IQ by Joe Ide / Z-View
IQ by Joe Ide
Trade Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Mulholland Books
First sentence…
Isaiah’s crib looked like every other house on the block except the lawn was cut even, the pain was fresh, and the entrance was a little unusual.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Isaiah Quintabe is a quiet kid with a superior intellect. While IQ is still in high school, his older brother and guardian, is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Alone and afraid he will be sent to a home, IQ begins to earn money from neighborhood folks needing help. When IQ finds a runaway daughter word spreads. Soon he is getting requests for assistance with “cases the police can’t or won’t touch.” The cases don’t pay much and sometimes the reward is food or tires for his car. Because money is tight, IQ takes in a roommate. Dodson is a low-level drug dealer that IQ knows from the ‘hood. Both IQ and Dodson hope the arrangement is temporary.
When Dodson brings IQ a case offering real money, there’s an understanding that Dodson will assist. The potential reward is too good to pass, so IQ agrees. That’s how they begin working for a big time rapper whose life was threatened. Soon IQ and Dodson find themselves up against a cold-blooded killer with an attack dog the size of a small bear, and a large list of suspects who’d benefit from the rapper’s death. Before it’s over IQ and Dodson are on the killer’s list. Identifying the killer and who hired him will save the rapper’s life as well as their own. If they can.
Joe Ide has created a unique character with Isaiah Quintabe. It’s impressive how Ide sets up the first IQ book. Ide gets in background information, early cases, and IQ’s unlikely partnership with Dodson while at the same time keeping the story moving. Everything, the settings, the characters and the dialogue, all ring true. Because of this, when Ide introduces the killer and his beast-dog, we buy it. Ide has created memorable characters and a great first story for our modern day Sherlock Holmes. I loved IQ and look forward to more of his adventures.
IQ rates 5 of 5 stars.
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