Review: This was a bit tricky to rate, because the narration and all the scenes where Claudia, our narrator, is interacting with family or friends or co-workers or really whomever are absolutely 5-star-worthy. Claudia's inner voice is possibly one of the best I've ever come across; it reminds me of Rosa Diaz crossed with Nancy Drew (or one of Nancy's gayer friends). It's snarky yet enthusiastic, with what feels like a very appropriate vocabulary for a character who makes as many references to classic literature as Claudia does. And the dialogue throughout the book is golden, it hits just the right notes of quirky and humorous without tipping over into the unbelievable. I also really liked the dynamics between Claudia and her family and how their complexity was explored.

Where it gets a bit messy, though, is the mystery plot. It really delves deep into the inner workings of the matching industry, and Claudia's inner voice almost disappears completely when she really gets going on the topic. The mystery itself is also not particularly compelling after about the 50% mark, and I felt almost nothing at its resolution.

I will still read the next book to see if Claudia and Becks get together though.

The Verifiers by Jane Pek is a good mystery in which the suicide was set up so well, only one person, our "heroine" suspected murder. The really frightening part was the company she worked for, a company that did background checks on potential dates one had made via a dating site on the Internet. The services could, and often did, include following the subject of the inquiry. Information that was supposed to be private was not. The algorithms the dating services used were not innocent, instead were manipulative. Just as Google and Facebook use their sites to gather information on their users. Just as I often don't read books about the government and its agencies because it makes my cynical, so should I not read books like this. I don't use dating sites and now I would not consider it for anyone I care about.

The name of the company was Veracity. It was small. Only three employees. Iris Lettriste came to get background on a man she was sleeping with, that she had met on one such site. She also wanted more information on a man she had chatted with. He was interesting but never wanted to meet. Then he dropped off the radar for a few weeks, then reappeared. She wanted to know why. Veracity followed up. What they found, she didn't like. Claudia is an interesting character. First generation Chinese, she is very hooked in with her family, a mother, a brother, and a sister. She bikes all over New York. She is gay and lives with a gay male friend, which upsets her mother, who purposely misinterprets the relationship. These folks all add to the complication that is Claudia's life. The mystery is excellent, and ramps up my cynicism when Claudia solves it. This is a book with a very different premise and good at it.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Verifiers by Vintage Books, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #vintagebooks #janepek #theverifiers

Fun and sparkling read!

Edgy contemporary mystery that took me into the bewildering world of match making apps, compatibility algorithms, and the idea of how much information is actually out there about us. As a result of the latter I felt like closing every social media app I use, going off grid and heading for the hills.
It seems the problem with the dating apps is that all participants either stretch the truth or downright lie. That means matchings are skewed. Let me not get into the training of the bots associated with the process. Veracity is a company that will triage your date and tell you what’s what—generally after you’ve been taken for a ride. Claudia Lin can’t believe she’s landed a job with this techno edgy company. BTW her family thinks she’s still working at a financial institution. I love Claudia’s description to her friends about what Veracity does, “ “It’s really a big Sorting Hat,” I say, “that matches people up based on which Hogwarts house they belong to.” That’s in fact the premise of two boutique matchmakers I’ve come across.”
Love that! Harry Potter references sizing up the world of internet dating. Ha!
Enter client Iris Lettriste who wants a potential date checked. There’s some implausibilities and she wants to know if her match is the real deal or a jerk. Pre-verifying a date is rather unusual. But still the firm takes her on as a client. When Iris is found dead things become even more complicated, especially for Claudia.
Channeling Inspector Yuan, her fictional Chinese murder hero, Claudia decides to power on to discover all that she can. Well she was doing that prior to the demise of Iris anyway. Veracity is not a detective agency. Claudia has her doubts as she gets caught up in the moment, her Yuan personae taking charge constantly.
Witty and entertaining, I was grabbed by the hilarity of Claudia and her continual inner observations, her relationship with her family, and her almost slapstick detecting abilities.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for their invitation to look at this ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

The description hooked me. This just was not the book for me. After reading through fifty pages, I apologize, but I just could not get into this.

Wow, I can't say enough good things about this book. Set against the background of the dating apps, Claudia is a fantastic protagonist, who loves murder mysteries and gets in over her head with a case where a client dies. The book does a fantastic job of making her a 3-dimensional character with a vivid backstory. I hated to see this book end, but I'm really hoping for another in the near future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for the advanced reading copy!

This is my very first NetGalley review and I am excited that my first book was one of inclusion and representation! As an educator, I am always on the hunt for books that ALL of my students can find characters with which they identify and relate. Kudos!

