IQ

By: Joe Ide

Narrated by: Sullivan Jones

Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

A resident of one of LA's toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores.

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch.

They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients who can pay.

This time it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.

©2016 Joe Ide (P)2016 Hachette Audio

Critic Reviews

"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. " (Gregg Hurwitz, author of the New York Times best-selling Orphan X)

"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." (Carl Hiaasen)

"In his debut novel, Ide, a Japanese-American who grew up in the same neighborhood as his mercurial characters, flashes agility with streetwise lingo, facility with local color, and empathy with even the most dissolute of his characters...the roughhousing energy, vivid language, and serrated wit Ide displays throughout this maiden effort make Isiah Quintabe seem a potential rejuvenator of a grand literary tradition. " ( Kirkus)

"Author Joe Ide and narrator Sullivan Jones make a phenomenal team. Ide writes a crack debut with charm, wit, and style. Jones delivers it with such ease and perfection that listeners will feel they're living the story instead of listening to it.... Jones will have listeners on the edge of their seats and laughing out loud at the same time. The smart choice is this exemplary audiobook." ( AudioFile)

IQ way better than OK

I don’t think this is as Holmes-ish as reviews state, but maybe it is Holmes in the Hood. It's more of a sober, ace detective and part-time vigilante (and Datsun is certainly not Watson), but whatever, I loved it. I do hesitate to recommend it to everyone. If you like off-beat mysteries, a stalwart hero, crazy but loveable secondary characters, plus car chases, pick this book up right away. If you want to try something different I would also recommend highly. The mystery is not the main thing here, it's about character development and sad real life stories. Be ready for flashbacks and Tupac lyrics, both necessary to understand the story. It would be great if this was the start of series. Hat's off to Mr. Jones on narration.

Original and Outstanding

First, one of my favorite books of the year. Maybe even the past couple years. I'm pretty sure when I do my year-end top 10, IQ will be on it.

I almost didn't get this book because of the reviews complaining about the language. Well, someone would have to a total prude to be offended by the language. That isn't to say that the language isn't crude at times, but most of the time not. And when the language is crude it is absolutely, totally in character.

Let me say that I loved EVERYTHING about IQ. The plot is a breath of fresh air. Not your usual
whodunnit. I liked IQ's thought process. I also found myself laughing out loud a few times. The writing is crisp and clean. Character-development was rich. Settings were well drawn.

I've never listened to anything read by Sullivan Jones. He was perfect for this book. I saw a couple reviews that said he was bad. What? They must have been smokin' something. Sullivan Jones was spot on.

I hope IQ is first in a series. I'd preorder the next one in a flash.

George Pelecanos Remastered

It's George Pelecanos's Spero Lucas only younger, smarter, and not quite so tough.

As a white person reading about black people in a neighborhood I've never experienced, I can't judge how realistic the story might be. Throw in the fact that the author is Japanese-American, and you gotta wonder...But it's a good read. That's what matters.

The very BEST part is the narrator. Dialect and accent is 100% believable. Execution is impeccable. In fact, I like him so much, I'll be looking to see what I can scrounge up of his TV/theater work.

The next book is definitely on my short list.

Finally! Something new and original ;

... to me anyway. Being a white, middle-aged farm wife in the midwest this was definitely something that was outside my so-called wheelhouse. I really, really enjoyed it and any terms I didn't understand I could figure out solely by the context. It was not a problem for me. ...A very enjoyable book.

Wow! What a narrator!

I really enjoyed this book. It was an interesting look into a scene far removed from me, but it seemed realistic. I saw the resolution to the main mystery coming a mile away, and I still enjoyed it. But the narrator, Sullivan Jones, was simply amazing. Each character's voice was nuanced and distinctive. I hope Joe Ide writes more IQ books, and I definitely hope Sullivan Jones reads them.

