The Splendid Ticket

Cotter (The Parallel Apartments) showcases in his colorful if overstuffed latest his knack for crafting unusual characters, as well as his penchant for superfluous plot threads. In 2012, middle-aged Texan Angie Grandet wins a $324 million lottery jackpot, and she decides to split the windfall down the middle with her estranged husband, Dean Lee, a compulsive gambler. From here, Cotter rewinds to when Angie and Dean Lee met in 1997; the birth of the couple’s two daughters, Nadine and Sophie; the handgun accident that kills Sophie at age four, which sends six-year-old Nadine into a spiral of depression; and the family’s slow disintegration. Back in the present, Angie and Dean Lee move with 14-year-old Nadine to a mansion in Austin and hope their newfound wealth will heal their emotional wounds. Tucked within these episodes are smart details, like Dean Lee’s penchant for Latin American literature, which he developed as a teen while reading Bolaño and Borges in Spanish to a blind neighbor, yet Cotter also punctuates the novel with characters who don’t serve much of a purpose, such as Foster, the boyfriend of Angie’s mom who lusts after Angie, only to vanish shortly after appearing. Though certain elements stall out, there’s much to admire in Cotter’s story of rebirth and fate. Agent: Adam Eaglin, Cheney Agency. (Oct.)