Picador lands Patrick Radden Keefe's 'forensic' book on the dark underbelly of London

Picador has landed Patrick Radden Keefe’s “forensic” book on the dark underbelly of London. 

Ravi Mirchandani, editor-in-chief, acquired UK and Commonwealth print, digital and audio rights, excluding Canada, to The Oligarch’s Son from Karolina Sutton at CAA, on behalf of Tina Bennett at Bennett Literary. Picador will publish in autumn 2025, simultaneously with the US via Bill Thomas at Doubleday and Canada via Amy Black at Doubleday Canada. 

The book expands on the Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author’s recent New Yorker piece on the mysterious death of Zac Brettler. 

“In 2019, teenager Zac Brettler mysteriously fell to his death from a luxury apartment development into the Thames,” the publisher said. “As his grieving parents started to investigate his final days, they were shocked to learn that he’d been leading a double life. It is this unsolved case which Patrick Radden Keefe explores in The Oligarch’s Son, at once a mystery, a family tragedy, a psychological portrait of a young fabulist, and an indictment of the money culture that has hijacked one of the world’s great cities, London.” 

The publisher said Raden Keefe will build on his New Yorker report to “investigate what brought Zac Brettler, businessman Akbar Shamji, and London gangster Dave Sharma together that night and will show that the UK capital, the city of great architecture, open spaces and history, can suddenly turn malignant and dangerous, a place that has been fully hijacked by property speculation, insidious corruption, mercenary realpolitik, and the culture of bling”. 

Mirchandani said: “Patrick Radden Keefe is a jewel in the crown of Picador’s non-fiction publishing and we are entirely delighted to see him turn his forensic eye to the dark underbelly of London. His recent New Yorker piece on the tragic and mysterious death of Zac Brettler left so many of us wanting to know still more about sides of the city too many Londoners know too little of. We are all hugely looking forward to reading and to publishing his new book.”