The rivals

PI Claudia Lin enters spy-thriller territory in Pek's cunning sequel to The Verifiers. Veracity co-owners Claudia, Becks, and Squirrel are hired by New Yorkers to vet their matches on dating websites, but the agency's true mission is surveilling the bots those sites use to manipulate their subscribers. When a potential Veracity client, Pradeep Mehta, suspects his disgruntled ex of creating a fake profile on the popular app Let's Meet using Pradeep's private information, the Veracity team suggests he file a spam report: "You already know isn't a real profile. There's nothing more for us to do." Then Pradeep dies, and the trio comes to suspect Let's Meet of co-opting user data to instruct their bots, then killing to keep the practice quiet. Desperate for proof, Claudia tries to cozy up to the app's developers while navigating her own fraught relationships with Becks and a Let's Meet employee with opaque motives. Though the stakes are murky and the mystery gets too tangled up in the plot specifics of the previous installment, emotionally complex characters and Claudia's snarky yet achingly candid voice earn readers' investment. Lisa Lutz and Rosalie Knecht fans should take note. Agent: Julie Barer, the Book Group. (Dec.)

When a client dies unexpectedly, professional verifier Claudia Lin and her business partner explore the possibility that certain dating apps may be offering customers more than they bargained for. At the beginning of Pek's excellent follow-up toThe Verifiers (2022), Claudia--murder-mystery maven and committed New York City cyclist--and her business partner, Becks, welcome a new client, Mason Perry. The two women, together with tech superexpert Squirrel, comprise a tiny detective agency, Veracity, that specializes in investigating people on dating apps and discovering whether they're telling the truth about themselves. Perry--"projecting a forcefield of confidence that a ballistic missile would bounce right off of" while being ill-informed enough not to realize there was a series of Perry Mason books before the TV show--asks them to look into his latest potential date, Amalia Suarez. But faster than you can say "dead client," the verifiers find themselves investigating the possibility that dating apps are creating manipulated personas for nefarious purposes. Ratcheting up the tension, Claudia's brother may also be in danger. As Claudia and Becks explore a potential "far-reaching corporate conspiracy to control the hearts and minds of the online public," Pek has glorious fun with a cornucopia of references to both classic mystery tropes and espionage thrillers. Claudia takes her life guidance directly and very seriously from literature, and may have met her match in Amalia, who wrote a prize-winning college paper comparing Latin American and Japanese magical realism through the fictional detectives of Jorge Luis Borges and Haruki Murakami. Tangling with intriguing techies while juggling challenging family dynamics and her growing attractions to both Amalia and Becks, Claudia has her hands--and her heart--beyond full. A keen knowledge of spy thrillers and detective stories fuels Lin's excellent investigation into matchmaking apps. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.