Final Demand

April 1, 2017
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.

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August 7, 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.

May 1, 2017
Actions have consequences that can be disastrous, as shown in this novel by the author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2004). A penny-pinching practice instituted by NuLine Telecommunications in Leedsdeducting 14 minutes' pay each day for smokers' breaksspurs Natalie in accounts to devise a scheme to defraud her employer. All she needs is a last name beginning in T to alter payment checks made out simply to NT and put them in her own account, after processing them as being paid. Her affair with company HR director Philip Tomlinson seems promising until she learns he's married, but then she stumbles on naive gas-company employee and amateur herpetologist Colin Taylor. Soon she's Natalie Taylor, putting her plan into effect and never worrying about money again, until company computers go down and she forgets to process some payments. Brisk and neatly plotted, with a full-bodied cast headed by the irrepressible Natalie.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)