Open Line — Ellen Hawley

“Open Line is an eerie urban fable, a cautionary tale told in [Ellen] Hawley's swift and commanding voice.” -- Heather McElhatton, author of Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel

Annette Majoris is a late-night radio host spinning her wheels in flyover land. Her big personality and gorgeous voice have only gotten her so far and she desperately needs a hook. One slow night, with a caller ranting about the usual things, she decides to take it to the next level -- just throw it out there -- what if the Vietnam War never happened? What if it was a government-concocted nightmare? A mind-control experiment of grand proportions?

When the lines light up like a Christmas tree, she knows she's hit on something special, but even she can't imagine how far this will take her. With a few simple questions, Annette has inadvertently tapped into the wounded American psyche and found a way to heal it. If the Vietnam War never happened, then the United States had never suffered defeat and none of its veterans had been involved in the atrocities of war.

Buoyed by political powerbrokers and their puppets, her outrageous claims gain legitimacy and virtually overnight Annette is speaking to crowded halls, dating a milling magnate, dining with the governor, and meeting with TV producers. But has she really unmasked the greatest conspiracy in American history, or is she just being played for a fool by the powers-that-be?

With pitch-perfect dialogue, Ellen Hawley's second novel is a high-energy political satire. No stranger to the world of talk radio, Hawley once moonlighted as a call-in host for a Minneapolis radio station. She now divides her time between homes in Minneapolis and Cornwall. Visit her website at www.ellenhawley.com.