Among the Bros

APPLE BOOKS REVIEW

Comedies like Animal House and Old School celebrate college frat life and its drunken high jinks, but investigative journalist Max Marshall’s thrilling true-crime book uncovers the privileged, problematic reality. Following a highly publicized 2016 campus drug bust, Marshall embedded himself as a student at the College of Charleston—and got a firsthand look at the rise and fall of kingpin Mikey Schmidt, who used the Kappa Alpha organization and other sympathetic fraternities as a national distribution network for controlled substances. Marshall chronicles the local Kappa Alpha chapter’s rise and fall, from wild parties with hip-hop stars to shocking episodes of drug-addled violence. Like an anthropologist studying a different culture, Marshall writes matter-of-factly about the destruction the group caused while other Greek organizations looked away. Narrated by actor Stephen Graybill, Among the Bros provides an up-close deep dive into an unsettling true story.