London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

 

On November 29th, 2019, a nineteen year old young man leaped from a fifth floor balcony to the Thames.  He did not survive the fall.  The police assumed it was suicide but his parents, well-to-do Londoners, weren't sure.  Zac Brettler, their son, had changed so much in his teenage years.  What they were to find out would shock them.  

Zac had been running a scam on everyone in his life.  He told people he was the son of a Russian oligarch and soon was running with the wealthy set that were billionaires.  He schemed his way into business deals and told his parents he didn't need university as he was making his own money.  The people he was associating with had lives of their own and some were scammers themselves or criminals.  Was Zac about to be found out and held to account for his lies?  He had been living with a wealthy man who it turned out, was one of the heads of criminal activity in London, strongarming money from others.  Did Zac jump because he was scared of what would happen next as his lies were being discovered or did he think he could survive the fall and just wanted to escape?

Patrick Radden Keefe is an American author who is known for his investigative reporting.  His previous books were about the IRA and about the opioid industry and epidemic.  In this book, he follows the years long battle of the Brettler family to find out what really happened to Zac.  He lays bare the criminal history of the middle-aged men who were associating with Zac and what might have happened as they discovered that they had been taken in by a mere teenager.  The reporting is intricate and so well researched and the reader will be fascinated with the story while wondering why the parents had let things get so out of control with their son.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.