Fixit
An IQ Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In the latest installment in Joe Ide's "superb" series (Washington Post), the relentless, hard-bitten PI, Isaiah Quintabe, is faced with a nightmarish scenario when the love of his life is kidnapped by a maniacal hitman who bears a grudge against him.
Named one of the Best Mystery Books of the Year by The Wall Street Journal • An International Thriller Award Nominee
Danger has always followed IQ, a reality he’s keenly aware of as he’s laid up in a hospital bed, recovering from injuries sustained in his last case. Isaiah cannot help himself from being the hero, and any misery he’s suffered as a result—wounds from a knife fight, gnawing paranoia—he’s suffered alone. Yet as IQ recovers, five hundred miles from East Long Beach, he’s unaware that Grace has been abducted by his sworn enemy, the professional hitman Skip Hanson. Skip is savage and psychotic, determined to punish Isaiah for sending him to prison and destroying his life. Now, Isaiah and his sometimes partner, ex-hustler Juanell Dodson, must track scant clues through L.A.’s perilous landscape as Grace’s predicament grows more uncertain.
A complication arises in the form of Winnie Hando, a homicide detective with something to prove. Stubborn and effective, Winnie sees Isaiah’s efforts as an obstruction to the investigation and a possible embarrassment: an unlicensed PI can’t be seen doing the department’s job better than the department. Winnie tries to stop Isaiah while pursuing the case herself, their struggles clashing and slowing their progress. As the desperate hunt winds on, Isaiah fears that even if he can bring Grace home alive, things between them will never be the same. This latest series installment is an explosive collision of drug dealers, thieves, maniacs, shotguns, vicious dogs, stampeding horses, and Ide’s signature energy, grit, and profundity
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ide's sixth crime thriller featuring genius Isaiah "IQ" Quintabe (after 2021's Smoke) disappoints in its shift from deduction to full-tilt action. IQ, an "underground PI" who helps those in need "find justice when the police wouldn't or couldn't," now struggles with PTSD from his years in the field. His desire to retire from catching bad guys is thwarted when hit man Skip Hanson, whom IQ sent to prison, abducts IQ's girlfriend, Grace, and sends the PI taunting messages about her whereabouts and condition. The bulk of the plot centers on IQ's efforts to free Grace, but Ide tosses in another villain eager for revenge on the investigator, which dilutes, rather than increases, the tension, given this new villain's general lack of intelligence and motives that aren't all that different from Hanson's. Awkward prose (Grace is described as having "will" that's "equivalent to the Grand Canyon") and plot contrivances don't help. IQ is a strong character, but the PI's adventures feel like they're running out of steam.