The Dark Lottery : Jackpot … You’re dead by Mike Stetz
Mike Stetz’s story turns a brother’s presumed accidental death into a dangerous mystery for a man already struggling to survive each day.
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, October 14, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Mike Stetz’s story turns a brother’s presumed accidental death into a dangerous mystery for a man already struggling to survive each day. A man obsessed with fatal accidents must confront the possibility that his brother’s death was no accident in Mike Stetz’s gripping novel, The Dark Lottery: Jackpot… You’re Dead. Conrad Keen, known as Connie, has lived with crippling anxiety since his older brother fell from a San Diego pier. Then a woman challenges that account.
She tracks Connie down and tells him his brother was pushed. The death, long understood to have been a horrible accident, may instead have been murder. Connie doubts the account, but also his ability to do anything about it. In short, he is a mess, prone to heavy drinking and avoiding any kind of activity that puts him in the crosshairs of the dark lottery.
Doesn’t drive. Won’t fly. Avoids roller coasters, even. The title’s central idea reverses the familiar promise of a lottery jackpot. Instead of improbable wealth, Connie imagines improbable death: plane crashes and other nightmarish accidents in which remote odds offer no protection to the person caught in them. That reversal gives the story a specific suspense premise, and Connie’s unique personality powers it forward. He does indeed begin to look into his brother’s death, unlocking long-ago secrets and pushing him unknowingly toward a spin of the dark lottery.
Set in Ocean Beach, one of San Diego’s more eclectic, colorful beach towns, the thriller moves beyond the traditional genre and explores topics such as addiction, gentrification, and class division. As Chanticleer Book Reviews notes: “The Dark Lottery shifts fluidly between comedy and reflection, crime and romance.”
Other reviewers have acclaimed the novel. Kirkus Reviews gave it a laudatory “Get It” verdict, writing: “A dynamic cast of characters headlines this grim but absorbing mystery.”
From BestThrillers.com: “Wickedly funny and emotionally raw, The Dark Lottery is a murder mystery with a hero you’ll be quoting long after the last page.”
“Prickly and raw, yet strangely tender, The Dark Lottery is a pebble-in-your-shoe novel that is impossible to ignore,” writes Indies Today.
Stetz lives in San Diego. His other two novels are A Girl and Her Dog and Me and Don’t Stop the Presses.
His website is at https://mikestetzauthor.com
Get your copy here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HH6Y38HM
For review copies, interview requests, or additional information, please contact:
Mike Stetz
BrightKey PR
media@brightkeypr.com
Legal Disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability
for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this
article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
