Review: London Falling

4/5 stars

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth, by Patrick Radden Keefe (2026)

Keefe is so good at making non-fiction digestible and compelling. I previously read and really enjoyed Say Nothing and, about a month ago, Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks. London Falling is Keefe's most recent book, and chronicles the mysterious death of a young man in London. You know I love a true crime story, so I was sold at the outset, but this proved to have more intrigue and deception and Russian gangsters than I expected.

Zac Brettler was a 19-year-old, upper middle class college student obsessed with becoming enormously rich. Blessed with a near-photographic memory, but not a stand-out talent at school, he decided to enter the world of wealth through deceit. He posed as the son of a Russian oligarch, and managed to fabricate a life for himself that intertwined dangerously with con-man Akbar Shamji and gangster Verinder "Indian Dave" Sharma. On the surface, it appeared that the two served as friends and mentors to Zac, but more and more is uncovered to indicate that they always had corrupt and nefarious motives. His parents and older brother knew nothing of Zac's secret life.

In the early morning of a November day in 2019, a CCTV camera recorded Zac pacing the balcony of an apartment belonging to Sharma, before plunging to his death into the Thames. London Falling tries to solve the riddle of his life and death. How and why did Zac so convincingly mislead so many people? Did he commit suicide, and if so, was he coerced to do so, or threatened so that he felt it was his only way out? And, ultimately, why was the police investigation so careless and derelict? With mountains of evidence (even if circumstantial), why were Shamji and Sharma never held accountable, witnesses never interviewed, leads never followed up on?

Keefe writes with wonderful empathy about Zac and his family, and it's hard not to feel deeply saddened and unsettled by the Keefe's and the parents' shocking discoveries and unanswered questions. It's also a little hard not to roll your eyes at the arrogant, greedy, duplicitous Zac Brettler. Not that he in any way deserved what happened, but it was, unfortunately, a situation of his own making.

This book is more than just a true crime narrative about the death of one person, and more than a story of familial love and loss. It tackles some of the history of London's seedy underbelly, from the Russian wealth that flooded the city post-soviet union, to the Asian immigrants expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. London Falling pulls back the curtain to reveal the criminal world of the ultra-wealthy.

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UP NEXT: unsure! will update later.