The Third Brother

In The Third Brother, McDonell delivers another remarkable novel, a haunting tale of brotherly love, family tragedy, and national grief.

Mike was a lucky child: a vacation house on Long Island, famous family friends, an Ivy League education, and also an older brother, Lyle, who looked out for him and protected him from his parents’ volatile marriage.

Mike is spending the summer working for a magazine in Hong Kong when his editor sends him to Bangkok to report on the drug-tourism crackdown. But Mike’s real mission is to find Christopher Dorr, a brilliant journalist and old friend of his parent who has gone AWOL. This is the beginning of a vertiginous journey that propels Mike into seedy nights in Thailand and back to New York, to a home wrecked by violence.