Smoke

The first three IQ books were well-written and worth reading. With the fourth book in the series, the author seemed to have written with little thought to creating a believable narrative. The most recent book, Smoke, reads as if the author no longer cares about the characters or the plot. It is a significant disappointment. Extreme violence, even more than in the earlier books, absurd descriptions, unbelievable plot lines. This is the last IQ book that I will purchase or read.

IDE went too far with this series. Too many characters, too many scenes, too much geography, too long and too confusing.Isaiah (IQ) was not neatly as interesting. His sidekick Dodson had the best part.Disappointed so much that I don’t think the series will last beyond this attempt.

I was critical of Hi Five, the fourth novel in the IQ series, but pleasantly surprised by Smoke. That is not to say that it is without issues. While the series has always had running subplots concerning the personal lives of the characters, Smoke takes these subplots to a new level. At the end of Hi Five Isaiah was on the lam, with every bad guy/gang/group hunting for him in Long Beach. In Smoke we find him in Northern California, but then quickly return to Long Beach to follow the challenges of other members of the ensemble cast.Deronda’s food wagon business is prospering when, suddenly, an individual appears who claims to be the father of her child. Claiming that he wants custody of the boy, he is extorting her for cash on the barrelhead. Dodson’s wife is pressing him to find regular work and he finds himself as an assistant to a failing ad-man who is no Don Draper. Grace is getting her own exhibition at a gallery in Ojai and Skip/Magnus the pit bull breeder has returned and is in search of revenge.Isaiah is not completely lost, however, as a troubled young man stumbles into his life, himself on the lam from a mental institution. He (Billy) is attempting to help a woman find the serial killer and his sleazoid partner who killed her twin sister.The novel works because the ensemble cast is so interesting. Dodson’s adventures at the advertising agency are particularly engaging as Joe Ide appropriates Elmore Leonard’s theme from Get Shorty (where a loan shark realizes that his business experience has been the perfect preparation for a new career as a Hollywood producer). In Dodson’s case, his role as a street hustler has prepared him to be the perfect ad man.The writing is sprightly, the subsidiary story lines all interesting. There are two problems, the first being Isaiah’s disappearing from the story. The second is that (SPOILER alert) the novel ends with one central character in extreme jeopardy, the character’s situation being unresolved. In other words, the author has turned the series into a Saturday afternoon serial. You have to return next week to see the resolution of the cliffhanger ending, the problem being that the wait will be years, not weeks, since the author has taken on the gig of writing a Chandleresque Marlowe novel (which has its moments but is largely a misfire). Dickens could get away with this because his novels were being sold in installments, with all of London wondering about the fate of their favorite characters. Contemporary novel readers could simply lose interest and some will have come to the books out-of-order. In my admittedly genre-purist view this is a betrayal of the reader and a significant disappointment. Crime fiction readers expect happy endings or meaningful tragic endings, but not inconclusive endings, particularly when they have not been instructed in advanced (as in the Ellroy L.A. quartet or the new version of the quartet) that they are reading historical/crime fiction and committing to a series in which certain novels will be transitional.Bottom line: much more fun than the wildly implausible and in some ways tedious Hi Five, but not without its problems. Four stars.

Joe Ide’s Smoke (An IQ Novel Book 5) is akin to an animal sanctuary. When you have a variety of attractions, you need to care for each. Ide has developed a fun supporting cast around main character IQ - Isaiah Quintabe – and he turns over a substantial portion of this novel to them. Go see the lions, but don’t miss the elephants, tigers, bears, etc. while you’re there.Dodson clocks in at an advertising agency; Deronda battles for child custody; Grace flits around the edges of various sub-plots, including tussling with recently paroled Skip a/k/a Magnus who’s out to extract revenge on IQ.Add in two guest stars, Billy and Ava, and two incompetent serial killers, Crowe & Warren, along with Cameron, a local sheriff who’s more a literary device than a character, and the plot gets quickly complicated.Ide is a very good writer, and he takes readers on a whirlwind ride through this book. At times, though, he crosses the line over into caricature, weakening the story’s logic, if not its excitement. How, one wonders, have Crowe and Warren possibly survived stretches in prison, yet alone stayed off law enforcement’s radar being so manhandled? Would they really be this inept *armed* in a fight against our heroes? Can Dodson really use his street hustler smarts to become another Don Draper?A cliff-hanger ending, unashamedly setting up Ide’s next book, was problematic for me. But the IQ books are great reads, and this was still enjoyable. Just expect a bumpy road on your day trip to spend time with your favorites.

The story: Isaiah Quintabe helps people out around the neighborhood by solving cases, but he is tired, and the local gangs are looking for him. He breaks up with his girlfriend and drives north. He ends up in a little town in northern California. He rents a guesthouse, tries to relax, and forget about all the troubles back in Long Beach, but then he discovers a young man in his rental that has escaped from a mental institution, and he tells Isaiah he must stop a serial killer. So, Isaiah finds himself in the thick of it again.My thoughts: Pretty good read, and it does have some action in it. There was spot of dialogue that I thought was off, but other than that, it was ok. I read book #1, and "Smoke" was book #5, so now that I have book #2, I will be starting on that one.

This is the fifth installment of the IQ series featuring the brilliant but troubled Isaiah Quintabe. The first novel, IQ, was great, gripping and enthralling, and each one has more than lived up to the promise of the first. Joe Ide has created characters who are fresh and interesting. Although they are not always on the right side of the law, you still want them to come out ahead.His old pal, Dodson, is facing an impossible choice - sacrifice who he is to make an honest living or lose his family. Dodson's ex, Doronda may lose her successful business when a slimeball from her past threatens to expose her steamy past. And Isaiah tries to escape his mission to help by hiding out in Northern California, only to be drawn into the quest to stop a serial killer.Once again, Ide has given us a story that is nearly impossible to put down until the end, and leaves you wanting more IQ.

This is a follow on from the last book and an unfortunate mix of violence and soap opera. Isaiah is in hiding but gives himself away to a pair of bikers searching for a dog of all things; he meets a young escapee from an asylum who is involved with an old school friend who is convinced a pair of serial killers are on the way to kill the local sheriff, they are but also would like to kill any woman available. Bloody mayhem results IQ saves the day though the two killers are singularly incompetent. Most of that happens in the last half of the book, the first half taken up by the soap opera that is Dodson. His gentrification by his mother-in-law is mildly amusing but his four (Kindle) page rant at the end is so OTT as to be irrelevant; there follows are very stupid story about his internship at a local advertising agency where he invents three whiz bang campaigns in as many days - not just irrelevant but impossible. There is also some shenanigans about Deronda and her son which is simply padding. The author also succumbs to the penchant for potted life histories of everyone introduced even if they only appear once which just bogs down the speed of the plot. Cut out all the bloat and you have a half decent book or just half a book. If I had not read and enjoyed the others this would have lost another star. Avoid.

Another excellent chapter in the life of IQ. A very enjoyable read in the series that I could not put down. A great cast of characters, plot and pace. I can’t wait for the next one!

The writer has lost the plot. So to speak.I'm afraid I couldn't finish this novel, it was soulless, badly written without a central theme and the characters have changed markedly from the original. The characters drove the first books, the plot following.What a shame.

I very much enjoyed it, but it's less funny the previous books and more about cliffhanging fights with stock villains

Read the other three books,and became fan of IQ. This book was all over the place,and too full of gratuitous violence.Dodson is the new reason to follow Ide.His story was the only good bit of the book.Hope Ide can kick whatever he's on.