Rivals

Claudia Lin - mystery novel superfan and, until recently, clichéd underemployed English major - has scored her dream job: co-running Veracity, a dating detective agency for chronically online New Yorkers who want to know if their prospective partners are telling the truth. Unfortunately, along the way, she and her colleagues - tech savant Squirrel, and the elegant and intimidating Becks - have uncovered a far-reaching AI conspiracy. And the corporate matchmakers may be resorting to murder to protect their secrets. In the wake of a client's sudden death, Claudia convinces his ex, an industry insider, to turn on his employer and feed the verifiers information about what the powerful dating platforms are really up to. But even as Claudia starts to get a feel for this new genre - just call her Lin, Claudia Lin - she's distracted by the possibility of romance with both Becks and a very charming target. She also fears that her beloved older brother is unwittingly being drawn into the matchmakers' deadly web. And as Becks reminds Claudia: spy tropes dictate that someone you trust will betray you.

Jane Pek holds a BA from Yale University, where she received the Meeker Freshman Prize for Poetry, and an MFA in Fiction from Brooklyn College, where she received the Lainoff Prize and the Himan Brown Award, as well as a law degree from NYU. Her stories have appeared in Witness and the Brooklyn Review, and her work has received the Witness Literary Award for Fiction and been nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Originally from Singapore, she currently lives in New York where she works for an investment company as in-house counsel.