Lottery Winners and Windfalls: Books On Unexpected Wealth

The Winner / by David Baldacci
Something is crooked in the nation's capital, and for once it's got nothing to do with politics. The national lottery has been fixed 12 times by a man named ‟Jackson‟ who deftly goes about putting the proceeds and the lottery winners to his own "good use". Now to protect his secret, he aims to kill the latest winner, a poor, innocent working class single mom named LuAnn Tyler. But what Jackson doesn't know is that LuAnn isn't as innocent as she seems and she doesn't much like the thought of dying and leaving her young daughter all alone in the world. (FIC BALDACCI)

Money Can't Buy Love / by Connie Briscoe

For 38-year-old Lenora Stone, bad luck seems to be the only luck she has at all. A beat photographer for Baltimore's rich and fabulous, all phases of Lenora's dismal life seem stuck in reverse until the day she wins the jackpot in the Maryland Lottery. Suddenly everything she ever wanted (or maybe didn't want as is the case with her dull boyfriend Gerald) is within her influence of control. But can having all the money in the world cause a girl to go too far? (FIC BRISCOE)
 

Mr. Toppit: A Novel / by Charles Elton
Children's author Arthur Hayward never lived to see the success his little series of books would generate. He was run over by a cement truck just before his novels broke it big. Now his literary legacy and its substantial monetary benefits have been left to his widow Martha and their two children Rachel and Luke. And while fame and fortune are nice for a little while, the long-term cost of being branded with the Hayward namesake is a little on the unpleasant side, especially for Luke who's seen as the real-life model for the protagonist in his father's novels. (FIC ELTON)

Lucky You / by Carl Hiaasen
Grange, Florida's latest claim to fame is JoLayne Lucks, the unlikely winner of the state lottery. Only JoLayne's winning ticket isn't the only one. The other belongs to Bodean Gazzer and his raunchy sidekick, Chub, who believe they're entitled to the entire $28 million jackpot, needing the entire amount right away to fund their own underground militia. Unwilling to give up her rightful winnings, JoLayne fights back when Bode and Chub beat her up and steal her ticket, vowing to track them down, take back what's hers and get revenge. (FIC HIAASEN)

Windfall / by James Magnuson
Even though he's always thought himself to be above worrying about material things like having enough money, 40-year-old Ben Lindberg is feeling the pinch. And he's not liking it. He can't fix his car, he can't buy a better house in a better part of town, his wife won't stop bugging him and he just can't seem to feel good about his job. So when he suddenly stumbles (literally) across a stash of cash in his own basement, he sees little reason why he shouldn't put it to good use. But there's a reason why the cash was there in the first place, and it's not one which had Ben's financial straits in mind. (FIC MAGNUSON)

Lucky Chica / by Berta Platas
Rosie Caballero leads what she feels is kind of a shabby life. Her third-rate job leaves her with barely enough money to pay the rent and almost no money to keep her dog, Tootie, well-fed. But Rosie's ship comes in when she wins the largest lottery jackpot ever--$600 Million. With her newfound wealth, Rosie's now a minor celebutante with glamour, glitz and fame now within her price range. With everything she ever wanted and some unexpected surprises which never occurred to her, Rosie's got it made in the shade. But there's some things that money just can't buy. (FIC PLATAS)

Windfall / by Penny Vincenzi

In Depression-era Britain, Cassia Tallow is a doctor's wife and a doctor herself even though she's more a stay-at-home mom at the moment. When she suddenly inherits a large fortune from her wealthy godmother, Cassia's world instantly changes into one where she can both mingle with her former high society friends and be a doctor, the kind of humanitarian practice she's always wanted, at her own discretion. But when certain clues bring her to the suspicion that her inheritance may not be rightfully her own, Cassia tries to track down the truth at any cost. (FIC VINCENZI)

