Final Demand: A Novel

by Deborah Moggach

Overview

By the author of the bestselling novelsThe Best Exotic Marigold Hotel andTulip Fever, the “tense and splendid” (Wall Street Journal) story of human frailty, temptation, and tragedyBestselling author Deborah Moggach, who “captures mood through careful choice of detail and has a deft sense of the grotesque” (James McNamara, The New York Times Book Review) delivers an extremely powerful novel about the consequences of greed and deceit in her gripping page-turner Final Demand.Natalie is a girl who should be going somewhere. Although beautiful, bright, and ambitious, she’s stuck in a dead-end job in the accounts department of a telecommunications company, living her life through wild weekends and yearning for something more. While processing the final notice payments on cus­tomer’s accounts, Natalie devises a simple little scam that could change her life in a major way. And since it’s only a minor crime—nobody’s going to get hurt— she doesn’t hesitate to follow through her scheme.But when Natalie’s selfish actions have tragic conse­quences, she learns there’s no such thing as a victimless crime. A cautionary tale that “captures the soulless sign of the times” (Jerry Broton, New York Times bestselling author), Final Demand is a beautifully written, emotionally taut story about the battle between love, envy, and misguided aspirations, and our own frailty in the face of temptation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781468316186
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.38(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Deborah Moggach is the author of many successful novels includingTulip Fever,the recent film adaptation of which stars Alicia Vikander, andThe Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which was made into two very popular movies starring Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith. Her screenplays include the film ofPride and Prejudice, which was nominated for a BAFTA. Her novelsIn The Dark,Heartbreak Hotel, and Final Demand are published by Overlook.

Editorial Reviews

08/07/2017
In this thought-provoking novel from Moggach (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), 32-year-old accountant Natalie’s life is not what she thought it would be. She hates her dead-end job, her boyfriend recently left her, and she can’t afford to live on her own, even in her dumpy neighborhood. So she hatches a plan to embezzle money from the phone company where she works. She rationalizes that she will only take small sums, not enough for anyone to notice. Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Chloe, another young woman at a dead end in life sets out for a party with her friends. However, what should have been a night of karaoke and flirting ends in disaster when she realizes her phone call to her father won’t go through. The phone line has been cut off due to a misunderstanding with the phone company, a result of Natalie’s scheme, and Chloe now has no way to get home. This is a slow-burning novel, but Moggach gradually raises the tension throughout. The novel is also notable for its depiction of how our actions affect others, even as it maintains its spot in a moral gray area, and Natalie is a wickedly fascinating character. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Brisk and neatly plotted, with a full-bodied cast headed by the irrepressible Natalie.

Booklist

A suspenseful crime drama doesn’t seem like Moggach’s usual fair, but her intriguing take on facing the consequences of our actions defies genre,proving that sometimes stories of theft and crime are the most intriguingly human of all.

Darling Literally

Tense and splendid . . . Moggach, a versatile writer . . . has all the empathetic and stylistic gifts needed to put a reader inside the lives of a dozen disparate characters and make one care about their fates—even that of a callous protagonist who may (or may not) experience a last-minute redemptive epiphany.

Tom Nolan - Wall Street Journal

2017-03-21
When a young woman considers the consequences of stealing from her employer, she doesn't consider that the damage might reach beyond the walls of a prison cell.After learning that anyone with the right initials could cash a check made out to NT instead of NuLine Telecommunications, Natalie Bingham becomes Natalie Taylor, wife of Colin Taylor, who keeps exotic reptiles in the house he shares with his mother. Natalie's commitment to the scam, going so far as to marry a man she doesn't love just to get his initials, is part of the allure of this wholly unlikable character. From the outside, she appears to be a beautiful and clever woman who charms everyone she meets, from her gullible husband to her cynical defense lawyer. On the inside, she's intellectually lazy, insulting people with racial slurs and turning to a life of crime at the first sign of financial hardship. She doesn't believe she'll hurt anyone if she steals a few dollars at a time from a big corporation, but even when she's proven wrong, she finds that she doesn't care. Similar to Something to Hide (2016), Moggach's latest book connects the lives of strangers in alternating narratives. In this case, Natalie's trail of stolen phone-bill payments leaves one of her victims, David, his wife, Sheila, and their daughter, Chloe, with a dead phone line at the worst possible time. Each of them wants something out of reach—David wants a better life for his overweight daughter, Colin wants a family, and Natalie wants more excitement than an ordinary office job can offer her. And how far they are all willing to go to get what they desire most uncovers some surprising truths about the lies people tell themselves. Going inside the mind of a pretty, freckled villain who commits a seemingly victimless crime creates a page-turner with just enough moral ambiguity to ensure an unexpected ending.

Kirkus Reviews