book cover of The Verifiers
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The Verifiers

(2022)
(The first book in the Claudia Lin series)
A novel by

 
 
Awards
2023 Lefty Award for Best Debut Mystery Novel (nominee)
2023 Macavity Award for Best First Novel (nominee)

ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST MYSTERY BOOKS OF THE YEAR Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people's online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until a client with an unusual request goes missing....

“The world of social media, big tech and internet connectivity provides fertile new ground for humans to deceive, defraud and possibly murder one another.... Well rendered and charming.... Original and intriguing.” —The New York Times Book Review

Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she's just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. 
 
A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she's landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit. Part literary mystery, part family story,
The Verifiers is a clever and incisive examination of how technology shapes our choices, and the nature of romantic love in the digital age.


Genre: Mystery

Praise for this book

"Suspenseful and hilarious, The Verifiers builds on the tropes of the whodunnit to bring us something entirely new. In quick-witted gumshoe Claudia Lin, Pek has created an irresistible heroine who must untangle her own family drama even as she investigates the malfeasance of warring online-dating platforms. This novel is a genre-defying joy!" - Anna North

"The Verifiers is both witty and profound, at once a propulsive read and a meditation on our moment. Jane Pek delivers an intricate murder mystery, a portrait of fraught family dynamics, and an interrogation of algorithmic matchmaking. Claudia Lin is a memorable and magnetic protagonist, and this debut is riveting, a twinkle in its eye even as it takes on deep questions about how technology enhances and intrudes on our lives." - Helen Phillips

"This book is exhilaratingly well-written. I loved it so much that I didn't want it to end." - Emily St. John Mandel

"A clever and thought-provoking mystery laced with wit and insights about technology and relationships, who we are and who we pretend to be. Smart, twisty fun." - Charles Yu


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