Just Shy of Harmony / by Philip Gulley

Things could be better for Sam Gardner. The pastor of the Harmony Friends Church in Harmony, Indiana, Sam is tired of writing sermons that seem to fall on deaf ears. The success of the burgeoning megachurch down the road, which can't fail to win members with message series like "Ten Mutual Funds Jesus Would Die For", has him stressing as well. He has faith that things will go better. But so do certain quirky elders of his congregation who have their own ideas about how to run things. Dale Hinshaw for instance, who's never shy about mentioning Sam's salary or reminding people of how he "felt the call" toward ministry once upon a time himself, just knows that his idea for scripture egg project (in which bible verses would literally be implanted in the yokes of hatched eggs) could help win back Sam's diminishing congregation.
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Another idea, to plant lottery tickets in the church hymnals, this notion reluctantly agreed upon by everyone a while back, has actually born fruit. Lifelong member Jessie Peacock has hit the jackpot after her pew's hymn book was found to contain the winning ticket. Now if she could only be persuaded to accept the money. Elsewhere in Harmony, mechanic Wayne Fleming has recently been deserted by his wife of ten years for reasons unknown to him or anyone else. He and his three children are alone but things seem to be looking up at the moment with his new friendship with local single lawyer Deena Morrison who's had her own issues with caring for her ailing mother. The pair, having met at Harmony Friends Church where special things seem to happen in spite of adversity, share a growing fondness for each other and for Sam's gospel-based preaching.
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Much like Jan Karon's Mitford series, Philip Gulley's Harmony is a cozy small town where the church is the center of the action. Of course nobody's perfect, even among church folk, and there are those Dale Hinshaws of the world who maintain spectacularly self-centered viewpoints. Gulley is good at humorously depicting scenes of narrow-minded squabbling about petty grievances and untethered ideas, but he's also adept at showing the compassion of those who graciously suffer the fool and reach out in unexpected ways to help others. Sam's honest struggles with life and faith (i.e., bemoaning the fact that his most commonly communicated words to his two sons are "can't afford it") are well laid out and readers will appreciate the book's subtle message of generosity, kindness and constancy of faith. Plus there's a genuinely good-hearted humor which can't fail to interject comic relief into the mutliple character narrative. (FIC GULLEY)

Ravens / by George Dawes Green

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The Boatwrights of Brunswick, Georgia are typical (though not stereotypical) southerners. Not establishment, not country club, not new money but not trailer trash. They're small towners with customarily demure small town ways. But like all Americans, they dream big. Especially mom Patsy, whose weekly devotion to the state lotto drawing is a religion unto itself, and college-age daughter Tara whose more modest ambitions include community college and moving out of the house. Dull-but-honest father Mitch, owner of a copy shop, and 8-year-old Jase tend to go with the flow orchestrated by their female counterparts. Their lives all change one Saturday night when Patsy's dream (unbeknownst to Patsy initially; Tara possessing the winning ticket) inconceivably comes true--to the tune of $318 million.

Friends since way back, Shaw and Romeo are two jobless nobodies escaping their dingy Ohio roots and heading south where ambitions of a better life in sunny Florida await their pending arrival. But when, by chance, they stop off at a gas station where a winning lotto ticket was recently purchased, their palm-tree dreams are delayed just a tad so they (particularly Romeo) can cook up an extortion scam to get at least a piece of all that money; of which the winner, being from this podunk nowheresville, would never know what to do with anyway. And so, using a some quite orthodox methods of finding their prey--a hint overheard at the gas station leading to some savvy cross-referencing of a few online business directories and social networks--the pair are in a position to execute what they feel is a convenient enough heist. But when their amateurish plan is put into motion, unforeseen variables inevitably create a far more complicated scenario than originally anticipated.
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Green, author of Caveman's Valentine, knows how to write characters. The story's four or five primary people are well-enhanced, each fleshed out enough to keep the reader interested and reinforce the authenticity in what's really an oft-conceived premise, providing welcomed simplicity and a straightforward method to executing the plot. Books about lottery winners can easily become outrageous or ridiculous, but Ravens executes the story with more practicality than most. Tara's reactions, especially, are refreshingly realistic, mirroring most people's vision of what they would do if it happened to them--calmly and discretely going about their business as if nothing special happened all the while excitedly plotting a long-subdued fantasy life. Part black comedy, part thriller and part love story, the book's multiple narrative style handles things well. What's intended to be a critical crisis situation comes across in pragmatic but unpredictable fashion, the reader in on things with a good feel for the primary players involved, but still pleasantly surprised by twists and developments along the way.

Lottery / by Patricia Wood

Perry Crandall of Everett, Washington is 32, mentally challenged, works in a boatyard and has just recently lost his grandmother ("Gram") to cancer. Slow-witted he may be (probably due to Asperger's; his illness is never identified), Perry is very, very good at one thing: sticking to a routine and taking things one step at a time. Which is why he's able to get by on his own at a ridiculously meager salary--$528/month--until the day he wins $12 million in the state lottery. Now everyone, including Perry's scumbag relatives--who'd cheated him out of his rightful inheritance and forced him out of Gram's house right after the funeral--are holding out their hands for money. Well-aware of his special new status and that others desire to take advantage of him (having been told he's the suggestive type by Gram most everyday of his life), Perry must now navigate a totally unfamiliar world where manipulation, deception and misinformation crop up at every turn.

Though the author keeps the reader guessing as to how the story will end, the resolution is justifiable and genuinely satisfying. Definitely taking a page from the Rain Man/Forrest Gump/Awakenings school of thought, Woods succeeds at portraying a mentally challenged person as a fully fleshed-out, well-functioning adult human being whose good-hearted, benevolent nature makes for a better world. Yet Wood does well to navigate away from oversentimentalism, carefully keeping both the plot and Perry's persona within the bounds of conceptual reality. The strength of this story is Perry's charm, which, matched to his superior ethical integrity, makes for one appealing read, pleasantly fulfilling right up until the conclusion. (FIC WOOD)