First published 2026
Patrick Radden Keefe opens with surveillance footage from November 29, 2019: a young man paces on a luxury tower balcony near MI6 headquarters before jumping into the Thames at 2:24 a.m. Miles away, Rachelle and Matthew Brettler worry when their nineteen-year-old son Zac fails to return home. Police soon deliver devastating news of his death. The grieving parents struggle to understand how their troubled but seemingly non-suicidal son ended up in the river. Their investigation reveals Zac had constructed an elaborate false identity as the wealthy heir Zac Ismailov, son of a Russian oligarch. This persona entangled him with London businessman Akbar Shamji and violent gangster "Indian Dave." As the Brettlers dig deeper, they uncover a hidden London of dirty money, corruption, and danger beneath the city's glamorous surface. Convinced their son was murdered rather than suicidal, they grow frustrated with Scotland Yard's apparent inability or unwillingness to pursue justice. Keefe chronicles their quest through layers of mystery while exploring the profound challenges of parenthood and the painful question of how well parents truly know their children.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: quest-for-justice, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday