I'm a full-on fan of the IQ series and this latest book did not disappoint! Great characters with growth arcs that are well crafted. What a ride.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

This series has definitely solidified itself as one of my favorites. Not only is Isaiah, IQ, one of my favorite characters of all time but each book is fresh and new. Just when you think maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel, a new wrinkle presents itself and I love this series for always keeping me on my toes. How I wish someone would adapt this book into either a TV series or movie. My one request? Please please please cast Lakeith Stanfield as Dodson!

Smoke came out last month on February 23, 2021, and you can purchase HERE! I am in love with this series; you can read my reviews of book 1 HERE; book 3 HERE; and book 4 HERE.

If somebody asked him what music he liked he'd say jazz and leave it at that. Nobody knew shit about jazz.

Smoke
February 27, 2021

Book Review
Smoke
Joe Ide

reviewed by Lou Jacobs


readersremains.com | Goodreads



This is the fifth book in this unique series, but my first foray into the world of Isaiah Quintabe (Queen-tah-bay) written by Joe Ide (EEE-Day). I was able to successfully jump onto to this fast-moving train and thoroughly enjoyed this character-driven adventure filled with wit, heart, and emotion.

Although this complex narrative is told in multiple points of view , the main protagonists remain Isaiah Quintabe (“IQ”) and his best friend and sidekick, Juanell Dodson. Both are faced with daunting crises in their lives, unrelated to their friendship and partnership.

IQ as a seventeen-year-old was faced with the gut wrenching death of his beloved older brother, Marcus, killed by a hit-and-run driver. Initially his bitterness resulted in a brief interlude with crime, but eventually in a search for clues to this senseless killing he achieved success as a street detective. His native intellect and burgeoning skills of deductive reasoning along with his almost photographic memory allowed him to link seemingly unrelated facts together to understand motivation and behavior. However, at this juncture in his life, he is suffering a form of PTSD, and is overwhelmed by the almost daily dealing with the infectious offal of humanity. Burnt out by the incessant dealings with gangs, killers, drugs, pimps, and never-ending corrosive conflicts of street life. He is on the road and on the run and destined to seek solace in the small town of Coronado Springs, which eventually proves to be a nexus point for anything but comfort.

Our second intrepid hero is Dodson who independently has reached a crossroad in his relationship with his wife, Cherise. He has been given an ultimatum to join the “real world”, and drop his street live existence, and provide stability for his wife and child. This diversion in the tale, could easily occupy a novel by itself. With humor and emotion, Dodson’s foray into the advertising world as an intern allows him to display his innate creativity; all based upon his nature as a hustler.

Ide proves to be an expert storyteller as he weaves effortlessly the multiple multi layered colorful characters into a complex and unexpected denouement. At one point, approaching a collision course nexus, Ide has an explosive array of his characters …. IQ, his girlfriend, Grace, a serial killer, Billy, and Ava (locked in pact to seek out the killer of her sister), Skip Hanson (hitman, recently released from prison and out for revenge), and the local sheriff. Ide’s usage of dialogue is masterful as he utilizes satire and sarcasm with a touch of understatement. He deftly alternates and mixes an elegant and almost poetic prose with bursts of street jargon. The death defying humous interaction between Dodson and his mother-in-law Gloria alone is worth the price of admission. It is truly amazing how many well-developed intriguing characters can populate one novel. How wonderful to have four earlier tales to immediately download and devour.

Thanks to NetGalley and Mulholland Books for providing an Uncorrected Proof of this marvelous adventure in exchange for an honest review.
This review published at Mystery And Suspense Magazine

IQ has left SoCal to tend his wounds and try and protect his loved ones. For that reason, this story focuses mainly on Dodson. So much so that I forgot about Isaiah and was startled when the story flipped back to him. Dodson and his mother in law provide some well needed levity as she tries to prepare him for a real job in the real world. (Btw, the only person I know who curls is Black. And really good at it!) Meanwhile, through no fault of his own, even while hidden away in a small town in the foothills, IQ is earlobe deep in a troubling situation. With every word, the reader can feel IQ's weariness as he is drawn into helping track down a couple of serial killers. This man needs a break! Sadly for him, and lucky for us, it doesn't sound like he is going to get one any time soon.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
Not that any of the previous IQ novels have been cookie cutters of the rest, but this really feels less like an IQ novel than I was ready for. In fact, it felt* like this was more of a Juanell Dodson novel for most of it. When Isaiah left town at the end of Hi Five, he left his friends behind. But their problems didn't leave with him, they all have to step up and take care of things now without him. But the way they go about taking care of these problems is heavily influenced by Isaiah—he might not be playing an active role in most of the storylines in this book, but this is still his book.

* Yes, I said "felt like," I could be wrong. This isn't the kind of blog where you're going to find me doing word counts to prove things like this.

