The Rumor Game

Mullen follows 2023’s Blind Spots with a well-researched if underheated thriller set in Boston during WWII. Chapters alternate between two perspectives: that of spunky, idealistic reporter Anne Lemire, born Jewish and raised Catholic, who’s begun to use her gossip column to investigate a rise in antisemitic attacks, including a recent assault on her younger brother, and that of FBI Special Agent Devon Mulvey, a Catholic womanizer who’s investigating a case of stolen munitions that ended in murder. Anne and Devon knew each other as children, and they kindle a thin, predictable romance when their investigations intersect. It turns out Devon’s nephew was the man who beat Sammy, who is sleeping with a woman linked to the munitions theft. As Anne and Devon dig deeper into Sammy’s transgressions, they uncover an espionage plot and run afoul of a local crime syndicate whose operations indicate that fascist ideologies aren’t as remote as Americans might hope. The protagonists’ motivations are often thin (Devon’s attracted to Anne because she’s “forbidden”; Anne chases down fascists for “fun”), but the pace of the last hundred pages is breathtaking, and Mullen works in fascinating details about the stateside political climate during WWII. This doesn’t rank with the author’s best, but history buffs will enjoy themselves. (Feb.)