The Ticket - by Cecilia Wichmann (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The Ticket is a contemporary suspense novel about an ordinary woman who wins an extraordinary fortune and has to outsmart the very modern dangers that follow.

Rachel Mercer is in her forties, stuck in a call center job in Forney, Texas, and living quietly in Wills Point with her red cat, Rusty. A quick stop at the QT in Terrell turns into the unthinkable when her Powerball ticket hits for 1.8 billion dollars. Rachel knows one thing at once. She must keep the win secret or lose the life she still hopes to build.

With a steady attorney and a retired banker on her side, she sets up a trust and a plan. The internet has other plans. Rumor pages start circling a woman in a red Kia. A break-in rattles her house. A tracker appears under her bumper. A controlled decoy operation with the Dallas FBI reveals a pipeline of online "neighbors" who trade tips for gift cards and push small men toward big crimes.

Rachel learns fast. Freezes her credit. Locks down her phone. Gets a protective order. Faces a painful breakup that turns volatile. Through each hit she keeps choosing the next right move, a quiet life, and her own voice. When the claim is filed and the wire clears, she turns east toward Florida and a future she will write on purpose.

Set across small-town East Texas and the long highways out, The Ticket blends page-turning stakes with heart. It is about privacy in a loud world, the courage to leave, and a woman who refuses to be chased off her own porch. Perfect for readers of domestic thrillers and upmarket women's fiction who love grit, hope, and a heroine who will not back down.