GEOFF BENNETT: Patrick Radden Keefe is# the author behind multiple nonfiction## bestsellers.

"The New Yorker" staff writer's# latest book, "London Falling," is about the## mysterious 2019 death of teenager# Zac Brettler and his secret life.

Keefe spoke to Amna Nawaz for the latest# episode of our PBS News podcast "Settle In."

AMNA NAWAZ: There are so many complicated# people in this book, right?

But by tracing## back their family stories and unpacking them# the way that you do, you're sort of forced## to reckon with people as they are, right,# full, complicated human beings with all the## weight of their ancestors' decisions on their# shoulders and everything ahead of them as well.

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, Author: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: For Zac in pa.. understand about him?

Because there's a# lot in there, right?

There are questions## about why he did what he did that we will# never know the answers to.

But what do you,## as someone who's looked into this for so# long, what do you take away from that?

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE: I -- I mean, I the way# that I write is not a -- I trained as a lawyer,## but I'm not writing legal briefs.

The# book's not an op-ed.

I don't have a... AMNA NAWAZ: You're not arguing a point.

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE: I don't have an## argument to make, per se.

However... (LAUGHTER) PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE: Part of# what's interesting about Zac .. he's this incredibly distinctive personality.

He# was a real sor.. turns out to have been this amazingly talented,# fabulous, who could kind of code switch and## mix it up with people who work all the time# with real Russian oligarchs and somehow## trick them into thinking -- I mean, there are# Russians who he convinced that he was Russian.

I don't know how he did it.

So, on the one hand, he's this very distinctive kid.

On the other hand I think that the# siren song that pulled him into## some of these dark places is one# that many of us would recognize.## It's a culture that venerates wealth# above all and venerates hustle,## even when the hustle is illegal potentially# and immoral and could end in catastrophe.

And I don't think that you -- I don't# really touch this stuff in the book## because I think it's implicit and you can# kind of make these connections yourself.

But I think that, if you look around in# our culture, in our political leadership,## there are all kinds of examples# of people who have chosen that## kind of zero sum approach to life in which# everything is about, I'm going to get mine,## and it doesn't matter who I hurt along the# way or what I might be risking in the process.

There's a kind of fire that's# sort of motivating people, and## there's an adulation I think in our culture of## those "Wolf of Wall Street"-type characters.

And# I think the problem for Zac was, he didn't see## "The Wolf of Wall Street" as a cautionary# tale.

He saw it as an instruction manual.

And I do not think he's alone in# that regard.

I don't think it's a## generational thing either.

I don't think it's# just young people.

I think across the culture## there's a lot of that out there.

And# so on the one hand Zac's story is very,## very distinctive.

It couldn't# have happened to anyone else.

On the other hand there are aspects of this# that I think speak to some kind of deeper## ills in terms of where we are these days.