We all enjoy a tense, cat-and-mouse, chase thriller to keep us on the edge of our seats. And even better, when set in familiar historical settings, it’s a front-row seat.
Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) is fortunate to be hosting a master of the historical thriller on March 5, as Thomas Mullen will be GWM’s Meet the Author presenter on his latest book, The Rumor Game: A Novel.
Thomas recently sat down for a brief interview with GWM.
GWM: Several of your books are historical crime thrillers. What is it about this literary genre that appeals to you?
Mullen: Though I've written some books set in the present and some even set in a not-so-different future, it’s true that I tend to be inspired by events in our past. I like to write about characters whose personal struggle illuminates some larger issue in our society.
In Darktown and its sequels, I wrote about Atlanta's segregated police in the 1940s and '50s as a way to write about race, policing, and power. In The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, I wrote about bank robbers during the Great Depression because I wanted to dramatize financial struggles and explore how people respond to that kind of stress.
Historical fiction interests me because it helps to be reminded of how our forebears have faced similar challenges to the ones we deal with today.
GWM: What made you choose World War II as the timeframe for The Rumor Game?
Mullen: We're taught in school that the WWII era was one of great patriotism – and overall, that's certainly true – but I learned several years ago that Boston and New York both had pockets of strong resistance to the war. It started as the kind of isolationism that was common in the U.S. before Pearl Harbor, but it often curdled into outright Nazi sympathies.
So, I wanted to write about two characters, one of a left-wing reporter and one a more traditionally conservative FBI agent, who are trying to investigate the same crime at a time when many Americans' loyalties were suspect. And because her job involves disproving harmful war rumors, I thought it would resonate with issues we're still facing today.
GWM: What is the most difficult part of the writing process for you?
Mullen: The hardest part by far is deciding which of my many ideas to explore next. Is this idea book-worthy? Do I want to spend the next one to three years on it? That's always a tough one to decide.
Tickets to Mullen’s Meet the Author event at GWM are $40 each. Call Georgia Writers Museum at 706-991-5119 or visit online at georgiawritersmuseum.org for reservations and to pre-order Mullen’s book.