Description

‘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

THE TIMES CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH: ‘Full of humour, originality and high-quality writing’

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.

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…

Publisher Review

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 -- Chris Brookmyre 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 * Booklist Online * Fantastic detective debut about LA and rap moguls -- India Knight * Sunday Times Magazine * 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 -- John Verdon, author of WOLF LAKE 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, author of SCAT 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 -- Gregg Hurwitz, author of ORPHAN X 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 * Chicago Tribune * A crackling page-turner of a debut * Entertainment Weekly * Wonderfully quirky . . . Exhilarating language and [an] oddball cast . . . A total laff-riot * New York Times Book Review * 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 * Washington Post * [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 * New York Times * 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 Sherlock Holmes meets The Wire * GRAZIA * 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. * SUNDAY EXPRESS * 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 * Daily Mail * CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH: full of humour, originality and high-quality writing. * THE TIMES * 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. -- Mark Lawson * THE GUARDIAN * 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 Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel