Spy the Lie

Former CIA Officers Teach You How to Detect Deception

By: Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero, Don Tennant

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 4 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Business and Educational, 2013

Three former CIA officers - among the world’s foremost authorities on recognizing deceptive behavior - share their proven techniques for uncovering a lie.

Imagine how different your life would be if you could tell whether someone was lying or telling you the truth. Be it hiring a new employee, investing in a financial interest, speaking with your child about drugs, confronting your significant other about suspected infidelity, or even dating someone new, having the ability to unmask a lie can have far-reaching and even life-altering consequences.

As former CIA officers, Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, and Susan Carnicero are among the world’s best at recognizing deceptive behavior. Spy the Lie chronicles the captivating story of how they used a methodology Houston developed to detect deception in the counterterrorism and criminal investigation realms, and shows how these techniques can be applied in our daily lives.

Through fascinating anecdotes from their intelligence careers, the authors teach listeners how to recognize deceptive behaviors, both verbal and nonverbal, that we all tend to display when we respond to questions untruthfully. For the first time, they share with the general public their methodology and their secrets to the art of asking questions that elicit the truth.

Spy the Lie is a game-changer. You may never experience another book that has a more dramatic impact on your career, your relationships, or your future.

©2012 Philip Houston, Susan Carnicero, Don Tennant, Michael Floyd (P)2012 Macmillan

Fantastic Book

A very informative read, full of insight and supportive information. A very well demonstrated illustration of the techniques and nuances discussed throughout. I wish they had done more.

Fascinating subject matter

What made the experience of listening to Spy the Lie the most enjoyable?

Fred Berman did a great job narrating. This book might have been a fact heavy product but was written in a way that made it very interesting the whole way through. Fred Berman added a life to the book with his reading and matched the story well to make it a really good experience.

What other book might you compare Spy the Lie to and why?

I have never read another similar book, it is very unique.

Have you listened to any of Fred Berman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first of Fred Berman's performances I have listened to but would definitely listen to him again.

Essential reading for physicians and therapists

This book uses a structured approach to interview and listening that should be in any physician's toolkit. As a psychiatrist, I often have to assess for risk of self harm or assault. As noted early in the book, the most important first step is a willingness to doubt the truthfulness of your subject. People contemplating self harm and assault are often deceptive about their symptoms and plans. People malingering self harm and assault are also deceptive.

Hence, this book can help train the interviewer to listen and observe clusters of symptoms consistent with lying and deception. In many ways, I think this book is an improvement over Roger's Clinical Assessment of Malingering and Deception with brevity and good use of examples.

Another review criticizes the references to 2 tables. This reference to the tables is not vital at all. The references are clear and concise.

I found this book very accessible at 1.5 to 2.0 X, but suggest reading/listening to it twice.

Pretty good - not excellent

Any additional comments?

There was some repetition that was not necessary. Good information and examples from the news and public figures.

Searching for the truth

This was a very short and easy to read book that will help anybody come to us a good guess as to the information they are seeking is being evading the truth.

I have found out in the past that a lot of people are extremely skilled in masking but they want you to know and even try to put you on the defensive. Certainly this does not make us experts but the tools are there.And perhaps maybe just maybe we can go with her gut feeling based on the information that’s being fed to us.

outstanding

Having listened to the book, my first reaction is to listen to it again and absorb as much as I can.

just outstanding.

Great book

Easy to listen to and a good pace of information. Definitely worth knowing this material, no matter what you do.

Great, Usable Information

This book is considerably information dense with tips on how to spot deception. It forgoes the old tricks you've heard like if someone crosses their arms or looks in the wrong direction for a much more solid strategy of picking up deceptive traits based on larger chunks of interaction. You'll walk away with tips you can use immediately in everyday life from finding the right babysitter, to interviewing a potential hire, to speaking to your kids. You'll want to keep this book handy to go over the information until you've got it practiced.

Good

Wow this could take another listen or two or their course. Very useful for not how you view those around you but how you view those globally around you. Glad I bought and listened to this one. The narration was good as well

Cluster Here,Cluster There, A Cluster Everywhere

shouldn't read this like 20 years ago and saved myself years of buying into people devious ways of deception. I can now spot easily and quickly when someone is trying to decide to deliver deception my way. Thanks to this book. I've trained myself to spot it, (those clusters) and they only problem it seems,everyone is almost doing it. But this book has made my life more interesting anyhow because Its like a can cack morses codes of human behavior deception. Including my own family. Dodge that sh*t. Its all about them CLUSTERS!