While I struggled at times with some of the content, I think the target audience will be engaged with this protagonist and the deeper underlying issues that face young people today. Who hasn't used their electronic devices to delve into a person's "presence" to learn more about them?

For me, it was a 3.5 read, but for my students-it will likely score higher.

The resolution leads to the possibility of a sequel, which is great news as my students loves series reads.

A quirky, fun mystery that'll make you think differently about data collection.

Oooh this was an interesting ride, and I loved it. I was really drawn in by the premise of this one and was so glad that it delivered. Not only do we have a cool, modern mystery, but we have the added drama of Chinese family expectations that make the plot fraught with bonus tension. AND, our main character, Claudia, is repping the queer community.

What really got me with this one was the meta comparison that Claudia makes throughout of her own life, investigating a mysterious disappearance of a client with the crime novels she reads. Not only that, but the fact that she's involved with the companies running the online dating world.

This book brushes shoulders so closely with the real world that it's delightfully uncomfortable. It brazenly makes your fears come to light about what companies do with the data they collect on you, whilst spicing up the scene with a mystery about outsiders getting too close to the truth about what is going on within these companies.

Claudia is a really fun main character and I just loved her. The way she's dealing with career choices, relationships (or lack thereof) and family were very reminiscent of the exciting times you'll find within books like Dial A for Aunties. Sibling rivalry is also present and the love–hate relationship between them all is highly relatable to anyone with siblings of their own. There were some genuinely amazing strong moments where siblings banded together that made me whoop with joy. And you can never go wrong with model-minority expectations books like this present in such a gold-standard way.

The mystery was well packed and a closely kept secret – so I was on my toes trying to point fingers in the right direction. But it's clear that Pek has had a very fun time misleading us and taking the plot on a wild goose chase so that we're just as bamboozled as Claudia trying to solve the case.

Would definitely recommend this for some gentle crime that'll spook you less with the murdery elements, and more with the unveiling of the nefarious data mining of the modern world.

The Verifiers was at the top of my "most anticipated reads of 2022." I had high hopes for it and Jane Pek met them.

The Verifiers hero, Claudia, is an interesting, three-dimensional character. She's flawed in a way many mystery heroines aren't, making her far more compelling (and real!). I love her Jane Austen obsession.

The mystery at the center of the book is interesting and I loved the family dynamics surrounding it.

Looking forward to see what Jane Pek does next!

**Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I've been on a mystery kick lately, so I really enjoyed The Verifiers. The best way I can describe it is as a more serious "Dial A for Aunties." This book definitely still has some amusing moments, but the character development (and the subject matter) is totally different. I really enjoyed the commentary on Big Tech/dating apps, and I truly had no idea where the mystery was going. I will say I didn't 100% buy how everything was wrapped up, but I think the ending leaves open the possibility of a sequel. I also enjoyed that there wasn't really a romantic plotline for the main character--not every book involving a woman needs to have her searching for love!

Initially, The Verifiers seemed like an overly ambitious undertaking from an author who couldn't decide if she wanted to write a mystery, a family drama, or a quasi dystopian Philip K Dick novel. Pek held it together admirably, however, to both my surprise and delight.

Claudia quit her fancy job to work for a company that verifies dating app credentials. What started as a job checking into a match, turned into a murder mystery sending a Claudia on a twisty search for the truth. Along the way, the reader dives deep into the tools dating apps use to create a match and the questions posed with how our data is used to predict everything in our lives. The story drags in the middle and quickly resolves towards the end.

Claudia Lin takes a new job at Veracity, which provides fact-checking services to evaluate the claims in potential mates’ online dating profiles. The bright, snarky protagonist navigates family issues and the demands of her horrible bosses, giving the novel a vague aura of chick lit as narrated by your hyper-articulate English major college roommate. When a client is found dead, Claudia channels the hero of her favorite old-school whodunits and investigates by following suspects, entering places she doesn’t belong, etc. The beautifully precise use of language by a narrator with realistic, often unwise, impulses keeps us aware that a highly intelligent person is taking all these stupid risks. We can’t help but want to follow along and see what bad decisions Claudia makes next in her zeal to solve the crime. As she investigates, Claudia discovers more and more privacy-violating and ethically suspect behavior at Veracity. Meanwhile, she tries to get along with her siblings and deals with the expectations of her immigrant family. The plot flags a bit in the middle, but by the end the suspense picks up again. Usually I was too busy admiring the author’s perfect word choice to quibble about boring technicalities like the plausibility of the motive. It’s also just fun to read about a character so smart, determined, curious, and beset with regular-person problems. One scene even requires bookish Claudia to attend a fancy event—and who doesn’t love a good makeover?

Thanks to Knopf Doubleday and Netgalley for a digital advance review copy.

