Lorraine Cobcroft's new novel, Mortgaged Goods, looks at big issues of relationship
through the lens of one couple and their struggle to get it right.

For Natalya, the matter of motherhood is especially thorny. From a cozy childhood in the
care of a loving couple, Joe and Hetty, “Nata” grows up beautiful and smart, and quickly
rises in the legal profession. As she strives to continue her upward trajectory, she is
courted by and then marries Karl, highly placed in legal circles, also heading for the top
of the heap. Soon Nata is pregnant, but..."Our careers… everything's right at a critical
point. We're working on a huge case... one that will make Karl's name in the profession."
Nata finally decides to continue the pregnancy after talks with Hetty, but the birth of her
son after a terrifying car crash doesn't bring her the happiness she’d wished for.

No one would suspect that Karl and Nata, attractive and bright, living in a grand home by
the seashore, have secret lives, nursing anger, fear and desperation. Karl, who grew up under the domination of a tyrannical father, is pushed by the higher-ups in the law firm to get a handle on the dealings of a hostel that caters to foreigner travelers. He comes to suspect that the hostel is a pit of illegal and immoral activities that target the young. Visiting there and seeing what goes on, Karl falls prey to his own weaknesses and teeters between tortuous obsession and a total fall into vice. Nata, meanwhile, is confronted with two terrible truths, and yields to despair that is deepened when Hetty and Joe disclose shocking facts about her past. Yet these seemingly dreadful revelations may offer the chance that Nata needs to really grow up and follow a more meaningful, genuinely rewarding path. And as Karl learns more about Nata's family history, and his own, he must reassess his values and life choices.

Cobcroft has experience in the legal profession and writes from that perspective, deftly
moving from scenes of home life to the work environment, showing how Nata and
Karl think and act according to the settings. Her take on their separate and shared crises is bold, and at times, bleak in its realism. Taking two people from such heights to such
depths and showing how they can find a thread of hope to cling to takes talent. Cobcroft
has it. Her book never feels over-managed, only overseen -- by an author with a vision of
her story from the first page to the last.

For much of Mortgaged Goods, Cobcroft holds the fates of Nata and Karl in the balance
between good intentions and poor choices, between failed hopes and the chance for
redemption. She will let them succeed, but only after they understand what success truly
means.

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.5 (8 ratings)
Price	$10.6
Category	Literature & Fiction