Isaiah Quintabe--an unlicensed detective for all seasons--and his best
friend and masterful sidekick, Juanell Dodson, are at a crossroads in
this latest installment of the "aggressively entertaining" IQ series
(New York Times). This time, their lives may never be the same.
Isaiah Quintabe is no longer IQ, the genius of East Long Beach; instead,
he's a man on the road and on the run, hiding in a small Northern
California town when his room is broken into by a desperate young man on
the trail of the state's most prolific serial killer.
His old partner, Juanell Dodson, must go straight or lose his wife and
child. His devil's bargain? An internship at an LA advertising agency,
where it turns out the rules of the street have simply been dressed in
business casual, but where the aging company's fortunes may well rest on
their ability to attract a younger demographic. Dodson--"the hustler's
hustler"--just may be the right man for the job.
Ide is the crime writer's crime writer, and he's filled his best novel
yet with desperate souls, courageous outcasts, an ex-stripper who'll do
anything to protect her son, and wild half-brothers who may be the very
incarnation of evil.
With deft plotting, lacerating humor, and a keen eye for the ways in
which characters rise or fall based on their ties to one another,
Smoke is Joe Ide's crowning achievement.