3.75 stars

Jane Pek's debut mystery novel The Verifiers is clearly a love letter to both readers and classic mysteries with references to Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, and even Jane Austen abounding. The choice to bring elements of those classics into the modern day with a mystery centered around online dating is quite enjoyable even if I did think there were a few missteps along the way.

Pek shines the most in exploring the family dynamics of our protagonist Claudia Lim, who is the youngest of three children being raised by a single Chinese mother. Both of her siblings Charles and Coraline are incredibly fleshed out and the interactions that Claudia has with them are both humorous and heartbreaking as the trio navigates the minefield that is interacting with their exacting and occasionally cruel mother. Claudia, in particular, struggles with the secrets that she is keeping from her mother - 1) that she quit her corporate job to work for a dating detective agency and 2) that she likes women. The latter is minimally explored, but my hope is that future installments delve a bit deeper into that aspect of Claudia's character.

The mystery is where this book occasionally faltered for me. The idea of a detective agency that uncovers the lies that people put in their dating profile is such a creative premise and I think that Pek did a good job of setting it up for us. However, once Claudia decided to start investigating the mysterious death of a client, the amount of tech talk began to skyrocket to the point where I thought it overwhelmed the story. We could have had so many more scenes of Claudia actively investigating and instead, we got pages and pages where the characters just break down all of the technology that is involved. As the story goes on, Claudia also become a lot more passive in the investigation as she lets other people in on the information that she has. I think I just wanted a little more opportunity to follow the breadcrumbs alongside our lady detective.

All in all, I think that this is a strong debut and Pek has perfectly set things up for further installments that I look forward to reading in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

This is a story about the mysteries of family, romantic partners, and even ourselves.  Claudia has always felt like she does not quite fit in.  The daughter of immigrants from Taiwan, she, unlike her siblings, has long resisted her family's expectations that she would go to a top college or pursue a prestigious career.  She keeps much of her life secret from her family, including that she has little interest in finding a nice Chinese boy to marry given that is interested in women and that she quit the copywriting job that her brother secured for her in order to take what she believes is her dream job.

That dream job is working as an investigator for an unusual company -- a secretive detective agency that investigates the real identities behind dating profiles on behalf of clients who want to know the truth about the people they've met through the apps.  Claudia has been a lifelong reader of mystery books, and could not be more excited when she is recruited to join the agency and be the type of detective she always enjoyed reading about.  She loves her job, and has no qualms about following the rescrive parameters the company imposes.  But when a client disappears in what seems like mysterious circumstances, Claudia breaks the rules to investigate what happened to the client -- and soon finds that the mystery extends far wider and deeper than she would have ever expected.  

This book is excellent.  On one level, it works extremely well as a mystery novel, even as it deconstructs the nature of mystery stories (especially through its creation and commentary on a fictional mystery book series that Claudia loves). 
On another level, it is an insightful exploration of the nature of connection and finding love in the age of apps, and how these dynamics intersect with the identities people present, online and in real life.  On yet another level, it is a terrific family novel and the complexities of those relationships, including how the stories we tell about ourselves and our family members shape and distort our relationships with them.  I would love to see what comes next for these characters -- which, to my mind, is always the mark of a strong book.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a sequel.  

Very strongly recommended!

What a fun (and educational) read this is. Claudia, the youngest child of Taiwanese immigrant parents, didn't find her career nice until Veracity where she verifies the claims of users of dating web sites. Something seems a bit off about Iris who wants more info on not one but two men she's engaging with. Claudia finds herself going down the rabbit hole not only with Chatterer and Mr. Bubbles but wit Iris as well. No spoilers from me but this gets perhaps more complicated in spots than necessary (I got a little lost in the discussion of algorithms), While the amateur detecting and the mystery are well done, what makes this a great read are the family dynamics. Claudia's older siblings Charles and Coraline harbor resentments which she doesn't fully understand. Coraline and her love interest Lionel are terrific. Those who bike to work will appreciate that Claudia rides all over NYC (without lycra)- and I really wanted her to see a doctor about that wrist. And Pek has created believable friends for Claudia as well as coworkers you might recognize. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. I very much enjoyed this and look forward to more from Pek (and perhaps Claudia).

After working my way through approximately a quarter of this book I had no choice but to DNF it. The story and the characters held no interest to me and the thought of plodding through one more chapter was close to torture. This one just was not for me.

The Verifiers by Jane Pek didn't fit into a neat category for me. Yes, it's a mystery.. Yet, it is also a story on the model minority experience, family dynamics and believing in yourself. The Verifiers is very well written and I look forward to reading more from this author. Ms. Pek has a great sense of timing and pace.

