London Falling
by Patrick Radden Keefe
Doubleday, New York
2026
Patrick Radden Keefe’s latest masterpiece “London Falling,” a literary gem, is a true crime novel that opens with: “After Zac Brettler died, his parents tried to decode the mystery of what happened to him, endlessly revisiting specific moments from his short life.”
From this moment on, I’m transported – enveloped in an intriguing mystery with so many twists and turns, examining clues that look promising until, alas, another dead end. I totally surrender to the master storyteller Radden Keefe and his superb investigative skills, while he tries piecing the puzzle together of this grieving family’s tragedy and the mystery of what happened to Zac.
With the solid upper middle class Brettler family, I too am suddenly thrust into a world I never knew existed – an alien underworld of gangsters and poseurs and charlatans lurking just beneath the surface of the gilded sophisticated urbane city of London.
The mystery involves the exact circumstances of Zac’s death – who was responsible? How did it happen? Was it a suicide or a murder?
The following teaser is from the dust jacket of the book: “In the early morning of November 29, 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.” I’m hooked!
The revelation that Zac posed as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch assuming an alternate totally fictitious identity is a shock to his parents and at the crux of the mystery of his suspicious death. With this revelation, the Brettlers are faced with the stark realization that there is little they know about their youngest son.
For years, the private conservative Rachelle and Matthew Brettler decided not to go public with the circumstances of their son’s death. But as they became disenchanted with the bungling seemingly casual approach to the investigation led by the Metropolitan Police and as they set about trying to investigate their son’s death themselves – and after being introduced to Radden Keefe – they agreed to share their story with him, which resulted in Radden Keefe’s February 5, 2024 article in The New Yorker, “A Teen’s Fatal Plunge into the London Underworld,” which served as the family’s initial foray into the public arena.
Truman Capote broke barriers with his non-fiction crime novel “In Cold Blood” that was serialized in four consecutive issues in The New Yorker magazine, debuting in the September 1965, issue. Patrick Radden Keefe, with this convoluted mesmerizing murder mystery, has elevated the genre to dizzying new heights.
About the author: Patrick Radden Keefe is the author of six best-selling award-winning books: “Chatter”; “The Snakehead”; “Say Nothing; Empire of Pain”; “Rogues”; and “London Falling.” He holds a B.A. in history from Columbia University; a master’s in philosophy from Cambridge University; a master’s in science from the London School of Economics and a Law Degree from Yale University Law School. He is a Marshall Scholar and a Guggenheim Fellow.
