susanatherly's review against another edition
5.0
I really like Joe Ide's writing and really like the I.Q. Series. The stories are smart and creative with a modern L.A. Noir edge. Long Beach is LA, right? The characters engaging and the settings vivid. I highly recommend this series.
elusivity's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 STARS
Isaiah's brother's old girlfriend came to ask for his help. Isaiah successfully protected her father, little sister and loser boyfriend, from a mish-mash of Asian and Hispanic gangs, moneylender, sex trafficking.
Meanwhile, Isaiah diligently seeks the murderer of his brother.
Isaiah emerges from isolation and gets a taste of friendship and chases after an old love. Dodson gets on the right side of the law, hooks up with a good girl from church, and surprise surprise, becomes an excellent boyfriend and father. And a new partnership is born.
Listened to audiobook. Again, I love, love Sullivan Jones, his voice acting makes all the varied characters come vividly alive.
Isaiah's brother's old girlfriend came to ask for his help. Isaiah successfully protected her father, little sister and loser boyfriend, from a mish-mash of Asian and Hispanic gangs, moneylender, sex trafficking.
Meanwhile, Isaiah diligently seeks the murderer of his brother.
Isaiah emerges from isolation and gets a taste of friendship and chases after an old love. Dodson gets on the right side of the law, hooks up with a good girl from church, and surprise surprise, becomes an excellent boyfriend and father. And a new partnership is born.
Listened to audiobook. Again, I love, love Sullivan Jones, his voice acting makes all the varied characters come vividly alive.
jmatkinson1's review against another edition
4.0
Isaiah Quintabe (IQ) is a young private investigator from Los Angeles. Trying to walk a line between the various gangs in his neighbourhood, IQ is a loner with just an ill-trained dog for company. One of his cases brings IQ into contact with the Chinese Triads, people traffickers from Las Vegas, but when this becomes a feud between the Chinese and the Latino gangs it becomes more than IQ can handle. Meanwhile he is haunted by the unsolved murder of his brother.
This is the second IQ story and I have not read the first. As a stand-alone book it works really well, I didn't feel that I had missed a lot of backstory. The plot follows two major narratives - the Las Vegas gang story and IQ's brother's death - each is strong but sometimes the story jumps a little in time and place which can make it hard to follow. I'm not really a fan of American crime novels involving drugs, gangs etc but this is a strong book.
This is the second IQ story and I have not read the first. As a stand-alone book it works really well, I didn't feel that I had missed a lot of backstory. The plot follows two major narratives - the Las Vegas gang story and IQ's brother's death - each is strong but sometimes the story jumps a little in time and place which can make it hard to follow. I'm not really a fan of American crime novels involving drugs, gangs etc but this is a strong book.
foureyebooks's review against another edition
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
How far will you go for the ones you love? That question looms large over the expansive sequel to IQ. Ide does a great job fleshing out his world and gives depth to both heroes and antagonists. In Righteous, follows IQ as he works to solve two cases: the mysterious death of his brother and the rescuing of a couple on the run from Los Vegas loan shark. If you like Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, this one is for you. It's full action, humor, and heart. I can't wait to start the next one.
mad_about_books's review against another edition
Joe Ide is a storyteller. I can hear you muttering something along the lines of aren't all writers storytellers? The answer is yes and no, and I don't just mean the difference between fiction and non-fiction either. The way I see it, a storyteller gives voice to his or her characters in a way that makes them individual and memorable. In other words, he writes in the oral tradition.
Isaiah Quintabe, IQ, straddles the fine line between what is legal and what is not. His thumb is on the scale toward legal as he finds ways to circumvent the system. IQ is a brilliant strategist, a meticulous planner, loyal to a fault, and the man you want on your side when bad stuff happens.
RIGHTEOUS is the second book in the IQ series and is as well written as the first. The book is full of real people, not characters, and the action is so real your heart will start to pound. I may have mentioned in my review of the first book, IQ, that Joe Ide writes adrenalin. I will add that none of the action is gratuitous. It's all part of telling the story.
RIGHTEOUS is not a straight up whodunit; it is more of a who done it to whom and why. The attention to detail is part of what makes this book stand out in a crowd.. Take picking a lock, for example. It is pointed out that a paper clip giggled in a lock is all it takes on TV, where lock picking is a painstakingly precise skill that requires patience and hours of practice. It is a book about criminals and the hood and how both are part of the gray scale of right and wrong, lawful and unlawful.
You can read RIGHTEOUS as a standalone, but doing that would deprive you of experiencing Joe Ide's writing full throttle. Do yourself a favor and read IQ and then read RIGHTEOUS. You definitely won't be sorry.