The Sherlock/Robin Hood of South Central

I read a lot of crime fiction, but I’m not much for contemporary American urban crime fiction novels. I’m much more likely to read Eurocrime or a British police procedural. But Marilyn Stasio’s New York Times review of Joe Ide’s debut novel made me decide that I should take a chance on this story of IQ, Isaiah Quintabe, a sort of combo Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood of South Central Los Angeles. And I’m glad I did.

This is a dual-narrative story, with the contemporary thread set in 2013 and a backstory thread about how a family tragedy threw a teenage IQ off the planned track of college and career and down a road full of potholes. When you’re underage, undersized, and living in South Central with nothing but the power of your mind, what do you do?

IQ makes some unsurprising choices for a resident of his neighborhood, but his reasoning skills take those choices to a different level. When he reluctantly partners with a smart-mouthed gangster wannabe named Dotson, their capers had me biting my nails, laughing and shaking my head, sometimes all at the same time.

In the contemporary thread, IQ gets investigative jobs by word of mouth from people in the neighborhood. Most of them don’t have much money, but they pay what they can, in cash, food, favors or whatever they have. But then Dotson, his old partner, calls him for a big payday job, finding out who is trying to kill a rapper.

Nobody much likes the rapper or wants to give information to IQ, but it’s his Sherlockian ability to pick up on small clues and develop their meaning that drives this part of the plot. It’s a real pleasure to follow his reasoning and how he conducts his investigation. Ide nicely mixes this appeal to the reader’s intellect with frequent shots of heart-thumping action.

IQ is an appealing character and Dotson and other side characters are vividly drawn. Ide’s career as a screenwriter shows in the way he writes. There is a lot of colorful (to say the least) dialog, scene-setting is done efficiently and expressively, and you can see the action play out in your mind like a movie as you read. The two threads of the plot got a little messy toward the end and things bogged down a bit. I felt like some of the backstory’s exposition was too heavy toward the end. All in all, though, this is a very good read and left me wanting to see more of Joe Ide’s work in the future.

I thought the narrator, Sullivan Jones, did an excellent job with the different voices. He differentiated the characters well and he added a lot of flavor to the book.

good listen good narration

Keep it up. I agree with other reviews that this a great start to a lasting series. reminded me os Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series with a more up to date version with years of stories to come.

Kudos for a great debut novel

Fun, well written, with excellent narration.
IQ, is a modern hero, brought to life by the creative writing of Joe Ide and amazing narration of Sullivan Jones.
Great production.
Well worth the credit.

Narrator makes the Book

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Sullivan Jones does a wonderful job creating believable characters, and his narration makes the book worth the listen.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Several reviewers have complained about the dual plot lines. Reading the book might be easier than listening to it, but then you would miss Jones's narration. What I find least interesting is that the plot lags a great deal with what might be unnecessary parts and then seems to wrap up too quickly with a summary rather than playing out the story through dialog description, and events.

What does Sullivan Jones bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Jones creates the characters with his vocal abilities. Without his narration, the book would be a much more difficult listen.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

The book could easily be a movie. Ide creates some fun characters who are brought to life by Jones. It is clear that Ide was much more concerned with character development than with plot, which more or less works in this book.

Any additional comments?

I do not like to seem critical of any author's work because writing a compelling story is no easy task, so I would emphasize that the book is worth reading or listening to, and I suspect that Ide will produce more mature plots as he develops this series. I hope Jones remains the narrator.

A Nice Debut

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'm not sure it would be at the top of my list to recommend, but it was good and kept my attention for most of the time.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I don't mind time jumps in a story, but there are some parts that jump from year to year without so much as a pause. Other time jumps list the year in which they are occurring. I'd prefer this to be consistent throughout the performance.

Have you listened to any of Sullivan Jones’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first by Sullivan Jones. He is a really good narrator.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

IQ is somewhat of a detective novel. It's not the type of novel that moves the reader, in my opinion.

Any additional comments?

The story was pretty good, but the narrator was even better. I wouldn't have liked the story as much if not for Sullivan Jones. This is a book first book in what is now a series. I moved through this one quickly, and it was good enough to make me buy the next one.