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  • IQ

  • An IQ Novel, Book 1
  • By: Joe Ide
  • Narrated by: Sullivan Jones
  • Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (269 ratings)
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IQ cover art

IQ

By: Joe Ide
Narrated by: Sullivan Jones
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Summary

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, OAPs are getting hoodwinked, children are 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. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a 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. Then there's the case itself. A drug-addled rap star surrounded by a crew of flunkies who believes his life is in danger, a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic, and a monster killer dog. If he solves this case, IQ can put right a mistake he made long ago. If he doesn't, it won't just be the hit man coming after him....

©2017 Joe Ide (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Ide successfully makes his detective's brilliance plausible in this gripping and moving debut." ( Publishers Weekly)

"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." (Patrick Anderson, Washington Post)

"Wonderfully quirky.... Exhilarating language and [an] oddball cast.... A total laff-riot." (Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review)

"Joe Ide. Remember that name.... Mystery aficionados will remember it as the breakout debut of a major new voice in the suspense genre." ( BookPage)

"A few things I love about this...[IQ is] rooted in his community in a way that his inspiration never was...IQ is a small story in the way the best of Conan Doyle's were.... It's a detective story that plays out very close to home, on the streets and corners that Ide (who grew up in South Central) knows best. And Isaiah fits into those streets like they were made for him. A consulting detective for a time and a place that needs one." (Jason Sheehan, NPR)

What listeners say about IQ

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    137
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  • 4 Stars
    83
  • 3 Stars
    38
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Original and compulsive

An original and compulsive listen. I found it very difficult to stop listening and finished it in a couple of sessions.
Defies genre classification.
I rarely give five stars but this deserves each one.
Looking for the next book by Joe Ide

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Sherlock Holmes from the wrong side of the tracks

Loved this. It took me into a world on the edge of LA gang life through a character with heart and intelligence. Its tragic and occasionally funny with a who-done-it at the centre. The narrator is also fantastic, getting the voices and the tone just right. Highly recommended.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sherlock with grit

Isaiah Quintabe is my new hero - razor sharp intellect and social conscience. This is a PI story with a difference, set against a backdrop of street gangs, crime and hip-hop. The reader is excellent. This is the first in a series and I’m going on to the second one straight away.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ty
  • 16-08-19

Good Read

Excellent story and very funny in parts. Held my interest and was believable. Liked the I.Q character very much.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, great voice

The narrator is amazingly good at giving you a sense of the characters through slight inflections and nuances in his voice. The story of a "Young Sherlock from the Hood" is a new one on me and works surprisingly well, avoiding both cliche and a patronising tone with ease.
The story itself is engrossing, dark, amusing and uplifting in equal measure and there is a satisfying conclusion that leaves a few threads dangling for the next installment, without a feeling of anti climax.
Recommended.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Really very good

Took a little time to get into. Really fantastic when you stick with it though. It's a genius modernisation of the classic detective novel tropes and themes.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Modern day Holmes

Definitely the same vain as Sherlock Holmes novels, I think Arthur Conan Doyle would be impressed.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A Fresh Voice

I like this book and I like the lead character IQ. He is interesting and easy to warm to. I like the gangsters, bangers and psychos a lot less. But they create the backdrop to his story so okay. IQ's life is challenging and he's had some tragedy but his heart is in the right place and he tries to help people in difficult situations. I wouldn't say he's a gentler Reacher but he's a problem solver like Reacher only with a more relatable and cerebral approach. This is the first in the series and I've placed the next four in my wish list as I'd like to follow IQ's arc and see what happens.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Promising, but not my style.

This is a really great concept and is really promising. But, it’s really not my genre.

The narration was spot on, and you really got the feeling that you were in the ‘hood, but I couldn’t relate to it at all. I think that it was because of the language. Totally authentic, but totally not me.

Clever dialogue, and situations, twisting plot and character development. It wouldn’t be the same without the language, but unfortunately, I can’t tolerate that...

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great characters & story, brilliantly read

Delivers everything promised on the introduction. Story captivating with a hero that the reader can really understand. Will be downloading the whole series.
Special note for narrator, who is simply fantastic.

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