Recalculating Truth

by Paul H. Raymer

What if there was an app for determining if people are telling the truth? On the surface, the truth is simple. It weaves its way through all human communications. It’s in people’s eyes, how they hold their hands, how they tilt their heads, and particularly in the position of their feet. It is also in how they put their words together, in the words themselves and the stress in their voices. The FBI and the Department of Defense and police departments use this knowledge to compel suspects to betray themselves.
That’s what GUS SAINTE wonders about when he returns from Guantanamo with the pain and terror of extracting information with water boarding engraved on his mind. He is determined to employ technology to find a better way to reveal the truth. It seems simple at first to electronically combine human ‘tells’ to uncover the lies. But as Gus and his team work against a financial clock to develop the device, they have to prove that it works and the results are surprising. He didn’t anticipate that creating a technological, all-knowing, electronic Genie will reveal truths that embezzlers, terrorists, news anchors, and Supreme Court justice candidates would prefer to keep hidden. And when an old flame, the gorgeous Cyrene Al-Masri, mysteriously returns to his life he recognizes lies that are far more personal and dangerous and that truth can be a weapon that can kill.
Recalculating Truth is a technological thriller in the genre of Michael Crichton and the psychological exploration of Walker Percy. The story weaves its way from the Spring of 2000 with the crime of the sexual harassment of BOYD WILLIS by his powerful, female attorney boss, DIAMON JAKES to a strip mall in Fayetteville, Arkansas where Gus visits an organization run by his former commanding officer from Guantanamo who will go to extremes to eliminate Gus’s fledgling company. As Gus’s team of experts develop and refine the technology, both the machine and the people creating it are tested as they seek to prove that there is a clear difference between the truth and the lie.
By the time the machine reaches its ultimate test, Gus wonders if there really is a distinction and if lifting the private veil from human emotions is worth the price.

424 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 22, 2014

About the author

Over forty plus years, Paul H. Raymer played a part in the birth of ten companies, developed more than twenty-five product lines, helped to raise three children, and is the author of the Residential Ventilation Handbook. He has gone back to his fiction roots by writing, RECALCULATING TRUTH a story that explores the blending of truth, technology, and the challenges of being an entrepreneur. In July of 2020 he published his second novel, DEATH AT THE EDGE OF THE DIAMOND that tells the coming of age story of Jon Megquire in the summer of 1979 in the fictional town of Tilley on Cape Cod. In July of 2022 he published SECOND LAW recounting Jon's disastrous attendance at a building science conference. And in August 2024 he will publish CONFINED SPACES telling the tale of Jon's tangle with money. Paul and his wife rattle around in an old inn on Cape Cod. Houses speak to him and tell him of their lives and loves. His wife, kids, and grandchildren tell him other tales. www.PaulHRaymer.com

Reviews

[Paul Raymer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ayrial King

What would happen if there was an app that told the whole truth and nothing but the truth? What is truth exactly, and is it more subjective than we believe? Paul H. Raymer explores these questions in his novel Reclaiming Truth. Gus Sainte, a soldier who was stationed at Guantanamo Bay after the September eleven attacks, builds a business and - with his colleagues and teams - a program around the concept of being able to discern the truth from all the lies of the world. However, as he and his teams continue to perfect the program, they encounter people who cannot afford to have their lies exposed. When the time comes to demonstrate what the truth-finding program can do, Sainte just might see why sometimes the truth is better off hidden.

What does being human mean in an age where technology becomes more and more prevalent? This plagues Sainte throughout him achieving his goal of developing a sophisticated truth-seeker, more advanced than any lie detector can become. You really learn a lot about what can be perceived as the truth amongst individuals, groups, and even cultures without being propaganda-like. As I read the book, I contemplated what I felt would be reasons to lie or tell the truth: Is it because of the consequences attached to both? Are those consequences truly objective or subjective in themselves or because we as humans attach the consequences we think a given situation deserves? I went through this alongside Gus, especially when the program was unveiled.

[Ski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I just finished reading "Recalculating Truth". I truly enjoyed this novel from the start. I feel like this could happen; could be happening right now! The characters are real.. I see Halle Berry as Diamon Jakes in the movie