The Lawfare Podcast Lawfare Daily: Patrick Radden Keefe on ‘London Falling’
May 6, 2026
Patrick Radden Keefe, New Yorker staff writer and bestselling investigative author, discusses his book London Falling. He unpacks a London teen’s fatal plunge and the city’s transformation by foreign wealth. Conversations cover reporting methods, tangled lives between white‑collar and underworld figures, and how power reshaped the capital.
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London Family Who Lost A Secretive Son
- Patrick Radden Keefe met the Brettlers through a family friend after hearing their son died under mysterious circumstances.
- The Brettlers are upper-middle-class Londoners whose son Zach changed after switching schools at 13 and began lying about his background.
How London Became A Billionaire Sanctuary
- London transformed from a manufacturing and port city into a global money hub in the 1980s, attracting wealthy foreigners and oligarchs.
- That reinvention created a market for luxury real estate, elite schools, and a permissive posture toward foreign wealth that reshaped social dynamics.
Teenager Built A Persona With Small Lies
- Zach had a casual relationship with the truth from childhood and used lies to gain sympathy and status at Mill Hill school.
- He falsely claimed his mother was dead and later posed as the son of an arms dealer to ingratiate himself with wealthier peers.
