United States
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Hi Five (An IQ Novel, 4)
One woman. Five personalities. Private investigator IQ is back to piece together a Newport Beach murder with an eyewitness who gives "people person" a whole new meaning.
Christiana is the daughter of the biggest arms dealer on the West Coast, Angus Byrne. She's also the sole witness and number one suspect in the murder of her boyfriend, found dead in her Newport Beach boutique. Isaiah Quintabe is coerced into taking the case to prove her innocence. If he can't, Angus will harm the brilliant PI's new girlfriend, ending her career.
The catch: Christiana has multiple personalities. Among them, a naïve, beautiful shopkeeper, an obnoxious drummer in a rock band, and a wanton seductress.
Isaiah's dilemma: no one personality saw the entire incident. To find out what really happened the night of the murder, Isaiah must piece together clues from each of the personalities . . . before the cops close in on him.
Christiana is the daughter of the biggest arms dealer on the West Coast, Angus Byrne. She's also the sole witness and number one suspect in the murder of her boyfriend, found dead in her Newport Beach boutique. Isaiah Quintabe is coerced into taking the case to prove her innocence. If he can't, Angus will harm the brilliant PI's new girlfriend, ending her career.
The catch: Christiana has multiple personalities. Among them, a naïve, beautiful shopkeeper, an obnoxious drummer in a rock band, and a wanton seductress.
Isaiah's dilemma: no one personality saw the entire incident. To find out what really happened the night of the murder, Isaiah must piece together clues from each of the personalities . . . before the cops close in on him.
Editorial Reviews
A New York Times Best Thriller of 2020
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2020
"Engrossing . . . IQ's cases have become more complex, the stakes raised for the African American detective and a cast of regular characters who give the series an unexpected warmth. . . . The author is skilled at developing the humanity of every character, regardless of their perspective. It's a hallmark of Ide's evolving style that allows Hi Five to stand on its own for first-time readers, even as the series deepens longtime fans' engagement. . . . Hi Five succeeds on so many fronts as it sets IQ and the series' characters on an uncertain path down darker roads."―Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times
"Savor the freshness, vividness and ingenuity of the author's prose. . . . There are real truths hidden in the entertainment. . . . Hit men, henchmen, bagmen -- they all wander in and out of a highly diverting book that crackles with life and vividness."―Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review
"Mr. Ide is a remarkable writer, inhabiting the personae and rendering the back stories of a diverse assortment of characters... 'Hi Five' more than earns its triumphant title."―Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
"The end result of all Ide's frenetic literary machinations, however, is a crime novel that gives readers a sense of the totality of life in all its possibility: comedy, violence, irrationality and heartbreak. It's no longer a fresh observation to say that Ide is an original as a suspense writer, but, certainly, every novel he writes - including Hi Five - feels like a new invention."―Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"While novels about hotshot detectives have thrived since the days of Sherlock Holmes, Joe Ide delivers a fresh and wholly modern update to the genre. . . . Ide's rapid-paced, colorful dialogue pops off the page as he brings to life rappers, arms dealers, loan sharks and gangsters across four novels."―TIME
"Buy Hi Five by the great Joe Ide, the latest in his brilliant series about Isaiah Quintabe, a modern Sherlock Holmes from Long Beach, Calif. Trust me on this: There's nobody out there right now better than Joe Ide."―Mike Lupica, New York Daily News
I"t's a mark of Ide's skill that he's able to pull off such a plot, and he does it with credibility and more than a little poignancy."―Michele Ross, The Plain Dealer
"It's all part of the evolution of the character that in Hi Five sees Isaiah moving into darker places."―Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register
"In Edgar-finalist Ide's stellar fourth IQ novel...readers will root for Ide's distinctive lead every step of the way. This ...
