The Rumor Game is an interesting historical thriller set in Boston during WWII, featuring a female reporter who works to stop the spread of disinformation with a column in her local paper and male FBI agent who’s assignment is supposed to be preventing sabotage of industries vital to the war effort in and around Boston (the town being a vital port city). On the surface, the only thing the two seem to have in common is a hatred of Nazis. War makes for strange bedfellows, though, and soon it proves that these two have a lot of connections, both personally and professionally. 

The Rumor Game has a great story, but my great issue is that it doesn’t ever seem to come together cohesively. It’s all over the place, narratively. There are a lot of threads to pull on, and not all of them are pulled on equally. Some are left dangling for too long and when Mullen comes back to them it’s been so long that it feels almost confusing. Some threads are resolved a little too neatly, or not in a satisfactory manner for the amount of outrage they elicited for the characters in the story (who deserved better). At times it also felt like Mullen may have been having his own characters act stupider than they were being otherwise written, because their ignorance regarding certain matters beggared belief. 

It’s a cool story with great atmosphere but there’s a lot missing from it. If it had a tighter plot I would’ve loved it a lot more.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.