Money to Burn

I’ll admit: I approached *Money to Burn* skeptical that another Wall Street exposé could surprise me. Then Cohan dropped me into Leon Black’s orbit, and I was hooked—not by the numbers (though they’re staggering), but by the *people*. The audiobook’s strength lies in its refusal to flatten Black into a villain or a hero. One minute, you’re admiring his preternatural ability to spot value in chaos; the next, you’re cringing at his tone-deaf extravagance (a $158 million condo? *During a pandemic?*). The narrator’s performance is pitch-perfect: cool and authoritative during the financial deep dives, but with just enough edge to sell the book’s juicier moments—like Black’s feuds with Steve Schwarzman or the unraveling of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. That said, this isn’t a breezy listen. The pacing drags slightly in the middle during dense deal breakdowns (Cohan’s devotion to detail is both a gift and a curse), and the lack of a star narrator means the delivery, while professional, occasionally lacks the theatrical flair of, say, Holter Graham’s work. But the payoff is worth it. The final act—where Black’s empire begins to crack under the weight of his own contradictions—feels like watching a Shakespearean tragedy unfold in real time. If you love finance as blood sport, or if you’re fascinated by how absolute power warps even the sharpest minds, this audiobook is a must. Just clear your schedule: at 22 hours, it demands your full attention—and rewards it.