ARC REVIEW IQ by Joe Ide

A modern day Sherlock Holmes, if he was born in the California Ghettos. IQ is the nickname they gave Isaiah Quintabe after he solved a very sensitive and exposing blackmailing scheme involving a rapper which he later published in a major magazine. Isaiah is a brilliant young man who at a young age tested above genius but due to circumstances out of his control it lead him on a path of destruction. You can see elements of Sherlock in the story his brother Marcus (Mycroft), his friend and I use the term loosely Dodson (Watson), and even Goliath (the Hound of Baskerville) along with Isaiah's deductive skills are that of Sherlock. This modern day almost realistic Sherlock is one of the best I've seen.

The story really starts off with a bang, it pulled you in and shows you how good Isaiah is at what he does. From then on it ping pongs back and forth between 2005-06 and 2013. It shows the progression of how Isaiah became what he is and most importantly why. The two timelines have nothing to do with each other but the past timeline does slowly reveal more about Isaiah and Dodson and their ambiguous friendship. In the modern timeline Dodson has come back to Isaiah with a high profile job. It's all hush hush but it promises a very nice paycheck. The rapper Calvin "Black the Knife" Wright has had a very curious assassination attempt, a very large dog almost killed him. Cal is determined to find out who tried to kill him, especailly if it's his ex-wife. Isaiah agreed to the job and no matter that everyone is trying to talk him out of it or stump him Isaiah isn't going to stop until he finds out the truth. Through the years Isaiah has made plenty of contact and through those contacts he is able to unravel the whole mystery.

The story is third person but does switch perspective throughout the list of characters even the assassin, but you don't find out the whodunit until the very end. Overall, I really truly enjoyed this one and I hope there are more stories about IQ to come.