporate takeovers of all time (Newsday).

As the head of a sprawling oil empire, J. Paul Getty was once the worldâ s richest man. But by 1984, eight years after his death, Gettyâ s legacy was in tatters: His children were locked in a bitter feud over the family trust and the company he founded was riven by boardroom turmoil. Then Pennzoil made an agreement with Gettyâ s son, Gordon, to purchase Getty Oil. It was a done dealâ until Texaco swooped in to claim the $10 billion prize.

What followed was an epic legal battle that pit â good ole boyâ J. Hugh Liedtke of Pennzoil against the Wall Street brokers behind Texacoâ s offer. The scandalous details of the case would shock the business world and change the landscape of the oil industry forever.

With a large cast of colorful characters and the dramatic pacing of a novel, The Taking of Getty Oil is a â suspensefulâ and â always intriguingâ chronicle of one of the most fascinating chapters in American corporate history (Publishers Weekly).