‘Joe Ide is the best new discovery I’ve come across in a long time. And Isaiah Quintabe is the kind of sleuth not seen on the mystery landscape before.’ Michael Connelly
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (new blood) DAGGER
THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH: ‘Full of humour, originality and high-quality writing’
East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, the elderly are being mugged, children go missing. But word has spread: if you’ve got a case the police can’t – or won’t – touch, Isaiah Quintabe will help you out.
They call him IQ. He’s a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. His clients pay him whatever they can afford, a new set of tyres or some homemade muffins. But now he needs a client who can pay. And the only way to that client is through a jive-talking, low-life drug dealer he thought he’d left behind. Then there’s the case itself. A drug-addled rap star surrounded by a crew of flunkies who believes his life is in danger; and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. If he solves this case, IQ can put right a mistake he made long ago. If not it won’t just be the hit man coming after him …
WINNER of the ANTHONY AWARD for Best Debut, the SHAMUS AWARD for BEST FIRST P.I. NOVEL. the MACAVITY AWARD for Best First Novel; SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 EDGAR AWARD and STRAND CRITICS AWARD.
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA JOHN CREASEY (new blood) DAGGER
THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH: ‘Full of humour, originality and high-quality writing’
East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, the elderly are being mugged, children go missing. But word has spread: if you’ve got a case the police can’t – or won’t – touch, Isaiah Quintabe will help you out.
They call him IQ. He’s a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. His clients pay him whatever they can afford, a new set of tyres or some homemade muffins. But now he needs a client who can pay. And the only way to that client is through a jive-talking, low-life drug dealer he thought he’d left behind. Then there’s the case itself. A drug-addled rap star surrounded by a crew of flunkies who believes his life is in danger; and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. If he solves this case, IQ can put right a mistake he made long ago. If not it won’t just be the hit man coming after him …
WINNER of the ANTHONY AWARD for Best Debut, the SHAMUS AWARD for BEST FIRST P.I. NOVEL. the MACAVITY AWARD for Best First Novel; SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 EDGAR AWARD and STRAND CRITICS AWARD.
Newsletter Signup
By clicking ‘Sign Up,’ I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Hachette Book Group’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Reviews
succeeds in being both highly original and continuing the spirit of Conan Doyle... it will be fascinating to see which details from his inspiration the writer adopts.
Wonderfully quirky . . . Exhilarating language and [an] oddball cast . . . A total laff-riot
Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH: full of humour, originality and high-quality writing.
One of the Best Books of 2016 according to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times Book Review and Amazon.com
With its street poetics and truer-than-life characters, this beautifully spun first novel is gonna blow through the crime fiction world like a fire hose-blast of fresh air. Joe Ide has that rarest of writerly skills - a wholly unique voice, one that is at once irreverent and compelling, moving and incisive. IQ will become a reader favorite
Joe Ide introduces one of the coolest investigators working the mean streets of Los Angeles . . . Ide emulates Walter Mosley, that great chronicler of South Central Los Angeles via the Easy Rawlins novels. That's some serious company with whom to be traveling
Fantastic detective debut about LA and rap moguls
Wow! This crime novel has it all - a truly unusual hero, a fast-paced plot, vivid characters, great dialog, tremendous energy, acute observations, a sharp sense of humor, and a touching finale
A crackling page-turner of a debut
Ide . . . dexterously juggles multiple styles and tones to create a seamless, utterly entertaining blend of coming-of-age saga, old-school detective story, and comic caper novel
This is one of the most remarkable debuts I've read...Deliciously quirky, written with exceptional panache and a fine ear for dialogue, it introduces the world to an LA private detective who might just become the Holmes of the 21st century
I don't know how fast Joe Ide writes, but from now on he'll have to write faster. Everyone who reads IQ will be clamoring for the next book, and for the one after that. This is one of the most intriguing - and appealing detective characters to come along in years
Sherlock Holmes meets The Wire
One of the most original thrillers of the year . . . [A] sometimes scary, often whimsical, off-the-wall delight . . . It's a mad world that late-blooming Joe Ide has brought forth from his past, a spicy mix of urban horror, youthful striving and show-business absurdity. His IQ is an original and welcome creation
[IQ] kicks off what is apt to be a madly lovable new detective series about this smart guy and the vibrantly drawn criminal culture that surrounds him . . . Ide packs a lot of action and scenery into the book's investigation scenes. But he has also built and bolstered Isaiah as a fine, durable character
Boasting a combustible cocktail of Bosch, Hiaasen and Conan Doyle, Joe Ide's Sherlock home-boy is the detective you need in your life right now
Joe Ide is the best new discovery I've come across in a long time. And Isaiah Quintabe is the kind of sleuth not seen on the mystery landscape before
This debut novel offers an original twist on the idea of the Sherlockian super-sleuth.. This is terrific fun, a classic crime formula with a cool comtempory feel.
