‘London Falling:’ A Morality Tale as Timeless and Toxic as the Thames

Peter Mandelson, a key architect of New Labour, who was recently sacked as British Ambassador to the United States over his connections to Jeffey Epstein, famously declared in 1998 that he was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich.” And so he ushered in a new gilded age of chancers, schemers and swashbuckling wheeler-dealers. Much of the speculation was driven by foreigners who found London a convenient place to launder their dirty money.This is the harrowing tale of a 19-year-old Londoner who was caught up in the fever dream of getting filthy rich. Zac Brettler fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames. On a quest to find out how he died his parents discover their son had been leading a Walter Mitty fantasy life — he claimed to be the son of a Russian oligarch.This story is not only a human tragedy but a searing indictment of London which in Mr. Keefe’s eyes is sinister, venal, and as toxic as the Thames. The author of “Empire of Pain” once again proves a superb storyteller. After reading this book you will never see the city in the same way again. In 20th century London it was said you were never more than six feet away from a rat. In Mr. Keefe’s 21st century London you are never more than six feet away from a grifter.Zac Brettler was the grandson of Hugo Gryn, the avuncular Rabbi and BBC broadcaster. His mother was a freelance journalist and his father worked in finance. So far, so respectable. At Mill Hill school he rubbed shoulders with the children of Russian oligarchs who fed his fixation with money. The self-confessed Vladimir Putin fanboy binged on gangster movies and struck up an unlikely friendship with Akbar Shamji, who took him under his wing. Mr. Shamji was a 48-year-old businessman who lived in a £10 million flat in Mayfair. His wife was society fashion designer Daniela Karnuts and his father was Abdul Shamji, the Conservative Party donor who served 15 months in jail for perjury. Despite the age gap the pair were soon cavorting at Annabel’s nightclub and dabbling in business ventures. Mr. Shamji introduced Zac to his associate Verinder Sharma, who put up Zac at his Thames apartment. ‘London Falling.’ DoubledayThe narrative is skilfully structured in such a way that as the story unfolds Mr. Keefe evokes the same confusion, misapprehension and revelation that Zac’s family experienced. It is as if we are reading events in real time. The author spent two years interviewing the parents and the lengthy streams of verbatim dialogue give it added immediacy.It is only after Zac disappears that his parents discover the extent of his deception. He boasted that he stood to inherit £200 million; he lived at One Hyde Park, the deluxe residence in Knightsbridge, and his widowed mother had moved to Dubai. Mr. Shamji and Sharma believed his tall tales — or rather wanted to believe in them given the money at stake.Then when his corpse turns up the story takes another mysterious turn. CCTV obtained from the MI6 building opposite his apartment reveals he fell from the balcony so appears to have committed suicide. But other CCTV footage contradicts the testimony of Sharma and Mr. Shamji who become prime suspects. Mr. Shamji messaged someone the same evening saying, “I have just been heating up knives and cleaning up blood.”As the police investigation proceeds, the murk gets murkier. Verinder Sharma declines to help the police with their enquiries. Far from being a rubber baron, as Zac claimed, he has a more elastic reputation. He is known as “Indian Dave,” or “The Little Fella,’ and is an extortionist with links to gangland murders and the mastermind of the Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983. Sharma had faked his own death and moved to France under an assumed identity, and was once one of the Metropolitan Police’s ten most wanted criminals. How and why is he still at large in London? Mr. Shamji and Sharma, the Scylla and Charybdis of the River Thames, successfully suck Zac into their amoral vortex. Even their wealth turns out to be a mirage. Sharma doesn’t even own his own flat; it is owned by a Saudi princess. Mr. Shamji closes down one business after another, leaving a trail of unpaid debts.The police don’t interview all the suspects or follow up all the leads. Vital clues are overlooked or dismissed. Evasion or incompetence? The Met refuse to cooperate with Mr. Keefe. The author speculates Sharma might have been a police informant. We shall never know. A year after Zac’s death he too died after a suspected overdose. How Zac’s parents endured the aftermath is remarkable. The police investigation took them down many wormholes. An anal swab from the autopsy revealed the presence of a single sperm but a DNA test required a larger sample. The inquest into Zac’s death turned out to be equally inconclusive. The coroner returned an open verdict. Even Zac’s beloved grandfather turns out to be a pathological liar which adds another fascinating dimension to this gripping story. After his obituary is published it emerges that Hugo Gryn never went to Cambridge University as he claimed. The author talks at one stage of “little coincidences that imbue life with bitter poetry.” This book is full of such coincidences, and the author is brilliant at teasing them out. Mr. Shamji hires a lawyer called Andrew Brettler who he insists is no relation. Zac’s father discovers they are related.Everyone is deceiving everyone in this tale — the innocent and the guilty, and society, is complicit in the make-believe. It is a fable for our times and a never ending story. The filthy rich keep getting richer as London abases itself deeper into the estuary mud.

‘London Falling:’ A Morality Tale as Timeless and Toxic as the Thames

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