I.Q. by Joe Ide

I.Q. by Joe Ide - Isaiah Quintabe is “unlicenced and undaground”. He is a black P.I. for working folk in East Long Beach who have little money and serious problems. He earns enough to live simply and comfortably. At 25 he is “six feet tall, rail thin, no chain, no stud in his ears, a watch the color of an aluminum frying pan, and if he was inked up it was nowhere she could see”.

Occasionally he has a more prominent client. A successful R & B singer has had his camera, containing an embarrassing sex tape, stolen and a ransom note received. IQ solves the mystery by realizing that the language of the note is of a Biblical nature. The camera has been taken by the singer’s religious mother.

He has a pet chicken, Alejandro, (a payment from a grateful client) wandering around the house.

Making a living as a P.I. in a tough neighbourhood where money is scarce is a constant challenge. Needing paying clients he accepts a job from Juanelle Dodson, a local entrepreneur, recently out of jail who lives by the principle:

“It’s a hustler’s world, son,” Dodson said, “and if you ain’t doing the

hustlin’? Somebody’s hustlin you.”

He adds:

“The gangsta thing ain’t a technique, it’s an attitude. You either make

something your bitch or you gonna be the bitch.”

Rapper, Black the Knife (Calvin Wright), is bunkered down in his palatial home after a failed attempt on his life by a huge pit bull which entered the house through a doggie door. The pit bull is terrifying. He is almost twice the size of a normal pit bull.

Cal, paranoid and high on a selection of drugs, wants Isaiah to find the assassin. Isaiah approaches the task with a disciplined mind that is precisely logical. His deductions are unaffected by emotion and the reactions of those around him.

All of Cal’s entourage and his manager, Bobby Grimes, ratchet up the pressure on IQ. Cal has a contractual deadline to produce new songs and nothing is happening with him in his house. Millions of dollars are at stake.

At the same time the plot includes his first investigation 8 years earlier into the death of his beloved brother, Marcus. He displays a doggedness verging on obsession. At the same time it is his intelligence which guides his investigation.

There is a startling observation in the book on drug use. Dodson is looking to get out of the drug trade of 2005 because crack sales are on the decline. Business has dropped as young people see physically decrepit adult addicts. They do not like the look of the chronic users. Dodson advises Isaiah that people will not take drugs that leave them "uncool".

The main investigation dragged for awhile. I would have preferred an additional case rather than the prolonged rapper investigation.

Contemporary urban life in poor black neighbourhoods is a foreign land for someone who resides in rural Western Canada. Reading about their lives was interesting and sad and often frightening.

I.Q. or Isaiah is a great character. A loner with integrity will always appeal to me. I want to read more of his adventures. In his rise from a working class background to using his keen intelligence to educate himself and his unwavering integrity I was reminded of Maisie Dobbs.

I can see why the book won Anthony, Macavity and Shamus Awards. I thank Marian and J.D. at Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore for recommending the book to me.