London Falling: A Compulsive Tale of Money, Lies, and Avoidable Tragedy
In a meticulously researched work of narrative nonfiction, Patrick Radden Keefe reconstructs the events leading to the violent death of Zac Brettler, a troubled teenager whose life ended in the Thames. The book, originally a long-form piece for the New Yorker, delves into a world of deceit, criminal entanglements, and the dangerous allure of speculative wealth in modern London.
The Fateful Night on the Thames
Early one winter morning in November 2019, a surveillance camera at MI6’s headquarters captured the silhouette of a young man on a fifth-floor balcony at Riverwalk House, an apartment complex on Millbank, London. The balcony was brightly lit against the dark sky. After a moment of hesitation, the man jumped, striking the embankment wall with his hip before hitting the water. He drowned, possibly unconscious upon impact. His body was found five hours later, face down in riverbank mud, shirtless and wearing tracksuit bottoms.
The autopsy revealed multiple injuries, including a broken jaw, but the pathologist could not determine if these resulted from the fall or a prior assault. The Metropolitan police identified the body as that of Zac Brettler, aged 19. He had spent his last night with Verinder Sharma, a 55-year-old gangland debt collector and drug trafficker who claimed to own the apartment and allowed Zac to stay rent-free. However, phone records and CCTV showed a third man, Akbar Shamji, was also present that night.
A Web of Deceit and Criminal Minds
Shamji, a cryptocurrency and real estate trader from Mayfair, denied any wrongdoing during police interrogation and maintains his innocence. He described Brettler as a compulsive liar who pretended to be the son of a dead Russian oligarch to befriend him and Sharma. Brettler even used the alter-ego "Zac Ismailov" and affected a Russian accent. Shamji could not be arrested for murder as he was not in the apartment at the time of the fall, and the MI6 camera proved Sharma did not push Brettler. This leaves a haunting question: if these men did not cause the death, who did?
Keefe argues that Brettler’s death was a consequence of entrapment by criminal minds and the seductive pull of ill-gotten wealth. Riverwalk, the luxury Thameside high-rise, symbolizes corruption in a London tainted by oligarchic interests and corporate greed. Brettler’s middle-class background in Maida Vale starkly contrasts with this gilded world.
The Fabulism of Zac Brettler
At his public school in Mill Hill, north London, Brettler was known for tall stories. He lied about his parents’ jobs, became obsessed with gangster movies, and adorned his chest with temporary Russian gang tattoos bought online. He convinced others of wild tales, such as playing blackjack at a Berkeley Square casino and having Kazakh and Nigerian business contacts. He longed to emulate the Russian boarders who partied at Annabel’s and shopped at Harrods.
His reality was less glamorous. His parents were journalist Rachelle Gryn Brettler and financial services director Matthew Brettler. Matthew’s father fled Germany on the Kindertransport in 1939, while Rachelle’s father, Hugo Gryn, survived Auschwitz but lost most of his family. Gryn became a respected rabbi in the Anglo-Jewish community but lived a double life, lying about attending Cambridge University and fathering a secret child. Keefe draws parallels between Gryn’s secrets and Zac’s fabulism, noting Rachelle’s dual role as daughter and mother to men with hidden lives.
Entanglements with Shamji and Sharma
Zac met the rakishly handsome Shamji in 2019. Shamji, 47, posed as a successful entrepreneur but was burdened by unpaid debts. They discussed ventures like cannabis-infused skincare products and a mine in Kazakhstan. Shamji admired his father, Abdul, a Thatcherite conservative who built his trading interests on unsecured borrowing and was jailed for perjury in 1989. Shamji saw Zac as a "fatted calf" to exploit financially.
It is unclear when Zac met Verinder Sharma, known as "Indian Dave" in the criminal underworld. Sharma hoped to profit from Zac’s supposed vast fortune and was capable of extreme violence, including cocaine-fuelled beatings and suspected murder. To Zac, he presented himself as a father figure. Zac spun a yarn about being worth £6 billion, with a Dubai-based Swiss mother blocking his inheritance. Suspicious, Sharma and Shamji planned to confront Zac that evening in the apartment. Hours later, he fell from the balcony.
Unresolved Questions and Family Grief
The police could not charge Sharma or Shamji, and Sharma died of a suspected drug overdose in 2020. Zac’s parents insist he did not take his own life but was trying to escape a furious Sharma. Keefe criticizes the police for missing vital evidence, such as blood-like smears on the apartment walls. London Falling opens a window into a world of financial dirty work and Walter Mitty-like fantasies. Keefe, author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, writes in the tradition of Gay Talese and Joseph Mitchell, drawing on police interrogations, emails, letters, and security footage.
Above all, he relies on hours of conversation with Rachelle and Matthew Brettler, who shared memories of their much-loved child for over two years. Their loss is immeasurable, compounded by the revelation that Zac had only £4 in his bank account at the time of his fall. London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe is published by Picador (£22).
