Gilded Underworld

Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe is coming to Australia for the Sydney Writers' Festival to talk about his latest book, London Falling (2026). I knew of Radden Keefe from Say Nothing (2018), his landmark book about the Troubles in Northern Ireland. While I have not yet read that, I did see the excellent television dramatisation. In preparation for hearing him speak at the festival, I decided to read London Falling, and was instantly captivated by this gripping true crime story. 

In November 2019, 19 year-old Zac Brettler died falling from the fifth floor balcony of a luxury apartment, Riverwalk, into the Thames. A surveillance camera at the MI-6 headquarters on the opposite bank of the river captured the fall. Did he jump because he was suicidal, or because he needed to flee whoever was in the building? Did he think he could jump and safely land in the river?

The apartment was owned by a known drug trafficker and gangster Verinder Sharma. Also present that night was Akbar Shamji, a crypto trader. How did Zac Brettler, a teenager from a middle class family in Maida Vale, end up with these men? 

As Zac's parents seek answers, they learn that their son was living a double life. Posing as Zac Ismailov, the son of a dead Russian oligarch, Zac had made his way into the seedy underbelly of London's gangland, in pursuit of a lifestyle of riches. They are at pains to understand how their beautiful son drifted away from them and what they might have been able to do to prevent this tragedy. 

Radden Keefe initially wrote about this case in an article published in The New Yorker, but has expanded the story into a deeply researched work of narrative non-fiction. In doing so, he fills in the details of how London transformed from an old-world pinstriped-suit world of traditional banking to a thriving modern financial hub. Readers also learn about the exodus from Uganda under Idi Amin, the mobility of Russian oligarchs and so much more.

London Falling reads like a page-turning thriller.  Radden Keefe uses his journalism skills to uncover the various layers of the mystery surrounding Zac's death. But it is also a story of a grieving family who feel that Scotland Yard has not taken this case seriously.

I highly recommend the audiobook version read by the author. His voice infuses the story with empathy and humour. Like the best true crime podcasts, the audiobook is absolutely captivating.

I look forward to seeing Patrick Radden Keefe next week at the Sydney Writers' Festival and want to explore his back catalogue like Say Nothing, The Snakehead and Empire of Pain.