Publishers Weekly
11/30/2020
Edgar finalist Ide’s lackluster fifth novel featuring Isaiah “IQ” Quintabe (after 2020’s Hi Five) finds Isaiah driving north from his home in Long Beach, Calif., where he’s had enough of dealing with violent crime. He stops in Coronado Springs, a town near Lake Tahoe, where he ends up renting a one-bedroom house. His peaceful existence is interrupted by Billy Sorensen, an escapee from a neuro-psych facility who breaks into his house to steal food. Billy claims that a serial killer, known as AMSAK because his 17 victims were dumped near the Sacramento and American rivers, is headed to Coronado Springs—and that he knows AMSAK’s identity. Reluctantly, Isaiah investigates. Lengthy unrelated sections involving supporting characters, such as a person whose successful business is threatened by a blackmailer, only further mar the uninspired cat and mouse plot. Isaiah has little opportunity to display his considerable intellectual gifts, and at one point he only avoids serious injury by the tired contrivance of slipping on some dirt. Series fans can only hope for a return to form next time out. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM Partners. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"If you’ve read any of his other novels starring the rogue East Long Beach private investigator Isaiah Quintabe, known as “IQ,” you know that Ide doesn’t write conventional suspense stories....In its own idiosyncratic fashion, Smoke is superb."—Maureen Corrigan, Washington Post
"Mr. Ide, always a generous plotter, weaves several storylines into this kaleidoscopic chronicle….Dozens of other wonderfully sketched minor characters—science-fair whiz kids, pimps and prostitutes, working-class heroes, vengeance-bent relatives, sorrowful junkies and idealistic strivers—flesh out this richly imagined and sharply written saga. Smoke, which concludes with a cliffhanging crisis, positively demands a follow-up, and fast.”
—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“A journeyman writer and a superb storyteller.”—Jeff Mannix, The Durango Telegraph
"Ide has displayed a rare ability to mix dark comedy and gut-churning drama…mixmaster Ide's compulsion to blend light and dark (Isaiah's confrontation with the serial killers, while gruesome, takes the form of "a slapstick movie shot in a burning insane asylum") affects the two plots in surprising ways, again producing an emotion-rich form of character-driven tragicomedy, but one in which peril forever loiters in the shallows.” —Booklist
“Fiery-hot…shows no signs of sequel fatigue, and Smoke can be read as a standalone, but new readers will become even bigger fans by diving into the previous books. The author has an innate ability to find the humor and humanity in both the evil and the innocent characters, and shows that rediscovering one's mojo can come only after confronting obstacles.” —Shelf Awareness
“Complex in plotting and shrewdly observant of IQ's East L.A....Regulars will relish every turn; newcomers should probably look at an earlier one first—you'll be glad you did, whether you come back for all the rest or not; if you do come back to this one, you'll be glad of that, too.” —George Ernsberger, The Sullivan County Democrat
“Unique… [a] fast-moving train and…character-driven adventure filled with wit, heart, and emotion…Ide proves to be an expert storyteller as he weaves effortlessly the multiple multi layered colorful characters into a complex and unexpected denouement.”—Lou Jacobs, Mystery & Suspense
“The plot lines are becoming even more ferocious. And IQ keeps getting… smarter? Yep. And the ending? YIKES. Book six Mr. Ide? Bring. It. ON!”—Berkley McDaniel, The Southern Bookseller Review
"People who pick up Smoke are in for a treat."
—H C Newton, Irresponsible Reader
"Smoke is an engrossing mystery with multiple story arcs that are quite interesting....With plenty of nail-biting tension, Joe Idebrings this thrilling mystery to an action-packed conclusion."
—Book Reviews by Kathy
PRAISE FOR JOE IDE AND THE IQ NOVELS:
"A brand-new comedic franchise with a bright future... Aggressively entertaining plotting is paired with the kind of dialogue for which readers love Don Winslow. This series is a Los Angeles classic right from the start." — Janet Maslin, New York Times
"Joe’s brilliant imagining of what Sherlock Holmes would be like if he came out of East Long Beach."
—Mike Lupica, New York Daily News
"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
"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
"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 Hiassen
"A consulting detective for a time and a place that needs one."—NPR
Library Journal
01/01/2021
The fifth installment of Ide's "IQ" series (after Hi Five) has "genius detective" Isaiah Quintabe fleeing his home in East Long Beach, CA. Suffering from the effects of his dangerous job and hoping to escape his PTSD and the price on his head, Isaiah takes cover in a small Northern California town. Trouble finds him anyway in the forms of Ava and Billy, both attempting to solve the murder of Ava's twin, Hannah. Juanell Dodson, "the hustler's hustler" and Isaiah's best friend, has been given an ultimatum—go straight and get a job or lose his family. After a painful makeover, Dodson joins the team of an advertising firm and discovers he's not as out of place as he expected. This title also features a flood of additional characters, including a former stripper fighting for custody of her son, a struggling artist finally being seen for her talent, and two brothers who bring destruction wherever they go. VERDICT Readers will need to pay careful attention to keep all of Ide's players straight, but the gritty action and sardonic humor will be sure to grab all IQ fans. Libraries with the previous four installments will want this one.—Carmen Clark, Elkhart P.L., IN
FEBRUARY 2021 - AudioFile
The fifth in Ide’s IQ series is packed with vivid characters and credibility-stretching subplots. Fortunately, narrator Zeno Robinson grounds this audiobook with his gift for dialogue and skill with action sequences. Robinson eases listeners inside Isaiah Quintabe's (IQ's) weary mind as he departs L.A. to look for peace and rejuvenation in Northern California. But, as expected, trouble follows, and Robinson accelerates the tempo as appropriate, transitioning smoothly from plot to plot as IQ traps a blackmailer, catches a serial killer, and prevents corporate backstabbing. Dodson, Isaiah's ex-partner, returns, and Robinson turns Dodson's ad agency subplot into the most compelling storyline. Fans of the series may wish there were more deductive reasoning by our hero, but the ride is worth it, and the ending doesn't disappoint. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2020-12-15
This fifth outing for unlicensed private investigator Isaiah Quintabe is all over the California map.
Learning that he’s being hunted by paroled hit man Magnus Vestergard, aka Skip Hanson, IQ decides he’s had enough of criminal investigation. Abandoning his partner, painter Grace, he high-tails it out of Long Beach and ends up in Coronado Springs, where he rents a place and waits for the clouds to pass by. But his new home is even more crime-ridden than his old. Billy Sorensen, who’s escaped from a psychiatric institute, breaks into Isaiah’s house in search of food that can sustain him while he looks for Ava Bouchard, the sympathetic friend whose twin sister, Hannah, was killed by AMSAK, a serial murderer who earned his name by dumping the bodies of 17 women near the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers. AMSAK, it turns out, is still very much in the picture—but he’ll have to compete for attention with Grace’s friend Deronda, a food-truck empress whose long-ago one-night stand, Wells Fargo banker Bobby James, demands half her business as the price of not pursuing joint custody of their 4-year-old son, and with Isaiah’s own criminal friend Juanell Dodson, whose unpaid internship in an advertising agency, a position he never sought, will uncover unsuspected depths in both the agency and himself. The criminal plot is a violent, overgalvanized shambles; the main attraction here is the racially inclusive three-ring circus Ide organizes around it in a series of overlapping, endlessly expanding circles.
Overstuffed, riotous, and exhausting in both good ways and bad.
