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London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth
Not yet published
Expected 7 Apr 26From the bestselling, prize-winning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their nineteen-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface.
In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of Riverwalk, a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river.
In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son. Zac had told her that he had gone to stay with a friend, but then he did not come home. Days later, a police car pulled up and two officers relayed the dreadful news: her son was dead.
In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. He had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. As they would soon discover, however, there was a lot they did not know about their son. Only after his death did they learn that he had adopted a fictitious alter-ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac had become entangled with a slippery London businessman named Akbar Shamji, and a murderous gangster known as “Indian Dave.” As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they’d always known, and came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac’s life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seemed unable—or unwilling—to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In a bravura feat of reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers’ quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing the seedy truths behind the glamorous London of posh mansions and private nightclubs, a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption. London Falling is a mesmerizing investigation of an inexplicable death and a powerful narrative driven by suspense and staggering revelations. But it is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today, a portrait of a family trying to solve the riddle not just of how their son died, but of who he really was in life.
In the early morning of November 29th, 2019, surveillance cameras at the headquarters of MI6, Britain’s spy agency, captured video of a young man pacing back and forth on a high balcony of Riverwalk, a luxury tower on the bank of the river Thames. At 2:24 a.m., he jumped into the river.
In a quiet London neighborhood several miles away, Rachelle Brettler was worried about her son. Zac had told her that he had gone to stay with a friend, but then he did not come home. Days later, a police car pulled up and two officers relayed the dreadful news: her son was dead.
In their unbearable grief, Rachelle and her husband, Matthew, struggled to understand what had happened to Zac. He had his troubles, but in no way seemed suicidal. As they would soon discover, however, there was a lot they did not know about their son. Only after his death did they learn that he had adopted a fictitious alter-ego: Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch and heir to a great fortune. Under this guise, Zac had become entangled with a slippery London businessman named Akbar Shamji, and a murderous gangster known as “Indian Dave.” As the Brettlers set about investigating their son’s death, they were pulled into a different and more dangerous London than the one they’d always known, and came to believe that something much more nefarious than a suicide had claimed Zac’s life. But to their immense frustration, Scotland Yard seemed unable—or unwilling—to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In a bravura feat of reporting and writing, Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the Brettlers’ quest, peeling back layers of mystery and exposing the seedy truths behind the glamorous London of posh mansions and private nightclubs, a city in which everything is for sale, and aspirational fantasies are underwritten by dirty money and corruption. London Falling is a mesmerizing investigation of an inexplicable death and a powerful narrative driven by suspense and staggering revelations. But it is also an intimate and deeply poignant inquiry into the nature of parental love and the challenges of being a parent today, a portrait of a family trying to solve the riddle not just of how their son died, but of who he really was in life.
384 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication April 7, 2026
19 people are currently reading
15343 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Radden Keefe
14 books5,957 followersPatrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of The Snakehead and Chatter. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Slate, New York, and The New York Review of Books. He received the 2014 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing, for his story "A Loaded Gun," was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Reporting in 2015 and 2016, and is also the recipient of an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellowship at the New America Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 11, 2025
Don't start London Falling, or any of Patrick Radden Keefe's books, for that matter, if you want to get anything else done. You will be handcuffed to the book, in thrall with Zac Brettler's story, until you turn the final page.
If Radden Keefe can make the Troubles both explicable and relatively easy to follow for a history novice like me, he can explain most anything. He structures his books in such a way that makes them compulsively readable, leaving the major revelations at the end so you finish the story with mouth agape.
If Radden Keefe can make the Troubles both explicable and relatively easy to follow for a history novice like me, he can explain most anything. He structures his books in such a way that makes them compulsively readable, leaving the major revelations at the end so you finish the story with mouth agape.
September 1, 2025
patrick radden keefe does it again
September 30, 2025
Nobody does nonfiction like Patrick Radden Keefe. London Falling is both a meticulously-researched descent into London's billionaire-fueled criminal underworld, and a deeply intimate family portrait of love and loss across generations. It's all handled with Keefe's usual skill and care, and yet another work of his that explores the hunt for justice in very unjust times.
Another book that I will be recommending to absolutely everyone I know (sorry in advance, absolutely everyone I know).
Another book that I will be recommending to absolutely everyone I know (sorry in advance, absolutely everyone I know).
December 22, 2025
Easily the best book I’ve read all year. Keefe effortlessly weaves together social, cultural, political and economic history into a tapestry to display deeply human dramas.
