IQ

Joe Ide

Meet Isaiah Quintabe, a.k.a. IQ. He’s a high school dropout who happens to be brilliant — and he’s the unexpected detective you didn’t know you were looking for.

Author Joe Ide grew up in Compton, South Central Los Angeles. An infamously challenging neighborhood that produced Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Kendrick Lamar, and Tiffany Haddish. And Ide, a member of the only Japanese family in his neighborhood.

From a young age, Ide escaped from that reality by immersing himself in the world of crime fiction, most notably the stories of Sherlock Holmes. By the time he was in eighth grade, he’d read all 56 stories and four novels multiple times. Imagine it: a little Japanese kid walking around Compton with a dog-eared copy of The Hound of the Baskervilles shoved in his pocket.

Then he grew up and created his own hero.

IQ is a brilliant, observant high school dropout. As his story opens, we find him working as a private detective out of his home in South Central LA. He handles cases that the police don’t or won’t take. He frequently barters for his services, accepting a sweet potato pie, a radial tire, or yard-cleaning favors in exchange for tracking down deadbeat dads or solving cold cases.

This book travels forward and back in time, between 2005 and 2013, weaving two plot threads that connect to each other. In 2013, a famous rapper’s life is being threatened. The attempted murder weapon? A large dog. It’s a well-structured mystery populated with rappers and their big personas.

But the story that snags the heart is IQ’s origin story, which begins eight years earlier when his older brother is killed in a hit-and-run. With IQ nearby. Isaiah’s brother was the only semi-adult in his life. As he grapples with the loss of that stabilizing influence (and making sure child services doesn’t learn he’s underage and living on his own), Isaiah delves into the facts of his brother’s death. Was it an accident, or was it murder?

Happily, he’s not entirely on his own. It’s not long before he meets Dodson, a con who will be his literal partner-in-crime for a while before eventually becoming his Watson. Their relationship is satisfyingly rocky, and together — guided by his deceased brother’s voice — Isaiah figures out his personal code. And turns away from a life of crime and toward a life of detection.

Ide’s background as a scriptwriter is entirely on display here; it’s easy to visualize every bit of this book. The story is propulsive, and there’s a strong sense of LA. The characters’ dialogue crackles with smarts and smart-alecky humor, and each of them is interesting and well-drawn. A teacher, Mrs. Washington, talks to her class ‘like someone had tricked her into it,’ a girl leans against a railing and looks down at a parking lot ‘like she was disappointed it was still there.’

This book has a lot going for it: two gripping mysteries, sharp conversations, street authenticity, and an intelligent detective who keeps digging himself deeper toward danger and the truth.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘Inductive reasoning. It’s what those so-called detectives on CSI, SVU, LMNOP and all the rest of them call deductive reasoning, which is wrong and they should know better. It’s inductive reasoning, a tool you will use frequently in geometry as well as calculus and trigonometry, assuming you get that far and that certainly won’t be you, Jacquon. [‘Ja’Quon’] Stop messing with that girl’s hair and pay attention. Your grade on that last test was so low I had to write it on the bottom of my shoe.’

Mrs. Washington glared at Jacquon until his face melted.

She began again: ‘Inductive reasoning is reasoning to the most likely explanation. It begins with one or more observations, and from those observations we come to a conclusion that seems to make sense. All right. An example: Jacquon was walking home from school and somebody hit him on the head with a brick twenty-five times. Mrs. Washington and her husband, Wendell, are the suspects. Mrs. Washington is five feet three, a hundred and ten pounds, and teaches school. Wendell is six-two, two-fifty, and works at a warehouse. So who would you say is the more likely culprit?’

Isaiah and the rest of the class said Wendell.

‘Why?’ Mrs. Washington said. ‘Because Mrs. Washington may have wanted to hit Jacquon with a brick twenty-five times but she isn’t big or strong enough. Seems reasonable given the facts at hand, but here’s where inductive reasoning can lead you astray. You might not have all the facts. Such as Wendell is an accountant at the warehouse who exercises by getting out of bed in the morning, and before Mrs. Washington was a schoolteacher she was on the wrestling team at San Diego State in the hundred-and-five-to-hundred-and-sixteen-pound weight class and would have won her division if that blond girl from Cal Northridge hadn’t stuck a thumb in her eye. Jacquon, I know your mother and if I tell her about your behavior she will beat you ‘til your name is Jesus.’ — Joe Ide

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