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2020
"Engrossing . . . IQ's cases have become more complex, the stakes raised for the African American detective and a cast of regular characters who give the series an unexpected warmth. . . . The author is skilled at developing the humanity of every character, regardless of their perspective. It's a hallmark of Ide's evolving style that allows Hi Five to stand on its own for first-time readers, even as the series deepens longtime fans' engagement. . . . Hi Five succeeds on so many fronts as it sets IQ and the series' characters on an uncertain path down darker roads."―Paula L. Woods, Los Angeles Times
"Savor the freshness, vividness and ingenuity of the author's prose. . . . There are real truths hidden in the entertainment. . . . Hit men, henchmen, bagmen -- they all wander in and out of a highly diverting book that crackles with life and vividness."―Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review
"Mr. Ide is a remarkable writer, inhabiting the personae and rendering the back stories of a diverse assortment of characters... 'Hi Five' more than earns its triumphant title."―Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
"The end result of all Ide's frenetic literary machinations, however, is a crime novel that gives readers a sense of the totality of life in all its possibility: comedy, violence, irrationality and heartbreak. It's no longer a fresh observation to say that Ide is an original as a suspense writer, but, certainly, every novel he writes - including Hi Five - feels like a new invention."―Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post
"While novels about hotshot detectives have thrived since the days of Sherlock Holmes, Joe Ide delivers a fresh and wholly modern update to the genre. . . . Ide's rapid-paced, colorful dialogue pops off the page as he brings to life rappers, arms dealers, loan sharks and gangsters across four novels."―TIME
"Buy Hi Five by the great Joe Ide, the latest in his brilliant series about Isaiah Quintabe, a modern Sherlock Holmes from Long Beach, Calif. Trust me on this: There's nobody out there right now better than Joe Ide."―Mike Lupica, New York Daily News
I"t's a mark of Ide's skill that he's able to pull off such a plot, and he does it with credibility and more than a little poignancy."―Michele Ross, The Plain Dealer
"It's all part of the evolution of the character that in Hi Five sees Isaiah moving into darker places."―Peter Larsen, The Orange County Register
"In Edgar-finalist Ide's stellar fourth IQ novel...readers will root for Ide's distinctive lead every step of the way. This ...
Readers Top Reviews
A. W. SkinnerDaveKJP
I have enjoyed Mr Ide's previous books, but this one was messily written. The idea of a multiple personality character must have seemed a good idea initially, but it simply got confusing. In fact, I got confused about a lot of the characters and kept forgetting whether they were black, white or something else. These elements are pretty important in Mr Ide's stories, so it all became very messy. I will try him again, but this book needed an editor. I did finish it, but only just. It is completely unmemorable.
Malcolm RMark Buddin
IQ is forced by a gun runner to prove that his daughter is innocent of the murder of his “chief lieutenant”. There is precious little investigation in what follows but an awful lot of violence sometimes, to my mind, pointlessly. Padding out the story are lengthy backstories, repeated rumination about love and is it really love, an explanation of how the daughter developed her bizarre psychiatric problem and inexplicably the beginning of a geriatric relationship. Everything revolves around IQ stirring up various gangs - are there really that many in LA? - and if you believe the daughter has had no psychiatric treatment; It ends with IQ running off east, his sidekick planning what to do with 100,000 dollars, his love saying goodbye and every gang apart from the Cambodians(!) saying they will kill him if they find him. I thought it was a gross farrago.
Blue in Washington (
Hard to imagine a more creative storyline than one that opens with a murder where the first suspect is a woman with five personalities. The book's protagonist, Isaiah Quintabe (IQ in his South Central/East Long Beach hood), is pulled into the case by a vicious gun dealer whose daughter happens to be the father of "she of the many personalities"; and Daddy wants his little girl exonerated of the crime, or else. The subsequent action is constant, violent and peopled by every manner of gangster residing in SoCal. IQ is a smart guy holding a lot of IOUs for previous favors rendered in the hood, but he is in over his head as white supremacist, Asian, Latino and Black bangers fight it out while he tries to sort the murder. Author Idea also throws in two exotic assassins here--women who formerly did movie stunts and circus acts before turning to the more lucrative profession of murder for hire. While the storyline can seem convoluted and over-populated at times, it did grab this reader and keep him from putting it down before getting to the wham-bang semi-conclusion. That ending is a very clear set-up for the next episode of the IQ saga.