Claudia Lin was more than happy to leave the stodgy world of corporate finance behind her in order to work at Veracity, a firm that seeks to help the lovelorn verify whether the potential matches they’re talking to on-line are actually who they say they are. Obsessed with mystery novels since she was a child, Claudia loves the investigative aspects of her new job, where she works in a small office under the supervision of her bosses, Komla Atsina and Becks Rittel:

QUOTE
At my verifier interview, when Komla explained what Veracity did and I said, with maybe a tad too much enthusiasm, “Like a detective agency?”, he looked vaguely perturbed[.] A detective agency might seem like an obvious parallel, he said, but he tried to dissuade clients from viewing Veracity as such. The verifiers didn’t solve crimes, and they didn’t intervene in the course of events beyond reporting their findings to their clients. Think of us, said Komla, as a personal investments advisory firm.

A month into the job, it’s obvious to me that all our clients think of us as a detective agency.
END QUOTE

One of their latest clients is Iris Lettriste, who presents two interesting conundrums for Veracity to look into. The first is a man who goes by the handle Charretter, who seems enthusiastic about chatting online but demurs every time Iris suggests meeting in person. The second is a Captain Bubbles, whom Iris actually has met in person. She thinks he’s hiding something significant from her though, and wants Veracity to find out what.

Since Claudia is the company's newest employee, she’s given most of the tedious legwork to do in what seem to be fairly straightforward cases. She’s also the person responsible for trawling through all the in-app conversations between Iris and her matches, as Veracity has behind-the-scenes access to a significant number of the most popular matchmaking apps on the market. Her investigations come to a screeching halt, however, when Iris not only turns up dead but turns out not to be who she claimed she was at all.

Komla and Becks are ready to write off Iris’ bill as a loss before promptly forgetting about her, but Claudia feels that there’s much more to this story. The more she investigates though, the more she learns about what her bosses are hiding from her. Will she jeopardize the job she loves in order to get to the truth? And will she find herself risking more than just her job in her pursuit of justice for Iris?

The Verifiers is a really terrific debut novel that melds a borderline techno thriller mystery with a contemporary comedy of manners. The depiction of Claudia’s own complicated personal life, balancing her typical 20-something situation as a 21st-century American woman living in New York City with the more unusual pressures she faces as the youngest daughter in a Taiwanese immigrant family, make for really absorbing – and to me, relatable – reading. Claudia is smart, funny and self-aware, and loves a good mystery as much as I do, constantly referencing the (fictional) Inspector Yuan series as she investigates:

QUOTE
Right then it comes to me that I’m in the information-asymmetry scene in every Inspector Yuan novel where one out-of-the-loop character keeps asking questions so everyone else can reveal important information in a vaguely naturalistic way. And, goddamnit, that character is me! My curiosity and my pride tussle for a few seconds. Curiosity ends up on top, as it usually does.
END QUOTE

I really hope this is only the first in a line of mystery novels featuring Claudia and crew. While I did find both her mother and her sister insufferable, I understood Claudia’s sympathy for them, and love the empathy she shows throughout this book. It was really nice to see how empathy is shown as an invaluable trait in detecting, as Claudia uses it not only to sort through various suspects’ motivations but also to get closer to the truth, whether it be through interviewing witnesses or piecing together clues. Claudia is such a great, fresh detective protagonist, and I’m very eager to read more of her ongoing adventures.

This was a lot of fun! Claudia Lin is a bit of an aimless twenty-something, wanting a more interesting job than her older brother can get for her and (sort of) content to be the family disappointment. She ends up at Veracity, an auxiliary to matchmaking apps that attempts to verify the information users claim in their profiles if their matches start to feel suspicious. A woman comes in looking for information on another user who just feels off, and we’re off to the races! The mystery itself is interesting and about a subject I haven’t thought much about (I’ve never been on dating apps as I’m An Old who has been married over 18 years). But the real standout in this story is Claudia’s relationship with her siblings - their family constellation, the roles they are cast in, and how they fulfill and resist them. Ultimately the resolution of the mystery left me a littttttle let down, but not enough to taint my overall enjoyment of the rest of the book - truly the resolution was fine, just felt a little anticlimactic. The sense of place is really strong in this, too, which I really enjoyed (and looked up a lot of maps of NYC to try to understand lol). I will definitely be on the lookout for more from Jane Pek!

We need more diverse books, and this would be a great one to add to your library collection. Chinese culture is celebrated, without being stereotyped or simplified in this mystery by Jane Pek. In addition to Chinese culture, we also have an LGBTQ protagonist who finds herself recruited to a company that investigates matches from dating sites. When one of her clients is murdered, she pursues an investigation, against her employer's wishes.