The Rumor Game A Novel

“A determined reporter and a reluctant FBI agent face off against fascist elements in World War II-era Boston. June, 1943. Wartime tensions are running high, and an atmosphere of distrust and unease is dividing friends and neighbors. The two protagonists of Thomas Mullen’s gripping historical thriller find themselves at the center of a dangerous tinderbox, trying to douse the sparks before flames engulf the city. Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis actors and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. She’s getting tired of chasing rumors about Rosie Riveters’ safety on the job, or whether the Nazis have poisoned lobsters off the coast of Maine. She wants to write about something bigger. Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing sabotage in the war industries and his Sundays spying on clerics with divided loyalties-and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war. When Anne’s story about Nazi propaganda being handed out by local businesses intersects with Devon’s investigation into the death of an immigrant factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime, and domestic fascism-one that implicates their own tangled pasts and threatens to expose a larger pattern of conspiracy than either of them could have imagined. With incredible attention to detail, vibrant historical atmosphere, and a riveting mystery that illuminates still-timely issues about disinformation, power, and influence in a society plagued by division, Thomas Mullen delivers another powerful thriller”–