The Bad Angel Brothers

A toxic sibling rivalry is at the center of this novel from celebrated novelist and travel writer Theroux (Under the Wave at Waimea), set in a small Massachusetts town. Cal is a geologist whose searches for precious gems have taken him around the world. Older brother Frank is an injury lawyer who has stayed in his hometown. While Frank presents himself to the town as an altruistic benefactor, Cal, who saved him from drowning as a teen, sees another side—a two-faced liar (indeed, owing to a childhood illness, the two sides of his face seemingly work independently of one another) who rarely does anything that doesn’t have an angle that benefits himself. Frank’s resentment of Cal grows through the years as he seemingly sets out to destroy him, alienating Cal’s wife and son, and, as his wife’s divorce lawyer, attempting to ruin him financially, leading Cal to plot a dire revenge.