Wrecked

Great story, crisp writing, multiple perspectives, interesting characters, twists and turns and everything a mystery thriller needs to be great! Can’t wait to ready #3 in the series!!

Wrecked is the third installment of Joe Ide's IQ series and, like the first two, it presents us with a number of true characters in an engrossing story. This time, we also learn a bit more about IQ and our appetites are whetted for the next installment. Recommended

Story: Isaiah is still being a neighborhood detective, but he falls for an artist he met, but some bad men are after her, Grace, in order to get to her mother. Grace hasn't seen her mother in ten years, but now some former soldiers from Iraq are after Sarah (Grace's mother), because she has pictures of the terrible things they did in Abu Ghraib. They will stop at nothing to get the pictures and silence Sarah. Throw in a psychopath who makes knives, and the fact that Dodson and his wife are new parents, and you have an action-packed novel.My thoughts: This was the best IQ book I have read. (I only have Hi Five left to read). The writing was good and the story moved along at a good clip. The author did a good job with this one.

I love the dialog, the depiction of characters who somehow cope without a lot of advantages, the recognition that geniuses are born and raised even in the ghetto, that assertion that introverts are not helpless in the real world, and that we would perhaps all be better off if we saw more and socialized less. I found the California perspective on the role of military police in the Iraq war a rather one-sided assertion of widespread abuse. Military police training used to emphasize the need for humane treatment and respect for individuals. Perhaps that has changed.

Ide created a compelling backstory for Isiah and loyal readers have watched him grow up in the first two books of the series. His journey began with small jobs, Isiah dealing with the loss of his brother, and introduced us to his friends. A shout out for Deronda.Wrecked takes this series to a new and darker level. Not only is Grace searching for her mother, Sarah, a group of ruthless former military prison guards is desperate to find her. Grace's father, long dead and a former military man, was in possession of compromising photographs which could not only ruin these men but send them to jail and Sarah possesses them. Not knowing that Grace has had no contact with her mother, they are as determined to isolate Grace as Isiah is to keep her safe.Between the brutality, the reader is able to follow Isiah's band of quirky friends who wrestle with familiar problems: their bills, overbearing mothers-in-law, resentments and all the rest.Although the situations where Isiah is able to win battles between seasoned military men armed with the latest weapons, including drones, with a slingshot may be a bit of a stretch, the author doesn't veer off into pure fantasy. Reading that IQ is headed for television is both good and bad. It's fun imagining what the characters look like rather than knowing. But all in all, Ide has created a great cast and this reader will be watching.

This book has way too many characters and side stories. Why do this? If you are a reader who sits down for 6-8 hours and finishes a book in 1 go, you may keep all the book’s characters straight. But if you read for an hour and pick up the book 2 days later to do the same, you will be confused about who’s who. If you read it on an e-book reader, you will be looking up initial descriptions of the many characters over and over. Does an agent or editor/publisher push the writer to add so many layers? Does the author get paid by the page or character? Someone should ask us, the actual readers, if we prefer this vs. Dostoyevsky’s or Hemingway’s linear and leaner tracts.

Joe Ide's third novel in his IQ series is simply great. His writing has reached another level, and its meditations on revenge and violence will long give me something to think about.If you haven't heard of this series before - think of a modern day young Sherlock Holmes... only he's a black kid from East Long Beach that takes cases mostly from his neighborhood and is paid whatever they can give him. Gangs and drugs are still a massive problem, and Isaiah Quintabe (IQ) has to nimbly navigate this environment with Dodson, a former street hustler who is more man of action and money than Watson was to Holmes.In this novel, they both have to help a young woman find her missing mother, as well avoid some of the worst enemies you would want. The bad guys are as evil as you can imagine, but Ide still manages to give them a sliver of humanity that only makes them more horrifying in contrast. Previous secondary characters that I had written off initially as jokes have slowly become interesting and fully human people in this world. Twists and turns happen in natural ways, and revenge is revealed as an empty satisfaction. I cannot wait to see where Joe Ide takes us next.

Both the second and third book in the series were far superior to the first book. They were much more fluent and a good read with a likeable protagonist.

The third book in the series (and coming to the series late I've managed to read them all one after another), and I found this volume to be better than the second. The story is involving, more thoughtful, and there's more character development that fills in more about Isiah and Dodson, as well as the new lady in IQ's life. A reader can't help but hope for the best for them both.The story is a violent one, more so than earlier books, but it helps drive the story along. I got hooked early and spent a number of hours happily reading through the chapters, with the "one more chapter" drive that I like. The story's arc is interesting, as is some of the background information. The writing style is solid, and comparing it to the first two books shows some development in the author's skills. I can't wait to tackle the fourth book!

I agree with another reviewer that said they thought this would be well suited for young adult fiction. The characters were predictable and the way new characters were introduced made it hard to know if you had missed something. I also was put off by several small, but annoying proof-reading errors and in one scene, a main character is first "holding a ball peen hammer" and after a page turn she was holding some other tool.

5-Stars. Terrific fun throughout. Once again Joe Ide thrills and entertains!Time has passed, IQ and Dodson have had successes, one of which comes back to haunt them in the lesser of the two main plots of <b>Wrecked</b>The other is a solidly constructed "missing person" case, more complicated than it looks. Ide confidently draws these characters, presents his usual excellent and sharp dialogue, and moves to a very satisfying conclusion for both plots. Toss in some sub-plots with previous villains and you have a delicious mix of action, planning and personalities. Wonderful!Ide clearly loves his characters, and imbues them with personality and human drives and foibles. As usual, this was a rush for me, reading almost straight through in two sittings.I particularly like the hesitant romance between IQ and his client... very sweet indeed. Even Dodson grows more real, and even a bit fatherly here. His partner, Cherise, is solid and smart and loving. She sees in Dodson traits that we don't always behold. Very sweet.Be warned, there are some torture scenes, which you can skim. They are only a 5/10 on the scale of brutality for me.A thoroughly wonderful, fun and exciting next book for IQ and associations.

Having read the first two IQ books and having enjoyed both, I half expected a tinge of disappointment, but not at all.I can’t comment on the “prose” or the “literary construction” like some people can, because for me a book or a writer’s style either grabs me or it doesn’t. I couldn’t call it a can’t put down compulsive page turner and I didn’t read it in one go (but i’ve never read a book in one sitting!) but I really got into the various characters of which there were quite a few and it passed my acid test that I had a face in my head for each of them and a clear picture of each key location.Joe Ide seems to have come up with the odd ball detective with IQ, but the more you get to know him the more he seems no more or less complicated than people that you have come across during your life and that makes the fiction believable.50 / 50 chance of a fourth IQ book? His brother’s killer is dead, the partnership with Dodson is over, but will Grace come back?I hope so in one way, but I would hate to see hte character overdone.

A fine new book by Joe Ide. I recommend it to everyone who likes clever contemporary LA based thrillers with a twist.