The Verifiers is the breath of fresh air I was looking for in a mystery novel. Claudia Lin works for a mysterious company who to those in the know helps clients vet their matches on online dating sites. When a client doesn't show up for a meeting, Claudia begins to look into the matter, only to find that the client is dead--and wasn't who she said she was.

I loved Claudia as a MC. Her family dynamics and her personality were really fleshed out in a way that sometimes genre fiction MCs are not.

Truly a modern, of the moment mystery with an interesting solution.

I wasn't sure I would like this book, it seems directed at a younger reader. But, boy, was I happily surprised.
The basis of the story, the manipulation and exploitation of data, was nasty- all the stuff we do fear. But the dynamics of our heroine's story, from her covert job with the Verifiers to her mom is what makes this such fun to read. Her snark, her understanding of family tensions were both hilarious and had a painful ring of truth.
Totally recommend, totally enjoyed reading and look forward to more by this author. 4.5 stars

DNF. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I couldn't get into this one and gave up after the first chapter. I didn't like the writing style.

A smart and intriguing mystery that combines a traditional murder mystery with a technological thriller. I was captivated by the plot, and the character development was excellent as well.

Online dating and sleuthing are the best combination possible in this highly original novel! I very much enjoyed it.

I received an ARC of this book via NetGalley.

This was such a breath of fresh air to the mystery genre! The online dating plot was super interesting and the twists were perfect- not too easy to see coming but not totally unbelievable. The characters, especially the main character, were great and felt fleshed out for a mystery novel. Looking forward to more from this author!

Great book. I liked the character's mind and how she would narrate what she was thinking. I also liked the mystery, although it took a bit to get into it since the first character died so quickly. I wasn't sure who to attach myself to. Good mystery! Great characters.

An adult mystery about dating apps and the creation of algorithms that are as only as accurate as the truths people are willing to tell about themselves. I loved the multiple literary references and the honest portrayal of the cruelty of family members as well as their love for each other. Quirky, but realistic characters and a mystery’s solution that I did not see coming. I hope this will be a series? I am not done with Claudia Lin. Not by a long shot.

I recommended this to my College Girlfriends group. I know they will love it!

The Verifiers is rare in that it mixes the mystery genre with something more light-hearted, yet it still has a thoughtfulness that goes deeper than the usual light-hearted novel you’d expect. The author strikes a balance between plot and character development that I didn’t expect, which made it so endearing. I’m really hoping this will become a series and we’ll get more of Claudia, her family, and the other verifiers.

An enjoyable first novel from this author, I look forward to reading more. The characters and story are realistic and engaging.

Claudia lands herself in a new job that she can not tell anyone about. Veracity is a company that takes referred clients only and investigates if your matches are who they say they are. Driven by her love of mystery novels Claudia breaks all the rules to investigate a client that suddenly passes away.

I thought this book was a fun cozy-contemporary mystery. Overall I liked this book, I've never read a mystery revolving around online dating (and I am very grateful my days of dating are over, especially after reading this). At times I did find the book a touch boring and the conversations blah. But if you like cozy type mysteries with a modern twist I would say give this book a shot!

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage books for my eARC!

Claudia Lin works at Veracity, a detective company who specializes in verifying the accuracy of a person's online dating profile. Their services can only be requested through referrals and their typical clients usually pay to verify if their "online match" is who they say they are or if they are lying. Then one day a new client requests surveillance on two of her online matches. Within two weeks of the investigation starting, the client is found dead in her apartment.

I so enjoyed reading this fast-paced thriller. The banter between the characters was genuine, especially those between Claudia and her family. I liked the philosophical conversations about technology, data collection, and privacy and I really appreciated the witty references to mystery novels and the LGBTQIA+ representation. A strong recommendation for mystery fans!

Thank you to Jane Pet, NetGalley, and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an advanced eBook in exchange for my honest review.

Such an impressive first novel by the author. I was absolutely sucked into the setting of the book, the Chinese family dynamic, and the work she did for a dating detective agency. Such a clever plot and well-developed characters. Thank you so much for an advance reader copy of this book.

The Verifiers is an original take on modern dating. I enjoyed the shifts between family, office and mystery. I hope to read more from this author.

Get ready for a thoroughly modern mystery, written with a focus on the new millennium with all its technology, entrepreneurs, and independent thought. The main character is a young, gay, Chinese woman who prefers biking as her method of traveling around New York City, is an avid reader of an electronic mystery series featuring Inspector Yuan as her ideal detective, and who sees herself as a detective capable of solving any issue that she confronts. She quits the job her brother got her, after refusing to go to law school even though she aced the LSATs, and has taken a job with a secret organization whose function is to verify the identity of people who sign up for dating apps when others on the same app have questions. They work completely under the radar, utilizing technology that, if it exists, may give you second thoughts about blithely signing agreements with any new computer service you decide to utilize.

Claudia Lin is a member of the 20 to 30 year old generation who has grown up using all the available electronic devices. She is not a geek, she is simply very comfortable with all things digital. Her vocational goal is to be a detective, following in the footsteps of her favorite digital detective and to that end she takes her current job, keeping the information a secret from everyone in her family who would not understand her choices and consider them frivolous, if not worse.

