JACKPOT

In a small city in northwest Wisconsin in 1955, loan collector Curt Kissow's fortunes are in decline after his wife of six years divorces him on unfounded grounds that he is trying to poison her. Unlucky at love, Kissow soon finds himself fabulously lucky at games of chance when he wins the Irish National Lottery.

His good fortune confers instant celebrity upon Kissow, a private man ill-equipped to handle notoriety. He is beset by alms seekers of all kinds - friends, neighbors, city officials, strangers with proposals involving dubious charities and get-rich-quick schemes.

When his boss at Friendly Loan Company gives him the chance to track down a debtor who has fled town, Curt takes the assignment eagerly. He tracks skip Gorman Hooper to the New Mexico desert, where Curt finds a true Land of Enchantment.

But Curt is not the only one to be stalking Gorman Hooper. He discovers - too late - that he has been trailed by a pair of thugs in the employ of gamblers to whom Hooper owes a vast sum. Curt and Gorman barely escape an attack by these gangsters.

The startling climax of this outrageous, yet thoroughly human story will keep you on the edge of your chair.