Starfishing

Book excerpt: LONDON, LATE 1990s. Frankie Cavanagh has just started working as a trader and is determined to beat the men she works with at their own game. The dizzying surge of adrenaline that comes with the chaos, the speed, the rush of the day, is only amplified when she begins an affair with her charismatic American boss. Powered by clubs, cocktails, and cocaine, their thrill-seeking relationship quickly spirals out of control, bringing Frankie to a point of reckoning. This electrifying novel from the “awe-inspiring” (Birmingham Post, UK), award-winning author of The Killing Jar lays bare the landscape of London’s trading room floor—its fierce customs, furious pace, and insatiable greed. Nicola Monaghan depicts the high-stakes reality of the burgeoning global economy in the 1990s and reinvents the classic tale of ambition and power with a gritty, fearless heroine. Crackling with energy and intensity, Monaghan’s powerful and seductive prose plunges readers into a whirlpool of hubris and betrayal, capturing the fragile nature of morality and confirming her reputation as an exhilarating young talent.