{"id":6811,"date":"2017-09-28T06:20:37","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T10:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2017-09-28T07:07:37","modified_gmt":"2017-09-28T11:07:37","slug":"i-q","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6811","title":{"rendered":"*****I.Q."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wild<\/a>

photo: numb photo, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

Written by Joe Ide, narrated by Sullivan Jones \u2013 Japanese-American author Joe Ide grew up in South Central Los Angeles, and it\u2019s obvious he kept his ears open. He has a remarkable ability to capture the cadences, the vocabulary, the put-downs, and the jiving of the mostly African-American characters in his debut novel, deservedly \u00a0nominated for numerous awards. Sullivan Jones\u2019s stellar narration of the audio version truly does Ide\u2019s rich dialog justice.<\/p>\n

Growing up, Ide\u2019s favorite books were Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s Sherlock Holmes stories, and in his book\u2019s protagonist, seventeen-year-old prodigy Isaiah Quintabe, he\u2019s created a new kind of superbly logical Holmes in an unlikely urban California setting, East Long Beach.<\/p>\n

The teen lives with his older brother and legal guardian Marcus, the only family member he knows. He idolizes Marcus, who badgers Isaiah to excel. When Marcus is killed in a hit-and-run accident right in front of him, Isaiah is so bereft he drops out of high school. Although he\u2019s underage, he\u2019s determined to keep Marcus\u2019s apartment, in some sense to keep Marcus close and to avoid the foster care system.<\/p>\n

The low-level jobs he can snag aren\u2019t bringing in the income he needs, though, and he takes in a roommate\u2014the irrepressible, dope-dealing, trash-talking, rap-music-loving Juanell Dodson, who is soon joined by his girlfriend Deronda . If you\u2019re easily put off by four-letter words or black folks calling each other nigga, this is probably not the book for you, though the language is absolutely true to the characters.<\/p>\n

Dodson comes to IQ with a proposal for a high-profile gig that\u2019s fallen into his lap: to figure out who\u2019s behind a strange attack on a leading rap star. They watch a security video of the night when the rapper is alone in his mansion and a huge and superbly trained attack dog bursts through the doggie door. The people are threatening enough, but this dog . . .<\/p>\n

Dodson is a bundle of barely controlled emotions, while Isaiah maintains his calm demeanor, whether he\u2019s dealing with the star-personality rapper and his entourage, the bad guys, the neighborhood lady whose daughter\u2019s wedding presents were stolen, the former auto-racing owner of TK\u2019s Wrecking Yard who teaches him to really drive, or high-maintenance Dodson and Deronda.<\/p>\n

I.Q.<\/em> was nominated for Edgar, Barry, Anthony, and Strand Critics awards for a best first novel, won a Shamus Award, and was named by numerous publications (New York Times, Washington Post<\/em>, Amazon, Suspense Magazine<\/em>), as one of the best books of 2017.<\/p>\n

Narrator Sullivan Jones is a California-based actor who brings a gift for humor and a lively understanding of the characters in this novel that makes his reading both perceptive and entertaining. An excellent choice for audio.<\/p>\n

A longer version of this review appeared on crimefictionlover.com<\/a>.
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Joe Ide, narrated by Sullivan Jones \u2013 Japanese-American author Joe Ide grew up in South Central Los Angeles, and it\u2019s obvious he kept his ears open. He has a remarkable ability to capture the cadences, the vocabulary, the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"*****I.Q. - a modern-day Sherlock Holmes in gritty East Long Beach, 17 yo Isaiah Quintabe, IQ. Loved it!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52,54,40,126],"tags":[603,1130,1129,1131,99],"class_list":["post-6811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-detective","category-fiction","category-reading-2","tag-amateur-detective","tag-i-q","tag-joe-ide","tag-southern-california","tag-urban-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1LR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6811"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6814,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6811\/revisions\/6814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}