Isaiah Quintabe, IQ, straddles the fine line between what is legal and what is not. His thumb is on the scale toward legal as he finds ways to circumvent the system. IQ is a brilliant strategist, a meticulous planner, loyal to a fault, and the man you want on your side when bad stuff happens.
RIGHTEOUS is the second book in the IQ series and is as well written as the first. The book is full of real people, not characters, and the action is so real your heart will start to pound. I may have mentioned in my review of the first book, IQ, that Joe Ide writes adrenalin. I will add that none of the action is gratuitous. It's all part of telling the story.
RIGHTEOUS is not a straight up whodunit; it is more of a who done it to whom and why. The attention to detail is part of what makes this book stand out in a crowd.. Take picking a lock, for example. It is pointed out that a paper clip giggled in a lock is all it takes on TV, where lock picking is a painstakingly precise skill that requires patience and hours of practice. It is a book about criminals and the hood and how both are part of the gray scale of right and wrong, lawful and unlawful.
You can read RIGHTEOUS as a standalone, but doing that would deprive you of experiencing Joe Ide's writing full throttle. Do yourself a favor and read IQ and then read RIGHTEOUS. You definitely won't be sorry.
jdglasgow's review against another edition
4.0
I found ‘Righteous’ to be about at the same level of quality as ‘IQ’, which is very high. I can’t quite put my finger on what I feel is missing that would put it over the edge for me.
Ide is an excellent writer. As in ‘IQ’, he opts for a style that zigzags through time, flashing back and flashing back again in those flashbacks. Whatever reservations I had about the device last time, I think it works here. In both books, frankly, it is used to develop the story, to complicate the characters’ motivations and add resonance. It works.
My big complaint about the previous book was that the solution to the mystery felt like an afterthought. I get a bit of the same sense here. I didn’t really understand Tommy’s whole deal, or why Janine mattered to him. The action itself was fun as hell, and I am loving Isaiah and Dodson arguing their way through another case (even if it doesn’t totally make sense why Dodson is there to begin with), but it sort of feels like... don’t look too closely at the specifics because it’s kind of hazy.
Also, regarding the side-quest to find the person who killed Isaiah’s brother, I can’t help feeling that it would have made more sense for Tommy and Seb to be one character, to better tie the two halves of the story together.
I don’t mean to hone in on faults; it’s just that the book is so good, I feel like I need to justify why I’m not going the full five rather than explain why it deserves four. It’s snappy, cinematic, funny, and *cool*. When Ide drops the title of the book, ‘Righteous’, at the end of chapter six, it’s in the context of a righteous rage, a hatred that makes you want to kill. That’s dark, but thrilling. The book is never less than thrilling.
I’m totally invested—I can’t wait to read the next three (so far!) in the series. I hope Ide continues at this high level but tightens up the mechanics of the plot a bit.
Ide is an excellent writer. As in ‘IQ’, he opts for a style that zigzags through time, flashing back and flashing back again in those flashbacks. Whatever reservations I had about the device last time, I think it works here. In both books, frankly, it is used to develop the story, to complicate the characters’ motivations and add resonance. It works.
My big complaint about the previous book was that the solution to the mystery felt like an afterthought. I get a bit of the same sense here. I didn’t really understand Tommy’s whole deal, or why Janine mattered to him. The action itself was fun as hell, and I am loving Isaiah and Dodson arguing their way through another case (even if it doesn’t totally make sense why Dodson is there to begin with), but it sort of feels like... don’t look too closely at the specifics because it’s kind of hazy.
Also, regarding the side-quest to find the person who killed Isaiah’s brother, I can’t help feeling that it would have made more sense for Tommy and Seb to be one character, to better tie the two halves of the story together.
I don’t mean to hone in on faults; it’s just that the book is so good, I feel like I need to justify why I’m not going the full five rather than explain why it deserves four. It’s snappy, cinematic, funny, and *cool*. When Ide drops the title of the book, ‘Righteous’, at the end of chapter six, it’s in the context of a righteous rage, a hatred that makes you want to kill. That’s dark, but thrilling. The book is never less than thrilling.
I’m totally invested—I can’t wait to read the next three (so far!) in the series. I hope Ide continues at this high level but tightens up the mechanics of the plot a bit.
meganffoster's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
mark_lm's review against another edition
4.0
It can't be easy to create all this, organize it, and write great dialogue, even for a screenwriter, but the second volume is as good as the first - I was tempted to go 5 stars.
jeylabriar's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kemilew's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0