Sometimes a book comes along and I am just not in the mood for it or something.  This is one of those times.   IQ has had plenty of great reviews and it caught my eye several months ago and has been teasing me ever since.   I caved.  –

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IQ
by Joe Ide
2016/336 pages
read by Sullivan Jones  9h 8m
rating:  C  / crime
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I’m not sure what the problem was – possibly just that I’ve been reading some really great novels lately – including books by and about African Americans.  This one just doesn’t hold up to those.

Here we have a  detective,  Isaiah Quintabe,  aka IQ,  who is a exceptionally bright young black man who helps people in his neighborhood  and area with solving their crimes which could be anything  from  stolen wallets to murder – crimes the cops won’t bother with or that the victims, for reasons of their own, won’t report.

IQ’s older brother Marcus was killed several years prior  and their parents died prior to that.  So IQ is alone except that a younger little con-artist named Juanell Dodson comes along and simply inserts himself into IQ’s life.  The pair find it necessary to get involved in  their own burglaries to supplement their meager income.

Mainly the plot in this book, an obvious 1st-of-series, concerns the attempted murder of a crazy but famous rap singer.  The attempt involves a pit bull, an ex-wife who has been “wronged,”  and various other twisted things.

What bugged me was the rap and gangster atmosphere,  too much sex, swearing, bad-mouthing, bragging about violence, sexism and so on.  Just kind of over-the-top for me in this regard.  That said,  Ide had a television series signed only 6 months after the publication date and it’s proven to be quite popular with some critics.