This is Danny Caine, owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, with another Book Byte. Today I’d like to tell you about a mystery series that features one of the more memorable murderous conundrums: how do you kill a disillusioned rapper who won’t leave his house? A rapper who’s burned all his jewelry and listens to self-help tapes exclusively? One of the answers—which doesn’t end up working—is apparently a humungous Pitbull named Goliath. Let me tell you: this isn’t even the most outlandish thing in Joe Ide’s winning first mystery, IQ. The book crackles, buzzing with outsize characters and hilarious dialogue on every page. But below it all hums a sense of tragedy that keeps it grounded. It’s one of the most engaging and original mystery series to launch in recent years.
Joe Ide’s protagonist is Isaiah Quintanabe, aka IQ. He lives in a Long Beach overrun with gangs and drugs. As an adult, IQ is awkward but intelligent, living quietly and simply in small surroundings. He’s gained a reputation as a neighborhood crime solver, finding solutions to small mysteries in exchange for money sometimes, but occasionally for baked goods too. His Sherlockian intellect makes him a razor-sharp sleuth, and he’s soon drawn into a larger case. Enter Black the Knife, the house-bound rapper. Black the Knife, aka Cal, is pretty sure someone is trying to kill him, and he thinks it’s probably his ex-wife. The case, of course, ends up spinning far beyond the disheartened housebound rapper and the pit bull rampaging after him.
IQ the book has a modern feel, a comedic pulse and a contemporary language and set of characters that feels refreshing. Take Dodson, the smack-talking sidekick, or any number of the gangsters, hangers-on, and colorful punks in the neighborhood. The rat-a-tat dialogue exchanges often had me laughing out loud in delight. But no book can make me turn pages on jokes alone: IQ is a wounded character, haunted by his brother’s tragic death when he was a teen. The tragedy grounds him and the story, no matter how high-flying the hijinks get.
Joe Ide does such a great job populating this colorful world because he’s writing what he knows. A debut novelist at age 58, he’s had quite a life leading up to becoming a New York Times profiled mystery novelist. A lifelong resident of the same streets he writes about, Ide didn’t publish IQ until he was 58. His path to the IQ series was paved with many careers, including a failed stint as a teacher, and a long futile try at screenwriting. For his entire life, he’s been a devoted Sherlock Holmes fan, in love with the idea that intellect can be a weapon. But Ide’s best weapon as a crime writer is his feel for the rhythm and language of the streets of LA. That’s what makes these books tick.
There are now two sequels to IQ, Righteous and Wrecked. In both, IQ gets deeper and deeper into the world of the mean streets, transforming himself from a small-time neighborhood detective to a guy who can solve big cases, including the question of what happened to his brother. But can he fall in love? Can he find a way to be less lonely? Will he ever stop being willing to trade a casserole for a solution? You’ll have to read on and see, and with a series this fun, funny, clever, and contemporary, that shouldn’t be a problem at all.
