Thomas Mallon's novel, "Fellow Travelers" is set in the 1950s, in a Washington D.C. which is about to become consumed by the actions of an Irish Catholic senator from Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy. But instead of focusing entirely on the well-known names in history (Richard Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover make cameos), Mallon presents Tim Laughlin, an Irish Catholic New York City boy from Fordham. A budding reporter, his final assignment for his summer in the nation's capital is McCarthy's wedding ceremony. Mallon is clearly looking to explore class conflict when Laughlin, the working class Catholic, becomes friends with a well-bred Boston Protestant who works at the State Department. It turns out, however, that this seemingly privileged character harbors a dark secret, which will expose him to the dark forces of persecution sweeping through Washington during McCarthy's reign. Mallon's fascinating twist is that Laughlin himself gets stuck in the web of lies and deceit so many people were spinning during this time. ($32 / 343 pages / Pantheon)