This Never Happened
Heidi Scherzinger is just a typical working girl in Chicago in 1971. Well, maybe not so typical. In fact, she’s running Chicago’s most successful independent call girl outfit, when she’s summoned to meet with Sonny Battaglia, the country’s most powerful Mob boss.
The other local call girl agencies are complaining about her success, so Sonny offers her a deal. Either she gets whacked, or relocates to Washington, D.C., where she’ll be working for the Agency, under the control of the creepy Sidney Gottshalk, the resident blackmail specialist.
The Agency wants to get blackmail material on all the horny democrats flooding the Capitol in the run-up to the Presidential election, trying to defeat President Nicholas Dixon, running for a second term.
The always efficient Heidi quickly sets up a first-class operation, aided by the quietly competent Milton Greenbaum, and what follows is a Florence Gump type adventure through a 1970s Washington D.C. which might be just a little different than the version you read about in your history books.
But Heidi soon finds herself embroiled in a political scandal involving the break-in and bugging of the Democratic National Headquarters, with the fate of a Presidency, and her life, at stake.
This novel asks the age-old question: Can a call girl enter politics and escape with her life and her morals intact? Read this fun, rollicking romp about a simpler, more innocent time in America, when the intelligence agencies would only use adult women to compromise our public figures.
"Heckenlively hooks the readers with romance and keeps them riveted with countless thrills in between."
- Independent Book Review
"... readers will love the main characters, the ever-present suspense, and the unanswered questions that invite conversation about what is real and what is not."
- Blue Ink Review, Starred Review
"... a spy-thriller-like plan worthy of an Ian Fleming novel ..."
"Heckenlively keeps the pages turning with brisk pacing and clever spins on hardboiled dialogue ..."
"Entertainingly lurid ..."
- Kirkus Reviews
