Queen of Hearts

A Composite Novel: One Town. One Winner. Thirteen Ways to Come Undone

In Liberty, Illinois, a small coal-mining town fallen on hard times, one obsession swallows everyday life: the Queen of Hearts contest. Built around a weekly drawing, the game can be over in a moment - or stretch on for months, sometimes even a full year. Each week a card is turned. Each week the crowd leans in. Each week the Queen stays hidden, and the jackpot swells.

As the prize climbs past one million dollars, Liberty's residents invest more than money. They invest hope, pride, desperation, and the belief that one turn of luck could finally mean relief. People who never agreed on anything agree on this: the win would change everything. It might pay off debt. It might fund a kid's escape. It might keep a family business alive. It might buy medical care, fix a roof, settle an old mistake, or offer a clean slate. And because the drawing is public, the longing becomes public too - in glances, side bets, and the stories people tell about what they will do when it is finally their turn.

But Liberty is the kind of place where everyone knows your history - or thinks they do. The longer the jackpot grows, the more the contest turns the town into a pressure cooker. Conversations at the diner, in the grocery aisle, and in the church parking lot start to circle the same questions: Who "deserves" it? Who is cheating? Who is lying? Rumors harden into facts. Friendships strain. Marriages wobble. Families fracture. Old grudges sharpen. What starts as entertainment becomes leverage, and the town's unspoken rules begin to show themselves - who gets protected, who gets blamed, who gets believed, and what people will do when "almost" starts to feel personal.

Through an ensemble cast of neighbors, couples, rivals, and outsiders, Queen of Hearts follows the ripple effects of a single, all-consuming dream: money that can buy a fresh start - or expose what people were willing to trade for it. A secret kept too long. A favor called in at the worst time. A good deed that comes with strings. A promise made in private that cannot be kept in public. Each story adds another angle - another motive, another consequence - until Liberty is forced to face what it has avoided for years: the lies people tell to survive, the bargains they make in private, and the lines they will cross when hope starts to look like entitlement.

The contest becomes the town's mirror - a weekly ritual that reveals who people are when they think no one is watching.

Told through thirteen interconnected stories, Queen of Hearts is a composite novel in two parts - The Reckoning and The Aftermath - an ensemble-cast small-town drama and character-driven literary fiction. Each story stands on its own, but together they reveal a town overtaken by the contest and the different ways people respond when hope, disappointment, and possibility collide. Set in the rural Midwest, the book is steeped in family secrets and quiet betrayals, where judgment travels faster than truth, and everyone keeps score.

In The Reckoning, the tension tightens around every draw, and the town's private math becomes public: who is owed, who is forgotten, who is next. In The Aftermath, the win lands, and the fallout spreads - through kitchens and backyards, through friendships and family lines - long after the cheering stops. The money changes hands once; the consequences keep circulating.

When someone finally wins, Liberty discovers what the prize cannot fix - and what it costs to keep chasing it.

Queen of Hearts is the fifth published novel by Laurie Lisa, who has written thirteen novels and is known for richly observed storytelling and unforgettable Midwest voices.