Lorraine (Rainey) Cobcroft
AUTHOR
Love cannot live where lies sleep. Buried secrets will come to light at the most inconvenient times.
Corporate lawyer, Natalie Dreyer, fought hard to escape a sordid past and prove herself. When she married the rich and charming Karl Albrecht, she believed she had created her perfect world. But facing trauma, disillusionment and betrayal forces Nata to confront her demons. The truth can breed hatred…. or it can teach us how to love. But forgiveness has a price. How much must Nata sacrifice for love?
Abused by her father, Nata became the adored foster child of an aging childless couple. Driven to make her foster father proud, she excelled in her studies and achieved impressively both at work and in her private life. But Karl proved not to be the man who courted her, and when tragedy strikes, it wasn’t just Karl’s narcissism that challenged Nata. Her foster patents also hid shameful secrets.
Contains some references to child abuse, and misoginy.
Lorraine, for someone who writes to “nudge the world a little”, you’ve certainly done more than a nudge with Mortgaged Goods. The emotional complexity, the moral tension, the haunting truth buried in Nata’s story it’s the kind of layered, socially charged drama that lingers long after the last page....Your background alone explains the depth in your character's: decades spent observing humanity across cultures, the precision of a technical writer blended with the empathy of a storyteller. It shows. Mortgaged Goods doesn’t just entertain; it asks questions that matter.
Eloven Vale, Professor and Book Club Host
'Classified as Women's Fiction (but definitely not only for women!), ''Mortgaged Goods'' is also a crime story, flavoured with romance and family saga. Rich in subplots and loaded with mystery and intrigue, its characters are people you know... people who harbour disturbing secrets and who struggle to calm their niggling conscience as they strive to fulfil their personal wants. The world they live in is the real world that we all inhabit... an evil world of greed, selfishness, cupidity, and corruption, but also a world filled with people whose capacity for love, kindness, courage and integrity inspires. It's a story that will tug at your heartstrings, make you angry, and make you cry... but it's an inspiring story of hope and redemption.''
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.
The author speaks from her heart. It shows. They are not words we read, but feelings straight from the author to the reader. This is a superb book.
…a story that will grab readers from the very first words and won’t let go until the very last… Mortgaged Goods is exciting, full of surprises, and just a fantastic read! Any reader who loves an intriguing piece of contemporary women’s fiction should absolutely pick up this book.
With many insightful scenes showing the invested misogyny of our society, this novel will suit readers who love family sagas, crime thrillers, and love stories - so that's everyone, right? Somewhere between Peter Temple and Anne Perry. A very enjoyable read.
This uniquely captivating book is far more impressive than it may initially appear. If you read it as a simple narrative, it's still very good, but the importance of the book, and the reason it has stuck with me, is the questions it leaves you asking of yourself once you turn the last page (or swipe...). For both of these characters, we see life "before" and "after", and while most novels have some sort of turning points or crisis around which it revolves, Cobcroft spent more time digging into the emotional carnage and honest self-appraisals that go into the recovery process. This wasn't a book just for women, nor was it a romantic and sappy sad story. It was a rather brutally sincere portrait of life after loss, and the pain of personal reflection. We often take on jobs, relationships, and life paths that aren't particularly healthy or beneficial for ourselves, and many people go years or lifetimes without realizing what really matters. Cobcroft explores the intense emotions of self-confidence and the fortitude of the human spirit. This story isn't simply about a Cinderella story gone wrong.... it's a complex analysis of what it means (and what it takes) to be happy.
This story began as a short story intended for publication in a Fairfield Writers Group Anthology. Assessed not sufficiently family friendly, it was shelved for a time, but it cried that it was worthy of publication somewhere.
Eventually, a friend suggested expanding the story into a complete novel. That was a challenge that was both daunting and hard to resist.
Lorraine dreamed the subplots. She ate, slept and breathed the story. As she wrote it, Nata and Hetty came to life and followed her about, chiding her for not telling their story as it happened and correcting her accounts of events. While vacuuming or washing dishes, she heard familiar voices whispering, ‘’I did’t say that. What I said was…” or ‘’That’s not how it happened. Now pay attention while I tell you again.”
Some might think Lorraine a little mad, but her characters are quite real in her world. She could not write convincingly about them if they were not. She often wonders if other authors converse with the people they invent?
Mortgaged Goods merges minor truths from two significant events in Lorraine’s life. Supporting her elder daughter through a difficult pregnancy and the birth of a special child, who spent months in neo-natal intensive care, provided the inspiration and knowledge for the chapters about Nata giving birth and the baby’s hospital care.
Experiences owning a unit in an educational accommodation facility and membership in the Body Corporate seeded the idea for the legal case Karl and Nata worked on. Employment in a law office proved an advantage when writing scenes about lawyers.
Despite two real events providing inspiration and some knowledge, Mortgaged Goods is pure fiction. The characters never existed, and to the best of the author’s knowledge, none of the events described ever occurred.