What did your boss mean in that email? Is your mechanic stretching the truth? Whether you’re engaged in a casual conversation or a high-stakes negotiation, it’s critical to understand the subtext of a situation. But with so much interaction happening on screens—via email, texts, or video chat—we are losing the ability to interpret expressions and cues. Furthermore, since many are now savvy about the meaning of body language, it’s become even harder to discern someone’s true thoughts or intentions.

A leading lie-detection expert who instructs the FBI and other security agencies, noted psychotherapist David Lieberman, PhD, takes “people reading” to a whole new level. Drawing on the latest research in psycholinguistics—the cues embedded in spoken and written speech—he shows you how to apply his cutting-edge methods to countless everyday situations, including:

• Detecting the messaging behind passive language, personal or impersonal descriptions, and level of detail.

• Determining whether someone’s account of any incident is the truth or a work of fiction.

• Finding out whether a potential hire, dating app match, or new babysitter is trustworthy or hiding something.

Nobody wants to be played a fool. Mindreader will help us identify who can be trusted, and who may be out to get us.