Harry Pearson, a devout and praying Christian, has never bought a lottery ticket in his seventy-plus years of life, but today he does. That was just the first improbable thing that happened to Harry, but it set into motion a series of events that bring the reader into the lives of three single women, each struggling with different life challenges.

Shelley Calhoun is a single mother of three children and a hair stylist. Harry left two lottery tickets and an invitation to church as a tip for Shelley. A short time later, Shelley is fired—again.

Darcy Tatum, a server at Daisy’s Diner,and as she serves his lunch, Harry notices her distraction, he quietly asks God to bless the young woman
When he finished his meal, he left the last few lottery tickets on the table as a tip.

‘It’s quiet out there,’ says DS Atherton, at Bill Slider’s office window. ‘Too quiet.’ Right on cue, the phone rings. ‘Now look what you’ve done,’ says Slider. It’s a homicide. The post-Christmas lull is officially over.

The deceased is antiques expert Rowland Egerton, the darling of daytime TV, stabbed to death in his luxurious West London home. The press are going to be all over this one like a nasty rash: the pressure’s on Slider for a result, and soon.

Egerton’s partner, the bulky, granite-faced John Lavender, found the body; did he also do the deed? Or was it a burglary gone wrong? A missing Fabergé box and Impressionist painting point that way. But as Slider and his team investigate, none of the facts seem to fit. And it soon becomes clear that the much-loved, charming Mr Egerton wasn’t as universally loved, or perhaps as charming, as Slider was first led to believe . . .