Review: "London Falling," Patrick Radden Keefe

In 2019, nineteen-year-old Zac Brettler fell from the balcony of a luxury riverside apartment in London and died. His body was found in the Thames days later.

Or was he pushed?

Or was he trying to escape from a terrifying situation?

Zac came from a close-knit, well-off family and had attended private schools. His father, Matthew worked in finance; his mother, Rachelle, was a freelance writer. He had an older brother, Joe.

Both of his grandparents were Holocuast survivors. Baruch “Benny” Brettler had escaped from Germany on one of the last “Kindertransports” out of the country. Hugo Gryn survived Auschwitz to become a well-known, well-loved rabbi with his own radio show.

But Zac seemed obsessed with wealth from an early age. He had a fascination, for example, with luxury cars. Zac had an impressive memory, perhaps inherited from Benny. He was glib and charming from an early age. At four or five, an older girl teased him at a family function asking him to read something. Zac said, “I didn’t bring my glasses.”

His quirky humor attracted many friends as he became a teenager and entered a private school. But after a while, his lies and exaggerations turned them off.

Zac told people he was unbelievably wealthy. He claimed he was the son of a Russian oligarch. 

Matthew and Rachelle were concerned about their son. He was moody and seemed to lack ambition for following a normal career path. But they had no idea of how he was presenting himself, or the bad actors—true villains— he would eventually get involved with.

In the late 20th century, London transformed itself from the moribund Thatcher years. It’s now a thriving financial center. Oligarchs and sultans own lavish estates that stand empty most of the year. Money flows freely and illegally. There was plenty of trouble for a boy like Zac—ambitious in ways he kept hidden from his parents—to get into.

And he did—with a shady businessman, Akbar Shamji, and a gangster called “Indian Dave.” The latter, real name Verinder Sharma, was known for his involvement in violent activity.

It would seem obvious to an outside observer that Zac’s charade couldn’t last long with those two. Apparently, it didn’t.

Patrick Radden Keefe has written a gripping, meticulously researched account of Zac’s life and death, the murky, treacherous careers of Shamji and Sharma, and the ordeal of Matthew and Rachelle. They were determined to find out what really happened to Zac, but it was a long and frustrating process. 

In the end, Keefe paints a plausible (but horrifying) scenario for Zac’s last hours. It is an amazing, touching, sad story, all told, with a dark, secret London at its core.

Essay: Adventures in digital living

 

I came downstairs to hear the sound of music.

“What are you listening to?” I asked Paul.

“That’s you.”

I held up my phone and shook my head. I had been listening to the jazz show “Afterglow,” but it was done.

He shrugged and pointed to the Echo Dot, which sits on a stand next to a small television.

I wandered over to it. Had we said something in passing that led Ziggy (I got tired of Alexa and her Valley Girl voice) to think we wanted to listen to—hmm, some kind of electronic pop?

“Ziggy, stop.”

The music did not stop.

“Ziggy. End the music.”

The music played on.

“Unplug it,” Paul helpfully suggested.

“I will as a last resort,” I said. “The television will have to reset if I do that.” I always get nervous when the TV goes through its gyrations. My own plans for “fixing” any problems I encounter with it involve switching the power cord on and off.

I stood for several minutes, alternately googling possible solutions and yelling at Ziggy. I envisioned myself taking the Echo to the deck and using a sledgehammer on it. Finally I gave in and switched everything off, then on again.

Ah, silence.

The Echo turned several different colors and settled down. The television flickered and then—wait—turned itself on? This was not normal. I turned the TV on, then off. The TV flickered and went off. But why had it been on to begin with?

The flashbulb clicked.

It had been the TV the whole time. I guess I had left it on earlier and it went into screensaver mode. The screen dimmed, the music played.

A smart TV indeed.

As Gilda Radner’s character Emily Litella would say, “Never mind.”

_______

 

 I welcome email at lizzie621@icloud.com

Review: "It's Not What You Think," Clare Mackintosh

Nadeeka, a single mother of two, races home from work after an unsettling call from her partner, Jamie. He says he’s at the office, but she hears a train in the background. A woman’s voice. Jamie must be at the house. Is he having an affair?

