Most people can tell
when something is off.

Almost nobody knows what to do next.

I spent thirteen years as a detective and fugitive hunter, most of it in interview rooms. These are the field guides I wish I'd had at my own kitchen table.

The Field Guides

Three short guides for three different moments. Each one is practical, plain, and built from real interviews rather than theory.

A Field Guide
When the Story Doesn't Add Up

For the moment your stomach drops

What to ask when an account stops holding together, how to say it, and what the answers usually mean.

$19
Get the guide
A Field Guide
When You Can't Walk Away

For the person you're stuck with

How to hold your ground with someone difficult when leaving isn't an option — a co-parent, a boss, a family member.

$19
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A Field Guide
Before You Trust Them

For the decision you can't take back

How to read someone before you hire them, date them, or hand them your money.

$19
Get the guide

The Complete Field Guide Trilogy

All three guides together. Instant download, yours to keep.

$44
Instead of $57 separately
Get all three

The Lie Detection Field Manual

Ten tells a detective never ignores. After more than a thousand interviews and interrogations, the patterns are clear — where lies emerge, what to watch for, and what to do in the moments after your gut tells you something is off. Free.

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Writing

I write for more than 25,000 readers on Medium about deception, manipulation, and how people actually behave under pressure.

About

Joshua Mason

Joshua Mason spent 13 years in law enforcement, including more than a decade as a detective conducting interviews and interrogations.

He holds a master's degree in psychology, though most of what he writes about came from the field rather than the coursework — from interview rooms, from surveillance, and from doors he didn't especially want to knock on.

He writes about deception, manipulation, and human behavior, and about what thirteen years of reading people does to a person.