The rumor game A novel

The author of The Revisionists (2011) and Darktown (2016) demonstrates that historical fiction can be intensely relevant to the present day. His new novel, set in Boston in 1943, tackles themes like bigotry, patriotism, and disinformation. At its center are two fascinating characters: Anne Lemire, a reporter whose newspaper column, the Rumor Clinic, debunks lies and hoaxes, and FBI special agent Devon Mulvey, who is determined to find a big case to break on the home front to assuage his guilt about not fighting the enemy overseas. When Anne's latest story and Devon's latest case overlap, with both following leads on antisemitic attacks on Boston's Jewish community, and they find a dead man with a note in his pocket covered in Nazi symbols, they realize this investigation could change both of their lives. Though the story is firmly anchored in its time and place, and Mullen renders the environment in precise period detail, its themes are thoroughly relevant to contemporary readers. A remarkably good book, smartly conceived and beautifully executed.

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.)

In his acclaimed "Darktown" trilogy, Mullen mixed history and fiction to depict a racially divided Atlanta in 1948, where Black cops weren't permitted to carry guns or arrest white people. In his new book, it's Boston, 1943, another city riven with racial tension. Jewish people are being attacked in the streets as propaganda floods the city, blaming Jews for causing World War II. Members of the antisemitic New Patriots League print counterfeit ration stamps, dump them on Jewish store owners, then have police stooges raid the businesses and arrest the owners as profiteers. Then a dead man is found in an alley, a crumpled cocktail napkin with a swastika drawn on it pressed into his palm. A half-Jewish reporter for a Boston newspaper becomes the uneasy ally and even more uneasy lover of an Irish Catholic FBI agent as they work together to sort out who's behind the crimes and--just as difficult--try to convince authorities that something needs to be done about them. VERDICT Attractive characters, plenty of action, and a solid grasp of history make this a superior thriller and also a snapshot of a particularly shameful moment in the history of the United States.--David Keymer

A wave of antisemitic cruelty in 1943 Boston entangles two well-meaning souls who can't avoid the passions it generates and implants even within themselves. Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a column debunking vicious innuendos, for the Boston Star. Devon Mulvey is a philandering FBI agent with an eye for married women. Despite the war effort, which seems to have united most Americans except for Devon's father, unregenerate isolationist John Mulvey, nothing would seem likely to bring the two together. That all changes when Anne's teenage brother, Sammy, is beaten up by an Irish gang targeting the city's Jews, and the national security concerns surrounding the fatal stabbing of Abraham Wolff, an employee of Northeast Munitions, bring Devon onto the case along with the Boston Police Department. To his surprise, Devon finds himself at odds with the whole BPD, including his cousin, Officer Brian Dennigan. At the same time, Anne's investigations of antisemitism force her to confront traumatic ruptures within her own family. Once they meet each other, the pair make common cause by going after the Christian Legion, which, under the politically ambitious attorney Charles Nolan, has printed up Nazi leaflets and counterfeit ration stamps, selling the latter to local Jewish families they plan to expose as cheaters and traitors. Devon and Anne also end up in a predictable romance. But their relationship is brutally torpedoed by pressures on both their jobs, family members whose complicity on different sides they can't overlook, and scathing accusations against each other that bring the conflicts the Christian Legion has stoked mercilessly to a boil. Looks like the country is a bit less united than it seemed. An unnervingly timely tale of prejudice, hatred, and violence. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.