This book has gained huge attention through numerous glowing reviews and various nominations for prizes. It's currently in the shortlist for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction (winner announced on 4 November).

I hadn't been drawn to it for some reason but a friend insisted that I read it, and I devoured it in a couple of days. Amazing writing.

In 2019, a London teenager, Zac Brettler, fell to his death from a luxury apartment building on the banks of the Thames.

It looked like suicide, but what was he doing there and why was he so desperate that he took his own life?

His grieving parents, in trying to understand the circumstances of his death discovered that in fact their son had been leading a fantasy life, posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

Patrick Radden Keefe follows Zac’s parents as they relentlessly pursue the truth behind what happened that night and the events that led up to it, revealing how a teenager managed to dupe some very rich and powerful people but was subsequently sucked into the city’s terrifying underworld.

It's an extraordinary story and it's as compelling as any thriller though obviously horrifying in what it uncovers in the corruption, crime and deceit endemic in the capital, and the tragedy of a young man. It's brilliantly written.

This author has also written award-winning books about the IRA 'Say Nothing' and the opioid criss 'The Empire of Pain'.