A review by jnmegan
IQ by Joe Ide

4.0

In Joe Ide’s novel, IQ , Isaiah Quintabe is a humble genius with a honed talent for observation and deduction combined with some serious street smarts that fuse into a unique, modern-day Sherlock Holmes. IQ helps his fellow inhabitants of South Central LA solve problems of all kinds, with forms of payment for his services that are as variable as the people that comprise his neighborhood. He perfects his craft with the help of his partner, Dodson, who acts as Ide’s version of Watson-but with a criminal, entrepreneurial bent. Dodson enters IQs life after he suffers a major loss, and they live together out of necessity and a shared desire for challenging adventure. At the onset, IQ’s intelligence serves them well as thieves, but their actions soon lead to a tragedy that convinces IQ that he needs to use his abilities to help others. This book is the first of a (hopefully long) series and serves as an introduction to these intriguing characters by convincingly setting up IQ and Dodson’s back stories. The plot also includes a puzzling case involving a rapper and a freakishly large dog that someone is using as an attempted murder weapon. Just when it seems that every possible permutation of the Holmes tradition has already been attempted, Ide provides fans of the genre with another worthy tribute. This novel is his twist on Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Hound of the Baskervilles, and it is inventive, fun and a refreshing take on a beloved cultural icon.