THE LA STORIES
Grace is trying to get over Isaiah and focus on her art. She's got a show coming up and needs to get some more paintings ready—that's all that matters.

But while she and Isaiah know they're over—most people don't (and some of those who do know, believe it's temporary). When someone that Isaiah helped put away gets back to town and is looking for a little payback, he only hears that Grace is Isaiah's girl. Which puts her right in the cross-hairs.

Deronda's life is going great—she's getting some media attention for her success (which is only serving to build that success), her food trucks are doing great, and her son is fantastic (just ask Deronda, she'll tell you). But then someone comes along to help himself to a share of that success and uses Janeel as his tool. Deronda goes nuclear and tries everything she can think of to stop this.

Grace tries to help—and gets one of Isaiah's former clients involved, too. And even Dodson gets in on it. There's nothing about what they try or the solutions they come up with that Isaiah would have done. In fact, I'm pretty sure he'd have seen some of the problems with her theories and stopped Deronda before she tried to act on them. But for fear of repeating myself, without Isaiah's influence on the three of them, none of them would've tried anything like they did.

Cherise has had enough of Dodson's bouncing around from opportunity to opportunity, trying to make some money, but with no stability. He needs to grow up and get a real job, and to help with that, she's arranged for an internship at a local advertising agency. Dodson isn't interested at all in this, but she's not negotiating.

So he shows up for the first day, and something clicks. He thinks about the way Isaiah had approached goals in his life and applies it in his way to this situation. It wasn't quite a "What Would Isaiah Do?" thing, more of a "How Would Isaiah Do This?"

Now there is zero percent of the Dodson storyline that is Crime Fiction. It's about character development, character growth—it's a transition point for Dodson. Yet this is my favorite part of this Crime Novel. Because it's Dodson going through all this. Also, as Dodson pops up in their storylines to help Grace and Deronda, he gets plenty of Crime Fiction action.

There's a fun part of this storyline where Dodson, who started as Isaiah's Dr. John Watson, now becomes an Eliza Doolittle figure. Cherise's mother, Gloria, who tries to equip him into someone who could make it in the Corporate World. On the one hand, I felt bad for poor Dodson—this wasn't easy for him—but man, it was funny. We also got Dodson's commentary on Pop Music and TV—which is not to be missed.

The LA stories interweave, Grace helps Dodson, Dodson helps Grace, Dodson chips in with Deronda...and so on. IQ is mentioned, he's talked about and he even converses with some of them—but not about the challenges they're dealing with (and vice versa) in this novel. He's as removed from their stories as possible. Yet, without him, without his influence in their lives—none of this would've happened. So it absolutely was still part of an IQ novel, even if it was for all intents and purposes IQ free.

ISAIAH'S STORY
Isaiah's trying to be IQ-free, too. He's pulled up stakes to get away from the enemies he made in Hi-Five, and away from everything else, too. He's decided he wants a new life. He wants nothing to do with the violence, the depravity, the danger that has so characterized the last few years of his life.

Which, of course, means that despite his best efforts—and really by dumb chance—he's brought into a hunt for a serial killer by one of the least likely, least credible people we've encountered in this series.

While I did say this felt like Dodson's book most of the time, at one point the Isaiah/Serial Killer story took over—and we see heroism and depravity on display (not quite in equal parts, but we get an excess of both). As much as Isaiah has said he wants away from this life—when the chips are down, he finds a way to try to stop another murder, at great risk to himself.

The final confrontation can be seen as darkly comic or as intensely human and maybe even realistic to an extent you don't usually see. There's a visceral desperation to it—everyone involved seems to believe on some level that they're doomed, but they press on anyway. It's harrowing really.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT SMOKE?
This really feels like a transition novel—probably for the series as a whole, and definitely for all these characters. In a book or two, it'll be easier to see (not that it's difficult now) exactly what role this is going to play in things, but choices are made, steps are taken that insure wherever Isaiah ends up, he's going to be a different man than he was in Hi-Five, ditto for everyone else. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing where Dodson is. Hopefully, he's still going in the direction he started to move in here.

But that's for 2023. What about the 2021 novel? While Ide seemed to be writing with an eye to the 2022 and 2023 novels, he also produces a fine read in Smoke. There are a lot of balls in the air, a lot of Point of View characters (those we know and those we only meet here). There are blasts from the past and new characters that we could be seeing in the future.

And while we get some very strong resolution to just about everything in the novel, there's a cliffhanger at the end that makes it difficult for me to say most of what I want to say. It's a complete novel, this isn't just a book that you read so that you have to read the next. But I tell you what, when you finish you want that next IQ novel now.

I think it says a lot about the kind of world that Ide has created that his main character can only show up in 50±% of a novel/its stories and the novel to still be as strong as any of the others. The series isn't about Isaiah (and other characters) now. It's about Isaiah, Grace, Dodson, and Deronda—and their families, no matter what the series is called. I love that evolution, that development.

