Marilyn's Mystery Reads

London Falling is the first non-fiction book I’ve reviewed in my more than 15 years of blogging.  Patrick Radden Keefe’s book absolutely proves the familiar saying “truth is stranger than fiction.”

Rachelle and Matthew Brettler are the parents of two sons, Joe and Zac.  The family lives a comfortable upper-middle-class life in London, with Matthew working in the financial sector and Rachelle a free-lance writer for various publications.

All appears to be going well until Zac hit his teenage years.  A precocious child, he had a phenomenal memory that amazed his parents and extended family, knowing the cost of items ranging from autos to phones and delighting in rattling the prices off to anyone who would listen.  He also had an amazing ability to mimic foreign accents.

Issues began when Zac was rejected for admission into the elite private school where his older brother Joe was enrolled.  Although Rachelle tried to explain to the school authorities how disheartening it was for Zac not to be allowed to attend the school, the administrators would not be swayed, and Zac went to a different private school.

Mill Hill had become a favorite school for the children of the Russian oligarchs who had relocated to London, and “Zac was intrigued by these kids–not just by their riches but by their swagger.”  It seemed to him that they lived a much more exciting life than he did, with their money and the protected lives they enjoyed due to their fathers’ wealth.  Then, at age twelve, Zac became a boarder at the school, thus having the opportunity to become even more friendly with the Russian students than before.

He began staying out late at night, dressing more as an adult than a student, becoming surly and oppositional with his parents and his brother.  His ideas changed also, telling a friend that democracy was overrated, that all that mattered were money and power.  On the week that Zac turned eighteen and became a legal adult, he and a friend incorporated a company called Omega Stratton, the latter part of the name apparently in homage to a crooked brokerage house featured in the film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Zac told his father that he was doing very well financially, showing Matthew his account with a balance of 850,000 pounds.  He explained that he was in the oil and gas business and was also doing real estate deals and importing foreign cars.  Matthew and Rachelle found themselves with ever-more questions about their son and his life, and then he disappeared.

London Falling is a fascinating story about how a family’s life is upended.  Readers may wonder about the way the Brettlers handled everything–Zac’s new lifestyle, their decision not to go to the police immediately after he failed to return home one night, their deciding not to make his disappearance public.  Would a different choice have led to a different outcome?

Patrick Radden Keefe’s book is brilliant and impressive, due both to the amount of research that went into London Falling as well as making the Brettlers come alive through their conversations and decisions.

You can read more about the author at this website.

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