IQ / Joe Ide.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A resident of one of LA's toughest neighborhoods uses his blistering intellect to solve the crimes the LAPD ignores.

East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch.

They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay.

This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the more far reaching and dangerous the case becomes.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Ide successfully makes his detective's brilliance plausible in this gripping and moving debut, which makes effective use of flashbacks. Isaiah Quintabe, whose reasoning scores on the Stanford-Binet intelligence test are near genius levels, has his life upended while in high school in East Long Beach, Calif. His beloved older brother and surrogate parent, Marcus, is killed by a hit-and-run driver, a tragedy that Isaiah witnesses firsthand. Isaiah, who becomes known by his initials because of his intellect, devotes himself to trying to identify the man who killed Marcus. With money running short, Isaiah takes in an unlikely roommate, schoolmate Juanell Dodson, who leads him into a life of crime. Eventually, Isaiah finds his calling on the right side of the law. He develops a reputation as an expert problem solver and takes on a high-profile assignment, to identify the person who ordered an unusual hit on Calvin Wright, the rapper known as Black the Knife. The plot has some over-the-top aspects, but overall the concept works. Agent: Esther Newberg, ICM. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Isaiah Quintabe, known as IQ on the mean streets of his East Long Beach neighborhood, is a Sherlock-inspired sleuth (brains over brawn) who takes the cases the cops won't touch. Yet Isaiah's off-the-grid status (unlicensed and underground) and adjustable-rate billing system translate to poor cash flow, which drives him to accept a case he wants no part of: finding out who is trying to kill a superstar rapper and not just any rapper, but one who seems to be going a little bit crazy. First-novelist Ide, whose own background is similar to Isaiah's (bright kid growing up in the ghetto and loving Sherlock for his ability to triumph on intelligence alone), does here what few first novelists can manage: dexterously juggling multiple styles and tones to create a seamless, utterly entertaining blend of coming-of-age saga, old-school detective story, and comic caper novel. Flashbacks reprise IQ's early years including his adored brother's death and IQ's temporary descent into a life of crime and nicely integrated subplots flesh out IQ's relationship with would-be Watson and former partner in crime, Dodson, whose impressive comic chops are sure to be a major draw as this series develops. Best of all, though, is Ide's deft touch with his richly diverse cast of characters, all of whom are capable of stealing scenes with just the right mix of bravado, sly intelligence, sparkling wit, and deeply felt emotion. This is one of those rare debuts that leaves us panting for more and soon.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2016 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Sherlock Holmes comes to South Central Los Angeles. Only hes black, never finished high school, and cant seem to hold on to a regular job.Unlike Holmes or other flamboyant consulting detectives whose powers of ratiocination have held readers imaginations captive since the Victorian era, Isaiah Quintabe, young, gifted, and nonchalantly brilliant, displays few distinguishable quirks beyond a formidable attention span that misses nothing. Well, having a live chicken named Alejandro wandering around his crib may be a little eccentric. But IQ, as hes appropriately known, earned that bird for services rendered as a discreet, unlicensed investigator who finds missing people, recovers stolen property, and unravels puzzles too delicate or perplexing for the LAPD to handle. Business is steady but sluggish, and IQ, goaded by a one-time high school frenemy named Dodson (rhymes with Watson, get it?), agrees to go for bigger bucks in helping to find out whos trying to murder rap idol Calvin Black the Knife Wright, whos undergoing something of an emotional crisis. The list of suspects is, to say the least, eclectic, beginning with Cals ex-wife, Noelle, an ambitious pop diva, and a posse of hangers-on and moneymen, any one of whom might be greedy or vicious enough to sic upon Cal the most monstrously lethal attack dog since the Hound of the Baskervilles. In his debut novel, Ide, a Japanese-American who grew up in the same neighborhood as his mercurial characters, flashes agility with streetwise lingo, facility with local color, and empathy with even the most dissolute of his characters. If theres a problem, its that IQ, for all his brilliance at inductive reasoning (as opposed to deductive; apparently there is a difference), seems at once too removed and too moody for readers to connect with. His origin story, alternating with the main investigation, at times reads like the usual gang-violence melodrama. But the roughhousing energy, vivid language, and serrated wit Ide displays throughout this maiden effort make Isaiah Quintabe seem a potential rejuvenator of a grand literary tradition. The present day, with its high-strung social media and emotional overload, could use a contemporary hero like Ide's, more inclined to use his brain than his mouth (or fists) to vanquish evil and subdue dread. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.