This time, the tapestry is the sordid underbelly of London and the drama is a hauntingly personal family story. And the story is at once so common and familiar—do we ever really know who our children are, especially as they start to create a life of their own—and utterly foreign—who could imagine their child consorting with underworld bosses?
Keefe starts with the tragedy of losing a child but then unwinds the fabric, thread by thread, until we understand the true depths of this tragedy in a way only he could tell. Along the way, you might occasionally be baffled by the bits of history and character studies he employs. What does this have to do with the death of Zac Brettler, you may ask. And then, without fail, you will be gobsmacked by how it all fits together.
Absolutely electric writing.
This time, the tapestry is the sordid underbelly of London and the drama is a hauntingly personal family story. And the story is at once so common and familiar—do we ever really know who our children are, especially as they start to create a life of their own—and utterly foreign—who could imagine their child consorting with underworld bosses?
Keefe starts with the tragedy of losing a child but then unwinds the fabric, thread by thread, until we understand the true depths of this tragedy in a way only he could tell. Along the way, you might occasionally be baffled by the bits of history and character studies he employs. What does this have to do with the death of Zac Brettler, you may ask. And then, without fail, you will be gobsmacked by how it all fits together.
Absolutely electric writing.
December 22, 2025
Like everything PRK has written, I loved this. I loved it for its investigative journalism, for the way he brought this mystery fully to life, but mostly for the way he wrote this book with the frame of a grieving mother and father. A mother and father desperate to know who their son really was and desperate to find truth. Truth would be perhaps a form of justice or perhaps more connection to Zac, whomever he became and whomever he could have become.
November 17, 2025
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!
Just like his other books, Patrick Radden Keefe combines exhaustive research with this incredible eye for humanity and emotion. He uncovers all the facts and leaves a very satisfying, exhaustive list of sources at the end. But he also identifies the human connections and the little emotional truths that hit you right in the gut. Another devastating masterpiece by my favorite author.
Just like his other books, Patrick Radden Keefe combines exhaustive research with this incredible eye for humanity and emotion. He uncovers all the facts and leaves a very satisfying, exhaustive list of sources at the end. But he also identifies the human connections and the little emotional truths that hit you right in the gut. Another devastating masterpiece by my favorite author.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
If you've read Say Nothing or Empire of Pain, you know that Patrick Radden Keefe tells a really good story. Full of twists and turns, and shocking revelations, Radden Keefe's newest, LONDON FALLING, is just that: a captivating true story about one London family's worst nightmare. On November 29, 2019, at 2:24 a.m. near Vauxhall Bridge, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler jumped off a fifth-floor balcony and into the Thames. Across the river, cameras from MI6 headquarters captured everything: Zac pacing the balcony while every light in unit 504 of the luxury high-rise glowed behind him, and Zac leaping to his death. What follows is an enthralling and meticulously written account detailing the confluence of people and events that led to that tragic night. Who was Zac Brettler, and why was he in that apartment? Was his death a suicide or the result of something more sinister? Radden Keefe conducts interviews with family and friends, reads transcripts, tracks each lead and clue, and discovers that the filaments of the mystery at the heart of this story reach deep into the corrupt criminal underbelly of London.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
**to be published April 2026; thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy**
Patrick Radden Keefe is a master at writing investigative non-fiction, as demonstrated in his books Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. With London Falling, he does it again. Both intimate and societal in scope, paced and structured like a compelling novel, this time he examines the Icarus-like fall of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, a London kid who bluffs his way into the dangerous world of London's displaced oligarchs and the shadowy network that feeds off of them by pretending to be a young Russian billionaire's son. When his body is discovered in the Thames, his parents start a long twisty process in figuring out the mystery of how he got there and who's to blame.
Top of its class in this kind of writing, this book expands on the New Yorker article Keefe wrote in 2024. Good luck putting it down before you're finished!
Patrick Radden Keefe is a master at writing investigative non-fiction, as demonstrated in his books Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. With London Falling, he does it again. Both intimate and societal in scope, paced and structured like a compelling novel, this time he examines the Icarus-like fall of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, a London kid who bluffs his way into the dangerous world of London's displaced oligarchs and the shadowy network that feeds off of them by pretending to be a young Russian billionaire's son. When his body is discovered in the Thames, his parents start a long twisty process in figuring out the mystery of how he got there and who's to blame.
Top of its class in this kind of writing, this book expands on the New Yorker article Keefe wrote in 2024. Good luck putting it down before you're finished!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This nonfiction account of a young man's death is both an analysis of London's susceptibility to power and money, and a family grappling to find answers and navigate a deep loss. If the author had just dived into the financial history of London (which is what it appears at first), I don't think I would have stuck it out to finish the book. But by giving the readers a specific main character in Zac, you can more fully immerse yourself into this true story.
