ORDINARY STORY BUT EXTRAORDINARY TELLING
Patrick Radden Keefe’s “London Falling” begins with the mysterious death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who was found in the River Thames after falling from a luxury apartment block in London in 2019. Zac came from a well-to-do Jewish family, but had been leading a secret life as the book soon reveals. The circumstances surrounding Zac’s death were never satisfactorily explained and the police investigation left many unanswered questions. With the permission and cooperation of Zac’s parents, Rachelle and Matthew Brettler, Keefe spent several years investigating what had happened to their son, writing first about the case for The New Yorker, and subsequently, publishing this book. The result is a combination of true crime, family tragedy and investigative journalism.
The most impressive aspect of the book is the sheer extent of Keefe’s research. He goes through police records, phone messages, CCTV footage, financial records and location data, while also reconstructing the backgrounds of the principal characters and interviewing people connected to them. Along with the parents’ own detailed investigation, the book helps piece together a picture of what may have happened on the night Zac died. More importantly, Keefe’s involvement brought renewed public attention to a case that might otherwise have remained largely unknown. It offers some conclusive insights in what really transpired and for Zac’s parents, who had spent years trying to understand what had happened to their son, this may have brought at least some measure of closure.
Keefe also tries to make the book a commentary on London today – a city where vast amounts of international wealth coexist with organised crime, dubious businessmen and authorities that either turn a blind eye or simply seem remarkably incompetent. But I am not entirely convinced by this aspect of the book. The problem is that the foundation for this commentary is Zac’s story, which, stripped of its unusual characters and circumstances, is ultimately a rather ordinary and inconsequential one. A troubled young man invents an elaborate fantasy about wealth and status, gets involved with the wrong people and ends up dead. It is a tragedy, certainly, but it doesn't necessarily tell us much about London or the state of modern society.
I must admit that while picking up the book, and even during the early chapters, I wondered what all the fuss was about. It is an interesting story, but hardly an extraordinary one. What Keefe does brilliantly, however, is turn it into a deeply human story, particularly through the perspective of Zac’s parents and their determination to understand what happened to their son. And then there is Keefe’s writing. He has this ability to take mountains of investigative material and make it read like a page-turning thriller. The book may not live up to the larger significance Keefe tries to attach to it, but as an easy, engrossing and well-written read, it is hard to fault.
Pros: extensive research, page-turning narrative, human interest story
Cons: Unconvincing larger thesis
