Righteous

I received a galley of this book from Mulholland Books via NetGalley. It has not impacted my thoughts or opinions about this book.

Righteous picks up very quickly and I would recommend reading IQ first if you haven't already. IQ introduces and develops Isaiah Quintabe, the protagonist, and the world he lives in. Righteous takes that a step further and digs deeper into his brother's past and Isaiah's own personality while addressing serious issues like human trafficking, obsession, and gang violence. In IQ, Isaiah seems mostly saintly while in Righteous, you see more of his flaws.

The pacing of this book is great and feels cinematic, and I hope this book serves as the basis for season 2 of the upcoming TV adaptation. There are two main subplots within the story, both of which have their own timeline; when the chapters switch to the characters in one subplot, the timeline zags with it.

While I enjoyed the strong writing, I thought the plot was less exciting in Righteous than in IQ. I was more interested in the characters this go-around – Isaiah, yes, but also Cherise, Dodson, Sarita, and Manzo. Women are very much secondary to this plot and used more as devices than as real, fully developed characters.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed IQ, and I really hope Joe Ide continues with this series.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Isaiah Quintabe is back with a couple of dynamite cases. IQ ended with Isaiah stumbling upon the car that killed his brother. So about half of this book is devoted to Isaiah's renewed efforts to find the man who killed his brother. He quickly concludes that Marcus was not killed in an accident, as he'd believed and the police had included. Rather, it's pretty clear to him that Marcus was targeted by the driver. So now, Isaiah starts digging – he finds more suspects than he'd prefer, and he starts to have some questions about Marcus's lifestyle/livelihood.

That story alternates with an actual paying case – Marcus' girlfriend (and the object of Isaiah's teenaged affections) comes calling for Isaiah's help. Her little sister, a gambling addict, and her equally addicted boyfriend are in trouble – they've got a Loan Shark gunning for them, and have resorted to some freakishly stupid lengths to get the money they need to get him off their case. These lengths have made them the target of some of the nastiest, deadliest, coldest criminals you've ever read. So, Isaiah and Dodson head to Vegas to help them. Dodson is fairly assertive here, not wanting to be relegated to sidekick and PR status, but to been seen as an equal to Isaiah – more of an Elementary's Joan Watson than Doyle's John, without the student-vibe (or Dr. Eric Foreman to Dr. House . . . ugh, there are just too many versions of Holmes to walk an unbeaten path). Which is not to suggest that Ide's blossoming partnership here is just a retread or a rehash, Dodson just reminds me of Joan a little. There's a dynamic between these two that you don't often see in detective duos, outside of police shows where two are forced to work together – a mix of partnership, antagonism, respect, and rivalry.

So why does Isaiah bring him along? Because he's growing as a person, realizing that he needs social connections, other people in his life – he has a new dog, but that's not enough. There's even a longing for something like Dodson's new family. His work, his trying to make something out of the wreck his life became after Marcus' death – that's not enough (nor is it finished) – he wants people around, and Dodson's the first step.

There's a couple of criminals wandering around Vegas making life horrible for several people that I'd love to see again – [spoiler] we won't, and they got what they deserved – but man, I enjoyed them so much. All the “bad guys” (and, wow, were there a lot of them) were much more than your typical mystery novel baddies (even really well-written ones!). They were fully fleshed-out, individuals, with believable (and contradictory) self-interests and motivations.

As compelling as the baddies are, Isaiah is better. And in this book (like IQ) we see one of the ways that Ide is superior to Arthur Conan Doyle. In A Study in Scarlet, we see Holmes as the successful version of himself – on the verge of being a legend, really. Like Athena fully formed, emerging from Zeus' skull. But IQ is still learning, still fallible – yes, he's achieved a large measure of success and notoriety, but he's still making mistakes. He's good, but he needs more discipline, more patience, less ego, etc. In Righteous, as in IQ, we get the equivalent of Miller's Batman: Year One and Barr's Batman: Year Two. He'll get to the point where his mistakes are more rare and less obvious, no doubt – but he's not there yet. Combining this aspect of the character and the nascent social life and you've got a lot of fodder for character growth.

I've recently started reading (for those who don't read every post) the John Rebus books, plugging my way through the 30 years of history of the character. I've received various encouragements from long-time Rebus readers to stick with it, the best is yet to come (not that I was in any danger of dropping it), and that I was reading something special. I can easily see myself giving similar encouragement to someone just starting these books in a decade or so. Isaiah is one of those characters that I can see myself reading for years to come. Between Isaiah and Dodson as characters, and Ide's style and skill – this series is one to read.

I had to pick this one up as soon as I finished Joe Ide's debut IQ where we're first introduced to Isiah Quintabe. Righteous picks up shortly after IQ closes and still has that rollicking East LA voice.

This time Isiah finds himself dealing with a Rwandan gangster, Chinese Triads, Mexican gangs, and his brother's ex-fiance Sarita. She's worried about her Vegas DJ sister and her bro-tastic, loser boyfriend as they find themselves over their heads in gambling debt. Ide once again juggles several stories at once as Isiah begins to question whether his beloved brother was exactly what he appeared to be. Dodson also returns as Isiah's don't-call-him-a-sidekick, partner - now expecting his first child and hustling to make an honest buck.

With Righteous we see Isiah isn't just a fantastic inductive detective but a first rate problem solver. Still a fun read but it does suffer a bit of the sophomore slump as we work to build Isiah's character as he makes the transition from stumbling innocent to a more mature adult. His relationship with Sarita is all old school John Hughes instead of John Singleton and rings a little too predictably. And while I have to give the Japanese American author who grew up in South Central a pass I still cringe a bit at the probably realistically named Chink Mob and their garbled Engrish that has them saying things like “You no my fren, you go way now or we killing you for sure!”

Still I like the world Ide has created and I'm curious to see where Quintabe and Dodson head next.