Even When You Win... — Dave Balcom

Wins and losses… When Ed Sweet loses his job of 35 years it is devastating. Two years later, when he wins the American Tribute Sweepstakes Grand Prize worth millions of dollars, everything seems to be coming up roses. When Ed starts receiving calls threatening his seven grand-children, he turns to his high school hero, Jim Stanton, because he knows Jim is always a winner. When Jim and his wife, Jan, then hurry to the northern Missouri town of Elliotsville they find a town still reeling from the loss of its foremost private-sector employer. When the Stantons agree to a cross-country marathon of interviewing the Sweet children to find which one of them might be linked to the threats, they find extraordinary people living extraordinary lives â€" winners all. When the Sweets call all their children home, gathering all the grandchildren under the watchful eye of their parents and the FBI, the wins and losses start piling up forcing everyone concerned into a flurry of discovery and action that leads to a new, full understanding of what winning and losing really mean.