Review by Booklist Review
In 2016, police in Charleston, South Carolina, busted a fraternity-based drug ring that included Michael "Mikey" Schmidt, who is the focus of this rather shocking book. When journalist Max Marshall began investigating this story in 2018, he expected an interesting story about a small group of college-student Xanax dealers operating out of the College of Charleston. But he wound up uncovering a massive drug-trafficking operation involving millions of dollars, a handful of accidental deaths, and one murder. As he lays out this incredible story, the author also takes the reader behind the scenes of a college fraternity, laying bare the secrets beneath its bright, shiny surface. Readers who enjoy college-campus true crime like Until Proven Innocent (2007) and We Keep the Dead Close (2020) will be interested in this story, which Marshall tells exceptionally well. He treats his drug-dealing subjects and their victims as fully fleshed-out people. A must-have addition to any library's true-crime section.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this sobering debut, journalist Marshall digs into the deadly hubris underpinning an organized crime ring at the College of Charleston. In 2016, a task force busted five Charleston Kappa Alpha fraternity members and three of their friends for running a $400,000 narcotics network. After the news broke, Marshall--fresh out of college himself--flew to Charleston, S.C., to interview key players in the story, including family and friends of the arrested, and the group's ringleader, Mikey Schmidt, who's currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for drug trafficking. Schmidt, who knew he wanted to pledge Kappa Alpha before he knew what he wanted to study, fit the Southern frat boy stereotype to a tee, but unlike his peers, he didn't stop at selling weed to procure party money: fueled by a sense of entrepreneurial greatness, he built a major operation that supplied Xanax, cocaine, and other drugs to a chain of colleges across the South. As Marshall spent more time with Schmidt and his accomplices, he pieced together a lurid tale of adolescent ego (Schmidt cops to much of his criminal activity, but bristles when Marshall suggests that a rival frat had more clout than Kappa Alpha) and unchecked privilege that culminated in the murder of one of the ring's distributors. 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. Agent: Luke Janklow, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Investigative journalist Marshall intertwines the history of fraternities with a portrayal of Michael "Mikey" Schmidt, who was accepted into the Kappa Alpha Fraternity at South Carolina's College of Charleston. The book portrays Schmidt as one who enjoys fraternity life, takes Xanax, and skips classes. Eventually, he decides to get into the trafficking business, which later included cocaine transactions. The 2016 murder of a student instigated an investigation by local police, which resulted in the confiscation of $150,000 worth of pills, $200,000 in cash, and several arrests, including Schmidt, who took a plea deal that landed him 10 years in prison. The author initially thought he was investigating a small-time crime, but he ended up spending four years researching this major drug bust. While the book is meticulously researched, it occasionally gets bogged down with details from Marshall's interviews with more than 180 individuals. Readers learn about the murder halfway through the book, and Schmidt's arrest is detailed in the final third. VERDICT Parts of this book stretch the story longer than necessary. But this is still an important title for community college or university libraries since it offers difficult-to-find details about the culture and history of fraternities.--Michael Sawyer
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
How the wealthy fraternities of the storied College of Charleston became the hubs of an interstate drug ring. According to Charleston police working the 2016 case, the drug dealers of Kappa Alpha and Sigma Alpha Epsilon sold Xanax, cocaine, and marijuana, mostly to college students across the South. "One of the largest busts in the city's history, a six-month collaboration between local police, state law enforcement, the DEA, the FBI, and the US Postal Service," it was connected to the murder of the son of a real estate developer who was also a board member at the college. Police seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, 43,000 pills, seven firearms, and a grenade launcher. Marshall, a freelance journalist, dives deep into fraternity life and drug dealing to figure out how this happened. His ability to identify with the fraternity bros at the center of the drug ring helped him get access to sources. However, it soon becomes clear that his interest lies more with the drug dealers--especially one of the ring's leaders, Mikey Schmidt--than their numerous victims. "When Mikey and I were in school," writes Marshall, "most boys in our bubble shared a dream of what college might look like….There'd be white pong balls splashing in red Solo cups, and hot girls who wanted to wrestle in mud or Jell-O." The author refers to most of his anonymous sources by their fraternity or sorority affiliation, as if that is someone's most distinguishing trait, and he seems overly enamored of his subjects' connections, wealth, and hard-partying lifestyles. While he does expose a dark side of campus life, he misses an opportunity to offer a deeper, more interesting story with appeal beyond the Tucker Max demographic. A flashy disappointment, leaning more on drug dealer fantasy and frat-boy excess than real crime drama. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
