Windfall
A Novel of Suspense
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
In this newest suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub, three friends’ lives terrifyingly unravel when they win a billion-dollar lottery jackpot—and one goes missing. Perfect for fans of novels like Taylor Adams’ No Exit and The Club by Ellery Lloyd.
It was the girls’ weekend they’d never forget.
J.J., Molly, and Leila had once been inseparable, but it’s been a long time since college, and life—not to mention distance—have disrupted the former roommates’ friendship. When the three reunite for a birthday weekend in Las Vegas, the lottery ticket they buy on a whim has the winning numbers—giving them a billion-dollar windfall. Shell-shocked, they turn to Shea Daniels, a “sudden wealth manager,” who promises to guide them through the pitfalls of having more money than they’d ever imagined.
It was the girls’ weekend they’d live to regret.
The trio travels to a secluded California mansion, where Shea and her staff cater to their every whim, promising to teach them to navigate their newfound wealthy lifestyles with ease. The house is luxurious beyond their wildest dreams—and purportedly cursed, the last place a missing movie star was seen alive. Their weekend turns to terror when they discover they are trapped—roads blocked and communication disrupted by the wildfires raging around them. And when history repeats itself and one of them disappears—the one who’s holding the billion-dollar ticket—the others must face the fact that either their friend has betrayed them…or a predator is lurking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Staub (The Other Family) underwhelms in this standalone thriller centered on the fallout from a shared lottery jackpot. Leila, J.J., and Molly, who met as freshmen at Northwestern University and bonded when they learned they all had September birthdays, have all chipped in for a winning billion-dollar lottery ticket. Its spoils offer a new start for the trio, whose post-college lives have fallen short of their aspirations. The friends hire Shea Daniels, a sudden-wealth consultant (whose business is called Windfall), to advise them. Daniels invites them to her home (also called Windfall), the former estate of a two-time Oscar nominee who vanished two decades earlier in a disappearance deemed "Hollywood's most intriguing mystery." Unsurprisingly, the September Girls' stay at Windfall proves hazardous, and the friends fear that one of them may be trying to claim the billion dollars for herself. Genre veterans won't find much surprising here, and cliché-ridden prose ("She ignores him, heading into the house, lugging other people's secrets like an iron chain shackling her to the past") doesn't help. Staub aims for a jackpot, but winds up losing the house.