Jamie is indeed at home when Nadeeka arrives. But he’s dead. Murdered.

Clare Mackintosh is a favorite author of mine, and her latest thriller is a humdinger. There are three—count ‘em—three twists in this one. Which certainly kept me swiping the e-pages on my Kindle, but makes it a tad difficult to write a review. I certainly don’t want to give all away, so I’m treading carefully.

Nadeeka, needless to say, is shocked by the discovery. A few days later, she goes to the police station to see if she can get her phone—taken for evidence—back, and is shocked once again.

Detective Chief Inspector Lauren Caldwell now takes over the narration (which alternates between several characters). She’s smart and efficient, but somewhat distracted. Lauren’s getting married in a few days—the day after Christmas, in fact. Her fiancé is one of her subordinates, Fraser Hogan.

But how can she be worried about assembling wedding favors and dealing with venue drams when this case just keeps getting stranger and stranger? What exactly was Jamie up to that led to his death? Nothing good, it appears. Nadeeka doesn’t believe what Lauren is learning. Jamie was a good man. She begins her own investigation.

Which leads the reader into twist two.

Lauren’s official investigation is facing a lot of odds in this case, but the cops circle in slowly and the truth becomes more clear. Unfortunately, in a way. Because twist three is heartbreaking.

Whew.

It sounds crazy and complicated, but it’s a straightforward, relentless, sometimes breathtaking ride. Nadeeka and Lauren are sympathetic, relatable characters and the readers are rooting for them to have closure. The story of Jamie’s death (and subsequent events) is both timely and disturbing.

A thriller, indeed!

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I received an advanced reader’s copy of this book through NetGalley. It will be released on September 22.

Review: "Last One Out," Jane Harper

The town of Carralon, about five hours west of Sydney, Australia, has been dying ever since the Lentzer mining company moved in. The coal operation bought out homes, and brought noise and dust, while keeping workers on-site with their own housing and services. Only a few residents remain; the pub only opens once in a while. The medical center has been shuttered.

Sam Crowley, home from college, is interviewing his neighbors for a school project, asking about their experiences before and after the mine’s arrival. It’s his 21st birthday. His mother, Rowena, has made a lasagna for a special family dinner. Sam never shows up.

Thus begins a gripping story of the ties that bind us, for better and for worse.

Ro has returned to Carralon to mark the fifth anniversary of Sam’s disappearance. She had left her husband, Griff, and started a new life in Sydney. 

Ro is still consumed by Sam’s disappearance. She pores over the notebook he left behind. Ro visits the site where her son was last seen. It’s a cluster of three houses on the outskirts of town. They have stood empty since the mine's management bought them and are falling into disrepair.

One is a sandstone bungalow once owned by Bernie, the father-in-law of Ro’s best friend.  A second is an ivy-covered cottage where Ann-Marie, a former co-worker, lived. The third, a farmhouse, was home to Warren, Griff’s cousin. Warren had committed suicide several years before Sam disappeared.

What was Sam looking for in this desolate neighborhood? Did his questions uncover old secrets? Did he come too close to finding something that somebody wants hidden? Ro asks questions herself, but gets nowhere—until she and Griff find bloody boards on Warren’s deck, along with a mysterious key. Then she realizes she might have a chance of finding out what happened to her son.

An air of desolation, of impending doom, imbues the pages of this book. Ro’s pain is palpable. Everyone left in town is stuck, in one way or another. Their lives are deeply intertwined. Once, their closeness brought them joy. Now, it seems like entrapment.

Jane Harper is one of my favorite authors, but as I reached the three-quarter mark of the novel, I worried that maybe Ro would have to drive away from Carralon forever, without getting the answers she desperately needed—and deserved. Maybe this was just a book about dealing with inexplicable loss.

But I was not disappointed. Ro finally turns that long lost key and uncovers the harsh and painful truth of what happened to Sam. In doing so, she opens a door that lets the light in at last.