“Among the Bros is a harrowing and disturbing book. I have read about fraternity life but nothing like this. This book will blow your mind, each page digging deeper into the unimaginable. Except every word is true.”—Buzz Bissinger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mosquito Bowl and Friday Night Lights
A brilliant young investigative journalist traces a murder and a multi-million-dollar drug ring, leading to an unprecedented look at elite American fraternity life.
When Max Marshall arrived on the campus of the College of Charleston in 2018, he hoped to investigate a small-time fraternity Xanax trafficking ring. Instead, he found a homicide, several student deaths, and millions of dollars circulating around the Deep South. He also opened up an elite world hidden to outsiders. Behind the pop culture cliches of “Greek life” lies one of the major breeding grounds of American power: 80 percent of Fortune 500 executives, 85 percent of Supreme Court justices, and all but four presidents since 1825 have been fraternity members. With unprecedented immersion, this book takes readers inside that bubble.
Under the live oaks and Spanish moss of Travel + Leisure’s “Most Beautiful Campus in America,” Marshall traces several “C of C” boys’ journeys from fraternity pledges to interstate drug traffickers. The result is a true-life story of hubris, status, money, drugs, and murder—one that lifts a curtain on an ecstatic and disturbing way of life. With expert pacing and a cool eye, he follows a never-ending party that continues after funerals and mass arrests.
An addictive and haunting portrait of tomorrow’s American establishment, Among the Bros is nonfiction storytelling at its finest.
Author Info
Max Marshall is a writer and journalist. Raised in Dallas, Texas, he lives in Austin. He graduated from Columbia University in 2016 and served as a Princeton in Asia Media Fellow in Hanoi, Vietnam. His work has appeared in GQ, Texas Monthly, Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times.
Reviews
"Gripping. . . . This page-turning triumph . . . [exposes] a rigged system of money and power that is alive and well in the American South." — New York Times Book Review
"Guaranteed to terrify anyone within a decade of sending one of their children away to college. The story is Kids for the Greek system. Except the youths chronicled within aren’t destined to become New York City skater punks, they’re more likely to become your estate lawyer . . . or senator. — Will Leitch, New York Magazine
“Among the Bros is a harrowing and disturbing book. I have read about fraternity life but nothing like this. This book will blow your mind, each page digging deeper into the unimaginable. Except every word is true.” — Buzz Bissinger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Mosquito Bowl and Friday Night Lights
"Among the Bros is a sobering tour of the mindset of such men and how even when the party curdles into violence, drug dealing, and murder, it doesn't really stop." — Air Mail
"Marshall uses the drug ring to show how the fraternity ethos shapes elite societies as a whole, beyond the College of Charleston: with impunity." — Guardian
"Marshall masterfully spins the sordid tale of how a small-time frat drug operation led to a multistate network of dealing, replete with murder, betrayal, and eventually Schmidt's downfall and imprisonment. You won't believe Marshall is telling a true story, but the fact that he is makes his book an even more essential read. " — Glamour
"No journalist has ever gotten inside the world of elite college fraternities the way Max Marshall has. You'll simply shake your head in astonishment that such a way of life exists. Marshall's book is one staggering read." — Skip Hollandsworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Assassin
"Through chilling, candid conversations with his sources, Marshall convincingly illustrates how these young men allowed greed to wreck their lives. The result is a fast-paced and frightening campus crime saga." — Publishers Weekly
"In Among The Bros, Max Marshall’s compassion, rigorous reporting, and terrific eye for detail add up to an unusual accomplishment—a page turner of a crime caper, humbly but righteously engaged with the nation’s ongoing injustices." — Nick McDonell
"Beyond its sharp and darkly humorous writing and propulsive narrative, Marshall’s book is also a rich sociological text." — Salon
"[Marshall] treats his drug-dealing subjects and their victims as fully fleshed-out people. A must-have addition to any library’s true-crime section." — Booklist
"Marshall’s harrowing investigation into fraternity life and interstate drug trafficking stands as one of the year’s most eye-opening reads. What looks at first to be a story of campus crime turns into an epic of national corruption, with fraternity life at the core." — Crime Reads
"Combining excellent journalism and deftly paced storytelling, this chilling tale lifts a veil on a decadent and troubling lifestyle." — Shelf Awareness