I think existing fans will find their enthusiasm for this series rewarded. I think new readers are going to want to grab the earlier novels to fill in how the characters got to where they are. Either way, people who pick up Smoke are in for a treat.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Mulholland Books via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

I realized I hadn't read book 4 yet, so I got it from the library and burned through it so I could read this one (book 5 in the series). I really enjoy this series.

In this one Isaiah is on his own in northern CA for reasons that come about in book 4. (No spoilers!) He of course gets mixed up in a search for a serial killer. Along with that main plot line you've got stories for Dodson, Grace, Deronda, and TK. I have really grown to adore all of these characters.

It was very fast-paced and action packed which is how all the IQ books are.

I highly recommend these books if you want a gritty yet authentic thriller with fully realized and diverse characters.

Yet another madcap, funny, touching, and eventful book in this extraordinary series. Having fled Long Beach to recover from his breakup with Grace and too many taxing adventures, IQ stumbles into pursuing a serial killer while his erstwhile partner Dodson discovers he's a marketing genius who can make big bucks at a tony ad agency where he's interning for a washed-up creative. It's a wild ride, with lots of action scenes (maybe a few too many for me) and great humor and heart. This series is something else - in a good way.

I adored the first book in this series, but have struggled with them a little since. I initially put it down to the increased presence of IQ's friend Dodson but in reality in this outing, Dodson's storyline is the highlight. Here he becomes an intern at an ad agency in an attempt to go straight and prove himself to his wife and child, but he ends up being an unlikely source of inspiration for his jaded mentor.

IQ's on the run trying to keep his girlfriend Grace safe and staving off any attention but of course it finds him and he's co-opted into the hunt for a serial killer. Or two. The coincidence of that storyline was perhaps a little too contrived and things worked out a little too neatly.

I must admit, despite my early love for this series I almost put this book down in the early stages. Ide include so many names and so much detail that seems extraneous to the plot that it feels overwhelming. And as he's introduced more central characters my interest becomes more scattered. I tend to shut down or stop caring.

I like the storylines and characters of this series but wonder if more rigour needs to go into the editing process? In addition to the excess detail there were a couple of issues with continuity.

2.5 - 3 stars

Isaiah Quintabe returns! Smoke is the fifth novel in the series, and sees our protagonist and his growing supporting cast going through a number of changes and overcoming a series of challenges. A slightly different novel to the previous books in the series, I enjoyed it.

Note: Given that this is the fifth novel in a series that is, effectively, a single story, there are unavoidable spoilers in this review.

Following the events in Hi-Five (not to mention the other novels in the series) Isaiah is having a bit of a bad time of things. He’s suffering from PTSD, wanted by seemingly all of the various gangs operating in Long Beach, and struggling to stay focused and centred. He’s left the city, in an attempt to find peace. He’s left behind his two rocks: Grace, his girlfriend; and Dodson, his best friend and sometime partner. He’s fed up with the way he keeps finding himself in dangerous situations, threatening his own life and that of his loved ones. He manages to find some quiet and space to think, but it doesn’t last. It turns out, there might be a serial killer operating in the region… And, of course, IQ somehow finds himself involved in an investigation — dodging suspicious law enforcement, biker gangs, and his strong desire to stop getting himself in these situations.

One of the most interesting things about Ide’s series is that, as it has progressed, it has become far less focused on the titular protagonist. I’ve mentioned in my reviews for the previous two novels, that I was surprised at how Isaiah was taking up less and less space in the books. He’s still important, of course, but the author has been giving his supporting cast a lot more time in the novels. At first, this felt a little bit strange, but because his characters are so well drawn, I enjoy this development a lot. I’m particularly interested in Dodson and his ongoing struggles to balance his personality and how he understands his situation, with what others think is possible for him and his responsibilities as a father and partner.

Smoke is an interesting novel. I enjoyed reading it, and Ide’s writing remains engaging and colourful. There’s the now-familiar humour, and the less-than-polished action — his characters are not James Bond: they get beaten and knocked down, they make mistakes (sometimes many of them), and the various cases IQ’s been involved in aren’t always wrapped up neatly or tidily.

In this book, Isaiah’s “case” feels more secondary to the emotional and everyday drama that his characters are dealing with — in addition to Dodson, Deronda features more centrally. I enjoyed this change, because I tend to be less interested in serial killer narratives. I’ve also noticed that IQ’s approach to cases has shifted over the course of the series. In part, that’s because the stories have involved larger and more complicated plots — they’re not always conducive to the Sherlock Holmes-type deduction the early novels (not to mention the publicity materials) leaned on. I miss this, because it was really well done in the first novel. Hopefully we’ll get a bit more of this in the next book.

If you’re looking for an interesting crime series with a difference, then I would certainly recommend Ide’s IQ novels. They’re well-written, and offer interesting twists on many popular genre tropes and conventions.