The mysterious death of 19-year-old Zac Brettler, who jumped from a fifth-floor balcony in London in November 2019, has prompted acclaimed author Patrick Radden Keefe to write a new book. The coroner recorded an open verdict in 2022, stating, 'I don't know what happened.'
Zac's parents, Rachelle and Matthew Brettler, have long sought answers, believing the Metropolitan Police investigation was flawed. Key witnesses were not formally interviewed and bloodstains were not tested. The Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2021 there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone with murder or perverting the course of justice.
Keefe learned of the case while in London in 2023 and was intrigued by the involvement of two men who convinced Zac he was the son of a Russian oligarch, heir to a £200 million fortune. Both men were with Zac on the night he died. Keefe's investigation initially appeared in The New Yorker in February 2024, and his book London Falling, published this week, delves deeper.
The book explores how Zac's world changed at a private school transformed by the global super-rich, leading him to spin fantasies about his family's wealth. Keefe, known for works like Say Nothing and Empire of Pain, says the case represents 'that rare case where, within minutes, I knew this would be how I'd spend the next year of my life.'
