The Verifiers

This book is a gripping story that reads like a thrilling noir caper.

I felt drawn into the main character’s story, both as she navigated the mystery and in her stirring relationship with her family. The intersection of her identity as a queer woman from a Chinese-American family provided so much of the story’s heart and stakes—I found myself reading to see how these tensions would resolve as much as to figure out whodunnit.

Claudia Lin is lying to her family. They want her to have a steady job and marry a nice Chinese man—but Claudia’s interests don’t lie in either direction.

Instead she secretly takes a job at an online-dating detective agency, verifying the profiles people post on dating sites. This premise had me from page one, and as I read, Claudia and her journey turned out to be just as compelling. Readers will come for a good plot hook, but they’ll stay for a satisfying character arc—this was the biggest takeaway for me here.

Claudia is looking for truths, about both the… show more.