Book investigates teen’s death after posing as Russian rich kid
If you’ve read “Say Nothing” (2018) or “Empire of Pain” (2021) you know that Patrick Radden Keefe tells a really good story. In my opinion, the man can’t miss. I will read anything he writes. His latest, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth, did not disappoint.
The Premise: This nonfiction book is about the death of London teenager Zac Brettler, who died after falling from a luxury apartment building into the River Thames in the middle of the night on Nov. 29, 2019. The 19-year-old’s death is under mysterious circumstances, and very soon, his parents find out that their son had been living a secret double life, moving around London pretending to be the son of a Russian oligarch. If you think that sentence is unbelievable, the rest of the book will have you floored. The book is an investigation into Zac’s death, as well as the shady criminal underworld he found himself driven into.
The Verdict: Ultimately, this book is about a family losing a son and the investigation following his death. The book has so many 
layers and themes. It’s a story about social class and the hustle-and-aspiration culture we all live in. We learn that Zac was obsessed with social media and extreme wealth, something deeply ingrained in today’s influencer culture. The book also focuses on the idea of parenthood. What’s our responsibility toward our kids as they become adults? How much rope do we give our kids to make mistakes and fix them? And how much do you really know your own kid?
Radden Keefe structures his books in such a way that makes them compulsively readable, leaving the major revelations at the end so you finish the story stunned. I didn’t love this one as much as “Say Nothing,” but I did tear through it, and that says a lot. I have a feeling this will be one of the top nonfiction books of 2026.
In full transparency, when I first picked up this book, I found myself immediately thinking of Anna Delvey, the young woman who famously posed as a German heiress to con New York’s high society. The wildly unbelievable true story was adapted into the Netflix series “Inventing Anna.”
Fun Fact: Radden Keefe told an interviewer that whenever he goes out looking for a story, he never finds one. Ideas find him. He first heard about this story by chance while on set for the television adaptation of “Say Nothing.” This book began as a 2024 New Yorker article, also penned by Radden Keefe.
Category: Entertainment
