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

lots of fluff

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, the entire book could be condensed into a couple chapters. It sometimes comes across as over-dramatic. There is some good info, but way too much time spend on analyzing politicians and a former coach. The authors are clearly liberals.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

It just kind of ends ubruptly. These guys might know how to detect deceptive behavior, but they're not great authors.

What does Fred Berman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Without Fred, I would not have finished the book.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No

Interesting

What did you like best about Spy the Lie? What did you like least?

Good analysis on the structure of lies.
Repetitive at times

Would you recommend Spy the Lie to your friends? Why or why not?

Interesting perspective about lie detection.
Usefull tool for everyday life

What about Fred Berman’s performance did you like?

Very good

Could you see Spy the Lie being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

no

Any additional comments?

none

Great book on deception detection

It moves beyond global indicators, to a more scientific and refined approach to deception-detection.

Great information

If you could sum up Spy the Lie in three words, what would they be?

Very interesting and informative. Very useful especially for attorneys. Will read more of their books.

Important to navigate many situations

Would you consider the audio edition of Spy the Lie to be better than the print version?

Excellent and a good important body of information. Often times I myself have thought these types of behaviors are telling. With obvious huge experience the author explains. Narrator not at all good but hey. It was good other than that.

So good I bought the hard copy as well

As another reviewer said, this book is amazing if you want an introductory/intermediate book for deception detection.

I enjoyed it so much that I listened to it twice and then ordered the hard copy as well!

Secrets Revealed to Everyday Encounters

Excellent book with practical suggestions on observing what is going on around you. Valuable and interesting. A little slow but...

Good content, enjoyed it.

I found the subject matter very interesting, there were lots of stories in the first an last parts of the books. Would have preferred more time spent on the substance of the deception detection technique. Will listen again though.

Informative and entertaining

This audiobook was a light, informative and entertaining listen, with some good tips and illustrative life examples. After a bit slow start, a very good narration kept me interested and entertained. I was a little surprised to learn that the good-natured, nice guy type is better at detecting deception than the cold, dispassionate one. I particularly liked the descriptions of the three categories of lies (the lies of commission,the lies of omission and the lies of influence) and the part on popular misconceptions regarding micro-expressions, such as poor eye-contact.
Being a general reader, I found a sample narrative analysis in Appendixes a little too long and detailed for my taste and had to force myself to listen it to the end.

Overall, this book does a good job of outlining what detecting and evaluating deception looks like to those who are trained but it won't quickly teach you how to do it yourself. If you are a normal adult person, it will give names to your common sense approaches to identifying deception. Bearing in mind that you should not jump to conclusions based on a single sign of deceptive behaviour and that this book must be employed with understanding that what it yields is information that requires further examination and training, some tips and questions it provides could be used as an effective tool in resolving everyday situations, with a word of advice (quoting the authors): Don't ask a question until you are sure you really want to know the answer! :)

Very astute and useful.

This is a great book on understanding metacommunication. It's as heavy on method as it is on theory.