London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe .jpg
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe .jpg

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

from $13.99
Hardcover:

A nineteen-year-old falls to his death from a London balcony -- and unravels a double life so audacious, so entangled with oligarchs and gangsters, that even his own family doesn't know where the truth ends and the fantasy begins.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling, prizewinning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their nineteen-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface

Rent new hardcover on Trove: $13.99 - Each rental copy can be rented for 30 days. If you love the book and decide to keep it, the remaining balance applies.

Buy new hardcover on Trove: $35.00

____________________________________

About the book:

In November 2019, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler plunged from the fifth-floor balcony of a luxury London apartment into the Thames. It looked, at first, like a tragic accident or an impulsive act of despair.

But as Zac's grieving parents began to dig, they discovered their son had been living a secret life. Online and in person, he had transformed himself into "Zac Ismailov," the fictitious son of a Russian oligarch.

That invented identity pulled Zac into contact with a slippery fixer and a menacing figure known only as Indian Dave -- men operating in a London where dirty money buys penthouses, nightclub tables, and silence.

Patrick Radden Keefe, one of the finest narrative nonfiction writers working today, follows the Brettlers as they push past police indifference and into the city's underworld, determined to learn what really happened to their son. The result is both a gripping investigation and an aching portrait of a family's grief.

A nineteen-year-old falls to his death from a London balcony -- and unravels a double life so audacious, so entangled with oligarchs and gangsters, that even his own family doesn't know where the truth ends and the fantasy begins.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling, prizewinning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, a spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their nineteen-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface

Rent new hardcover on Trove: $13.99 - Each rental copy can be rented for 30 days. If you love the book and decide to keep it, the remaining balance applies.

Buy new hardcover on Trove: $35.00

____________________________________

About the book:

In November 2019, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler plunged from the fifth-floor balcony of a luxury London apartment into the Thames. It looked, at first, like a tragic accident or an impulsive act of despair.

But as Zac's grieving parents began to dig, they discovered their son had been living a secret life. Online and in person, he had transformed himself into "Zac Ismailov," the fictitious son of a Russian oligarch.

That invented identity pulled Zac into contact with a slippery fixer and a menacing figure known only as Indian Dave -- men operating in a London where dirty money buys penthouses, nightclub tables, and silence.

Patrick Radden Keefe, one of the finest narrative nonfiction writers working today, follows the Brettlers as they push past police indifference and into the city's underworld, determined to learn what really happened to their son. The result is both a gripping investigation and an aching portrait of a family's grief.

  • Publisher: Doubleday

    Title: London Falling

    Author: Patrick Radden Keefe

    On Sale Date: April 7, 2026

    ISBN-13: 9780385548533

    ISBN-10: 0385548532

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $35.00 USD

    BISAC: True Crime / General

    Page Count: 384

    Dimensions: 9.4 in H | 6.6 in W | 1.3 in T

    Weight: 1.2 lb

  • Patrick Radden Keefe is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling author of Say Nothing, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, and Empire of Pain, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction. Known for his meticulously reported, character-driven narrative nonfiction, Keefe has established himself as one of the premier chroniclers of crime, power, and secrecy writing today.

  • Pre-release readers are calling it gripping, humane, and unsettling:

    • Early readers describe London Falling as gripping, humane, and unsettling.

    • A hard-to-put-down mystery that turns out to be something far more intimate than expected.

    • Readers are calling it a haunting portrait of a family searching for answers amid a world built on illusion.

    • Many are struck by how the investigation exposes a shadowy side of London's wealth and power most readers never see.

This book is for you if:

  • You love narrative nonfiction that reads with the pace and tension of a thriller, from an author with a proven track record (Say Nothing, Empire of Pain).

  • You’re drawn to true crime stories that go beyond the crime itself to explore family, identity, and grief.

  • You want an unflinching look at how London’s ultra-wealthy world of oligarchs and offshore money can seduce — and endanger — the vulnerable.

  • You appreciate deeply reported journalism, built on interviews with the people closest to the story, rather than sensationalized true crime.

  • You’re looking for a book that’s been validated by starred trade reviews and bestseller lists on both sides of the Atlantic.

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