As to her family, there is her over-achieving brother who has made a great deal of money and is always available to bail Claudia out if she needs help. He’s the one who found her the job she quits, and is always there for her to lean on. There is her sister, also reasonably successful in the fashion industry, drop dead gorgeous and the complete opposite of Claudia who prefers tee-shirts, tennis shirts, jeans and no need for make-up or complex hairdos. And there is the mother, whom no one can please.

While the three siblings live on their own, they all get together every Sunday at their mother’s house for dinner, but the family dynamic is much more dysfunctional than that sounds. They spend their time watching reruns of Chinese television, sniping at one another, and being constant thorns in their mother’s side. This atmosphere is all overshadowed by the past, where their mother left her son and first daughter with their grandparents, took Claudia and moved to America. The resentment toward Mom and Claudia is never far from the surface during these family dinners.

Initially Claudia is relegated to spreadsheets and other boring things until a young woman who has signed on to a dating service comes to their company wanting them to verify a couple of people she has been chatting with on-line. This is Claudia’s first case, and where she begins to learn some of the more clandestine tools the company uses. It may give some readers of this story questions about how much of their personal information and data is out there, available for anyone who has the right tracking software.

Things get more complicated when the young woman dies and the case is closed as a suicide. Claudia has her doubts and decides to investigate on her own, using the tools and methods she has learned from immersing herself in the Inspector Yaun stories. As the reader might expect, she makes multiple mistakes, causes her own share of chaos, and finally frustrates her new bosses to the point they fire her. No problem, she decides to investigate on her own.

Things get more complicated when the young woman’s sister first asks the company to look into her sister’s death, then changes her mind. When Claudia decides to continue, she receives threatening texts and it seems an attempt is made on her life. Nothing she learns disabuses her belief the case is one of murder, and as she continues to pursue her investigation she once again joins forces with her former boss. This case is concluded in this book, and there are some hints there may be more cases involving the same group of people focusing on the same digital world in the future.

The characters are unique and well drawn. While there may have been a couple of efforts on Claudia’s part that felt almost like repeats and a slight slowing of the pace, for the most part the pace is good and escalates well as it moves toward the conclusion. Particularly for readers in the 20 to 30 year old age range, the people in this book will feel totally recognizable.

My thanks to Knopf Doubleday Publishing for providing an advance copy for this review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

I have very mixed feeling of this book. Some of the mystery was satisfying at times, but mostly I was bored.

Amateur sleuth Claudia Lin is the least successful of three Chinese American siblings living in NYC. She is working at a dating verification company and is drawn to investigate the circumstances behind a suspicious death. Claudia finds herself conducting an unauthorized investigation and going undercover. While Claudia doesn't have special skills, she does have courage and she doesn't give up.

While the investigation and larger mystery was absorbing, what I appreciated was how Jane Pek captured the complexity of family dynamics. The first impression of the successful Harvard educated older brother was not sympathetic and it was easy to dismiss how he'd deal with Claudia. But as Pek reveals more of the family history, you understand the drive and sympathize with him. Similarly, the deep friendship between two very different sisters comes across. When we read about the Lin family, we see the celebration and understanding of Claudia's Chinese American heritage and this makes the book special.

I really enjoyed this one.

The mystery is interesting and kept me guessing, but even more than that, I enjoyed the tech side of things. This feels like such an important and relevant read for that alone.

The characters are multifaceted, and many of them relatable, and I appreciated the literary references.

While reading The Verifiers, I found myself mentally comparing it to How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu, who provides a blurb on the back of the book.

Like Yu's novel, The Verifiers also addresses technology and devotion to potentially toxic family relationships. Unlike Yu's novel, it does so without much of the inventive style and playful tone.

What you get with The Verifiers is what feels to be the first entry in a new mystery series. As such, the plucky upstart detective, in this case an amateur sleuth, must both be revealed to the reader and put to the test. Often, this means a slim case and lots of backstory. Where this novel struggles most to me is in giving us lots of character backstory but also a details-heavy plot, which leads to a book overly mired in description and explanation without a lot of the fun propulsion the best mysteries should have and with a couple too many unnecessary plot tangents.

By the end of the story, I do believe you come around to the main character and her inner circle in a way that leaves you wanting a sequel to get to know her better. I just wish I didn't have to drudge through so much to get there.

I'm a Golden Age mystery stan, so reading The Verifiers made me utterly happy. Claudia is an Asian-American queer denizen of NYC who works for a match making adjacent service that investigates the truthfulness of profiles online. When one of the clients gets murdered, she can't resist sleuthing the way her favorite old school detective would. And then the hijinks start.

Jane Pek takes so many of the Golden Age tropes and weaves them into a thoroughly modern story of the immigrant experience, finding love in the twenty first century in a disconnected era, and the definition of honesty. It's a delightful book and I did not want it to end.

Must recommend to everyone ever now!

4.3/5