London Falling is Patrick Radden Keefe’s investigation into the death of a London teenager, Zac Brettler. A teenager who spent the last part of his life pretending to be a Russian oligarch’s son, leading to the inevitable interest from the sort of characters it’s never best to associate with. Characters with links to London gangsters and Putin’s goon squad who operate within a set of rules no one in normal society understands. Radden Keefe treads lightly through this potential minefield, (one gangster’s opening gambit, to name the writer’s family and ask how they’re doing), but gathers evidence with a steely determination that begins to reveal a section of London society, shielded by power, influence and ostentatious bling, that seems to have no issue stepping into the murky world of criminality while dragging others in with it. Politicians, police and the security services seemingly disinterested in what post oligarch London has become, while big business, however you define it, keeps lining its pockets. By the end of London Falling you feel huge amounts of sympathy for Zac Brettler’s family and wonder if a white middle class family are denied justice, then there’s little hope for anyone else. A sad, scary, compulsive tale told brilliantly well by current king of non-fiction, Patrick Radden Keefe.

London Falling – Patrick Radden Keefe – publ. by Picador

Steven Long