The human, all-too-human practice of hiding or dissimulating ‘the truth’ is common. We rarely say or write exactly what we are thinking, no matter what the particular context. More specifically, the form of dissimulation whereby ‘the truth’ is intentionally hidden for the sake of the ‘chosen few,’ i.e. esotericism, is commonly held to be part of the practices of the occult, or the more mystical elements of particular religions. However, in a religious or occult context, there is a specific dogma to be dissimulated, one that usually has its source in purported divine inspiration. In the context of philosophy, this has not been the case. Esoteric writing, in the philosophical sense, is the practice of shaping a text in such a way as to dissimulate one’s ‘true’ ideas in the guise of ideas that are more politically palatable, thus allowing one to communicate different ideas to different audiences using the same text. Esoteric writing is a way of solving Plato’s problem, found in the Phaedrus, that speaking is inherently superior to writing due to the speaker being able to modify her language in accordance with the listener’s character. However, depending on one’s philosophical interests, not to mention political leanings, the discussion of esoteric writing’s existence in the history of philosophy tends to elicit either veneration or condemnation; tertium non datur. This is for a variety of reasons, the most prominent being esoteric writing’s close association with the scholar primarily responsible for its 20th-century rediscovery, Leo Strauss. Thankfully, Arthur M. Melzer’s book Philosophy Between The Lines does not fall into the morass of vehemently pro- or anti-Strauss rhetoric. Instead, in focussing on the particular topic of esoteric writing, Melzer adeptly shines a spotlight on what is arguably Strauss’s most important claim concerning the interpretation of past thinkers without thereby adopting an archetypally Straussian perspective on the issue.