Book Description Review “Savor the freshness, vividness and ingenuity of the author’s prose. . . . There are real truths hidden in the entertainment. . . . Hit men, henchmen, bagmen — they all wander in and out of a highly diverting book that crackles with life and vividness.”―Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review“Engrossing . . . IQ’s cases have become more complex, the stakes raised for the African American detective and a cast of regular characters who give the series an unexpected warmth. . . . The author is skilled at developing the humanity of every character, regardless of their perspective. It’s a hallmark of Ide’s evolving style that allows Hi Five to stand on its own for first-time readers, even as the series deepens longtime fans’ engagement. . . . Hi Five succeeds on so many fronts as it sets IQ and the series’ characters on an uncertain path down darker roads.”―Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times“Mr. Ide is a remarkable writer, inhabiting the personae and rendering the back stories of a diverse assortment of characters… ‘Hi Five’ more than earns its triumphant title.”―Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal“The end result of all Ide’s frenetic literary machinations, however, is a crime novel that gives readers a sense of the totality of life in all its possibility: comedy, violence, irrationality and heartbreak. It’s no longer a fresh observation to say that Ide is an original as a suspense writer, but, certainly, every novel he writes – including Hi Five – feels like a new invention.”―Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post “Buy Hi Five by the great Joe Ide, the latest in his brilliant series about Isaiah Quintabe, a modern Sherlock Holmes from Long Beach, Calif. Trust me on this: There’s nobody out there right now better than Joe Ide.”―Mike Lupica, New York Daily NewsI”t’s a mark of Ide’s skill that he’s able to pull off such a plot, and he does it with credibility and more than a little poignancy.”―Michele Ross, The Plain Dealer “In Edgar-finalist Ide’s stellar fourth IQ novel…readers will root for Ide’s distinctive lead every step of the way. This innovative series continues to show promise for a long, high-quality run.”―Publishers Weekly, starred review“Ide goes dark with the skill of a noir master, leaving Isaiah in a very bad place and the reader gasping for breath. A stunning change of pace from one of crime fiction’s new stars.”―Booklist, starred review“Mystery and detection compete with a gorgeous swarm of supercharged personalities on their own wild rides.”―Kirkus“Ide is one of the rising stars of crime fiction, and he’s back this month with the fourth installment in his celebrated IQ series. “―Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads Read more About the Author Joe Ide grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where his favorite books were the Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. He held a variety of different jobs — including Hollywood screenwriter — before writing IQ, his debut novel, which went on to win the Anthony, Macavity, and Shamus awards. Joe lives in Santa Monica, CA. Read more Customers Review: The previous IQ thrillers were terrific – fresh, savagely funny, bursting with feeling and energy. This latest has all of that ibut only in patches. The spark is implausible, the villains are overdrawn to the point of parody, and brilliant IQ is more lovelorn than anything else. Ide’s attempts at black-folk humor sound like sitcom stuff, and in the romance between TK (think Morgan Freeman Jr.) and Gloria (Whoopi Goldberg)) saccharine. I hope the lapse is momentary.
This is the first IQ novel that I have read and I must say that Joe Ide is a very good writer. He has a good handle on the noir genre, some compelling characters and a lot of truly memorable lines in this book, but there are just too many subplots. I really enjoyed that IQ was a moral personal and that by the very nature of his business and his proximity to gangsters, arms dealers and the other underworld types he often times puts his friends in peril. Doing the right thing comes at a cost a lot of the time in this less than ideal world of ours. People are going to push back when your sense of morality threatens their livelihood. I wished the novel had focused more on that theme rather than exploring some of the problems faced by several supporting characters. Not that those characters aren’t fleshed out and interesting. It’s just that at times it bogs down an otherwise excellent book. Still, though, it’s a good read!
What a depraved, gloomy and sad story utterly lacking in reedemption. I Q is a wholly original character who is beaten, tortured and denied anything worthwhile in life. He is diminished into the lonely cowboy who rides off into ihe suinset without the girl who loves him. without his dog, without his friends from the hood. Without these friends he has no identity. Ide uses the trick of letting his characters think out loud until it.becomes boring. Page after page of beatiings, murders and assorted mayhem made me wish I had never started the food. IQ was such a great character. I wonder why Ide chose to mangle him? Roger
I have read all the IQ novels, but this one is the worst so far. The plot is convoluted, Dodson practically disappears and the solution to the case is kind of artificial, only designed to allow the story to reach its end.
So far we know the formula – IQ our Sherlock-in-the-hood, solves crimes and conspiracies in the parts of Los Angeles rarely mentioned in most crime mysteries. He’s assisted by his sometime partner, who used to be a gang member and drug dealer. Slowly the circle of acquaintances has expanded by this 4th book: romantic partners, unlikely friendships, and enemies make this world come to life. So knowing the formula, the resolution after the mystery is solved is a sneaky emotional hammer. I was more invested in these fictional people than I realized. The sense of sadness and loss that came surging up caught me unawares. For the first time, what I thought I knew about this series is gone and I have no idea where the next one will go.
This is the worst, by far, of the series. The plot is implausible. The story to get to the end, tedious and boring. Two edit mistakes found and I just skimmed. Give this one a pass. You’re welcome.
From the first book in the I.Q. series I was hooked. Each book gets better. The characters lives are uneven, imperfect but not without moments of joy, success and love. They play on the edge of noir but with more humanity/reality. Joe Ide is an automatic buy whenever I see he has a book coming out.
Hard to imagine a more creative storyline than one that opens with a murder where the first suspect is a woman with five personalities. The book’s protagonist, Isaiah Quintabe (IQ in his South Central/East Long Beach hood), is pulled into the case by a vicious gun dealer whose daughter happens to be the father of “she of the many personalities”; and Daddy wants his little girl exonerated of the crime, or else.The subsequent action is constant, violent and peopled by every manner of gangster residing in SoCal. IQ is a smart guy holding a lot of IOUs for previous favors rendered in the hood, but he is in over his head as white supremacist, Asian, Latino and Black bangers fight it out while he tries to sort the murder. Author Idea also throws in two exotic assassins here–women who formerly did movie stunts and circus acts before turning to the more lucrative profession of murder for hire.While the storyline can seem convoluted and over-populated at times, it did grab this reader and keep him from putting it down before getting to the wham-bang semi-conclusion. That ending is a very clear set-up for the next episode of the IQ saga. |
36 reviews