The ending really stuck with me, especially the following passage:
"But for all the unknowability still surrounding Zac's case, it was a bit like an impressionist painting: if you stood too close to the canvas, it looked incomprehensible, a riot of wild brushstrokes and confusing details. Stare long enough and it could drive you mad. But if you just took a few steps back, the truth was no so complicated, and it all came into focus."
The ending really stuck with me, especially the following passage:
"But for all the unknowability still surrounding Zac's case, it was a bit like an impressionist painting: if you stood too close to the canvas, it looked incomprehensible, a riot of wild brushstrokes and confusing details. Stare long enough and it could drive you mad. But if you just took a few steps back, the truth was no so complicated, and it all came into focus."
December 8, 2025
If you've read Say Nothing or Empire of Pain, you know that Patrick Radden Keefe tells a really good story. Full of twists and turns, and shocking revelations, Radden Keefe's newest, LONDON FALLING, is just that: a captivating true story about one London family's worst nightmare. On November 29, 2019, at 2:24 a.m. near Vauxhall Bridge, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler jumped off a fifth-floor balcony and into the Thames. Across the river, cameras from MI6 headquarters captured everything: Zac pacing the balcony while every light in unit 504 of the luxury high-rise glowed behind him, and Zac leaping to his death. What follows is an enthralling and meticulously written account detailing the confluence of people and events that led to that tragic night. Who was Zac Brettler, and why was he in that apartment? Was his death a suicide or the result of something more sinister? Radden Keefe conducts interviews with family and friends, reads transcripts, tracks each lead and clue, and discovers that the filaments of the mystery at the heart of this story reach deep into the corrupt criminal underbelly of London.
Want to read
December 31, 2025The investigative New Yorker article that I read sometime in 2024 about this story still remains vivid in my mind. That's the power of Patrick Radden Keefe's storytelling.
While I remember having many questions and hoping we would see a fully-formed book, I must have missed the news about the book. Will be counting down to publication date with extreme impatience, so I can delve into whatever intriguing new information and new angles this book will bring. Can't wait to revisit this space and update my thoughts once I read the book.
While I remember having many questions and hoping we would see a fully-formed book, I must have missed the news about the book. Will be counting down to publication date with extreme impatience, so I can delve into whatever intriguing new information and new angles this book will bring. Can't wait to revisit this space and update my thoughts once I read the book.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Patrick Raden Keefe is quickly becoming one of my favorite non fiction authors. On the surface, London Falling is a story about parents searching to figure out whether their 19 year old son committed suicide or whether something more sinister has taken place.
But as Patrick Raden Keefe does so well this story takes numerous twists and turns which keep you on the edge of your seat. We journey deep into a darker and more dangerous side of London and discover that not all is as it seems.
I was engrossed in this story the entire time and look forward to reading more Patrick Raden Keefe books.
But as Patrick Raden Keefe does so well this story takes numerous twists and turns which keep you on the edge of your seat. We journey deep into a darker and more dangerous side of London and discover that not all is as it seems.
I was engrossed in this story the entire time and look forward to reading more Patrick Raden Keefe books.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is a well written investigation into the mysterious death of a young naive man who pretends to be the son of a Russian oligarch. The story handled by almost any other author would’ve felt long and unnecessary but Patrick once again proves why he is one of the best out there. I would recommend this and everything else he has written. Get yours when it releases April 7th.
August 26, 2025
Keefe’s outstanding investigative reporting brings to light the darkest parts of London that lead the Brettlers’ son Zac to end up in the Thames. A stunning portrait of a family, their love for their son and the quest to seek justice.
December 5, 2025
Coming out April 2026- a fascinating narrative non-fiction story! PRK was able to get so much detail by being in close contact with Zac’s parents and it makes the story move! Highly recommend this one!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Listen, I'll read anything that Patrick Radden Keefe writes at this point, but dang if this wasn't fascinating. Russian oligarchs, gangsters, rabbis, and through it all, the City of London looming large. This one is great.
August 28, 2025
Possibly his best yet.
November 19, 2025
Just brilliant. I received an ARC of this book and I am so grateful!
Want to read
November 21, 2025NEW PRK
December 5, 2025
Unputdownable
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
RTC at publication, but rest assured, Keefe has not lost a step.
Want to read
December 16, 2025A new Patrick Radden Keefe, OMG
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4.5 stars
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Yeah, this was addictive. PRK has an astounding gift for storytelling. An easy 5-stars, hands down. Narrative non-fiction at its very best.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Review To Come!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews