Patrick Radden Keefe

You know, they sort of identify a lie that they have to tell to get into the room.

And then they figure once I'm in the room,

I'll figure it out.

And this is the sense in which Zach was not like the talented Mr. Ripley.

He wasn't actually looking to shake these guys down or take their money.

He was the one pretending that he had money.

I think all he wanted to do was mix it up, kind of get past the velvet rope, get into the private club.

That was the excitement that he wanted.

It's lovely to be with you.

It came to me in the strangest way.

I was living in London in the summer of 2023.

I was producing a television drama based on my book, Say Nothing.

And I was just sort of sitting on a chair between shots and a guy plopped down next to me, a stranger who was visiting the set that day.

So I just started chatting with the guy and he said, I might have a story for you.

And he said, I know this family, I'm very close with them.

They lost a son in mysterious circumstances in 2019.

And after he died, they learned that he'd been pretending to be the son of a Russian oligarch.

When I heard that, what I said to this guy was, listen, if this family will talk to me, then I'm in.

Right.

But I went back, I remember going back to my apartment that night and Googling Zach Brettler, death, Thames, and not finding anything.