Final Demand - Hardcover

Moggach, Deborah

3.72

752 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1468310933 ISBN 13: 9781468310931

Publisher: Harry N Abrams Inc, 2017

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"A chilling, impeccably plotted novel" (Cosmopolitan UK) by the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Praised as "extraordinarily skillful" by award-winning writer Anita Brookner, Deborah Moggach has written an extremely powerful novel about the beautiful, bright, and ambitious Natalie, who should be doing something with her life. But instead, she's stuck in a dead-end job and instead of improving her place in the world by her own efforts, takes advantage of the honesty of those around her, ultimately leaving them damaged and broken. Of course she denies responsibility, even when confronted with undeniable evidence that she is involved. So, when she sees a chance to change her life, she doesn't hesitate to take it, even if it's at the expense of someone else. After all, it's only a minor crime. Nobody's going to get hurt. But Natalie's actions actually do have unforeseen and tragic consequences, and the ultimate question is will she be capable to meet the final demand to own up to what she has done? Emotionally taut and beautifully written, Final Demand is a cautionary tale about the battle between greed and love, and our own frailty in the face of temptation.

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Review:

Deborah Moggach's Final Demand is a bleak, uncompromising novel about the greed and selfishness of Natalie, the novel's tough, street-wise heroine. Natalie, who works for "NuLine Communications", a soulless telecommunications company based in Leeds, is frustrated by the realisation that "the next big thing in her life should be happening but thought time was speeding up, the days whisking past, a breathlessness to them now, [her] life remained doggedly the same". She is pretty and intelligent, but when her boyfriend dumps her and she runs into financial problems, she sees the opportunity to turn her boring job processing cheques to her advantage. But first of all, her ingenious plan requires a husband with a very specific name...

Final Demand is very different from Moggach's enormously successful Tulip Fever, but it catches the amoral, cynical world of Natalie and all the characters that she proceeds to dupe in a series of ever bleaker situations. Natalie's crimes seem small, but Moggach attempts to unravel the ways in which even the most trivial crime can have devastating consequences. At times, the story loses focus as Moggach follows those affected by Natalie's misdemeanours, while her heroine is so thoroughly selfish that it become difficult to sympathise with her plight. However, Final Demand neatly captures the soulless sign of the times. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

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.

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

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.

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

Thought-provoking . . . slow-burning . . . notable for its depiction of how our actions affect others, even as it maintains its spot in a moral gray area. Natalie is a wickedly fascinating character.

A chilling, impeccably plotted novel.

Marvelously tricky . . . While some thrillers tick off a checklist of red herrings on a predictable march to the finish, Moggach's creations, with their layered personalities and shifting motivations, throw more guesswork into the mix. And something to ponder, too: matters of morality, complicity and fate.--Becky Aikman

Final Demand neatly captures the soulless sign of the times.--Jerry Brotton, New York Times bestselling author

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