Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people’s online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until a client with an unusual request goes missing …
We chat with debut author Jane Pek about The Verifiers, along with writing, 2022 book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Jane! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I was born and raised in Singapore, came to the States for college, and now live in New York with my partner. I work as a lawyer at an investment company, and when I’m not doing that I’m trying to write fiction (and also read as much of it as I can). I love consuming baked goods, watching plays, cycling as a form of transport, and dabbling in martial arts.
How has 2022 been for you so far?
Pretty good! I resumed Krav Maga classes, which I had had to stop during the pandemic—starting that up again was about as painful as I had anticipated it would be. And I was fortunate enough to escape East Coast winter for the second half of January—I attended my brother’s wedding in Thailand and then spent Lunar New Year with my family in Singapore, both wonderful experiences!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
As far as I can remember I’ve always been writing—I remember a big notebook that my parents bought for me when I was 5 or 6, and I filled it with (terribly) illustrated stories. I don’t remember if I asked them for it, or if they decided to buy it for me for some reason.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I ever remember reading and—crucially—enjoying was the Ladybird version of The Firebird, a Russian folk tale.
I can’t recall any particular book that made me want to become an author, but all the fantasy books that I read as a child made me want to write epic fantasies of my own.
I recently finished The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North, which created such a powerful emotional world that I was totally sucked into its orbit.
Your new novel, The Verifiers, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Online-dating detectives + immigrant family drama.
What can readers expect?
A protagonist who loves Jane Austen and murder mysteries; a locked-room murder with a 21st century angle; a story of a funny, fractious Chinese-American immigrant family; and a look at how contemporary technology shapes our choices.
Where did the inspiration for The Verifiers come from?
I had been trying online dating for a while, and come to think more closely about various aspects of it: how it changes the traditional ways we view and conduct romance, how people choose to present themselves online, and of course the question of truthfulness. (I should say that my own online-dating experiences were generally very positive, and in fact my wife ended up being the first person I met on OkCupid, and vice versa.) Then I heard a BBC Radio segment about wedding detectives in India—detectives hired to check up on prospective brides or grooms, usually by the parents—and shortly after the idea came to me: what if there was an agency that verified people’s online-dating personas?
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I would say the two biggest challenges were figuring out the plot, and figuring out my protagonist. Which together make up the vast bulk of any novel, so maybe that’s why it took me so long to finish writing The Verifiers . . .
For the plot, it took me a lot of “writing through it”, trying to move the story toward a conclusion that worked. My editor’s help was invaluable, in terms of helping me brainstorm and revise the novel into something that had sufficient, and satisfying, finality. For the protagonist, it took me a while to realise that she should be Chinese-American, a second-generation immigrant who grew up in New York; up until then all the versions of the novel had been narrated by another protagonist who had always felt hazy even to me. I then basically rewrote the entire novel (and along the way, most of the plot) with my new protagonist, Claudia Lin, and this time I found that the narrative voice flowed so much more easily.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed writing the family scenes, where my protagonist Claudia was interacting with her siblings and/or her mother. I had a very clear idea of their family dynamics (in part because I myself grew up as one of three siblings, and am a first-generation immigrant) and so it was fun to write the scenes with multiple layers in mind: the humour, what is said in dialogue, what remains unsaid, and what all of it reveals about the characters and their relationships with each other.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
I’ve received a lot of great writing advice over the years, from teachers and fellow writers. It’s hard to single out any piece of advice as the best, but one guidepost I use in everything I write is that character should drive plot, versus plot driving character.
In terms of worst . . . hm. I’ve also heard a lot of advice that I disagree with, which doesn’t mean they’re necessarily wrong, just that I don’t think they work for me. One such example would be the idea that there is a set formula to writing a good novel and you just need to follow it step by step.
What’s next for you?
I would love to write a sequel to The Verifiers, and I have some ideas around that. I’m also working on a separate novel that picks up on certain themes around technology that I explore in The Verifiers, but with more of a science-fiction angle—it’s set in a futuristic Singapore and a history-on-steroids version of medieval China, and looks at class, migration and what it means to be human in an era of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and vast economic inequality.
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
I’m looking forward to reading Joan is Okay by Weike Wang, which just came out in January—the voice in Chemistry, her previous novel, was just so smart and funny and unique. Also, Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, which is out in April, sounds amazing: time travel, moon colonies, detectives. Finally, the third installment of Rosalie Knecht’s series about a lesbian Cold War CIA spy turned PI, Vera Kelly Lost and Found, is out in June, which I’m very excited about—I love the character of Vera Kelly that the author has created.
Please write a sequel. Or even better …….write a series. Claudia and all her peeps are so interesting!