Usually, Ide walks the thin line between light and dark, playing off moments of caper-novel hilarity against outbursts of violence and the angst of misfired relationships, but this time angst wins by TKO. No matter. Ide goes dark with the skill of a noir master, leaving Isaiah in a very bad place and the reader gasping for breath. A stunning change of pace from one of crime fiction’s new stars.
The author is skilled at developing the humanity of every character, regardless of their perspective. It’s a hallmark of Ide’s evolving style that allows Hi Five to stand on its own for first-time readers, even as the series deepens longtime fans’ engagement ... Most affecting is the journey of Juanell Dodson, IQ’s ride-or-die sidekick ... Dodson’s resentment of, yet yearning for, connection with IQ and fulfilling his destiny as a slickster Watson to IQ’s more cerebral Sherlock is one of the novel’s many ancillary pleasures. Hi Five offers a rich tableau of community stalwarts and criminal riff-raff. But with so many characters and plot points to manage, the novel sometimes lags in it[s] pacing and stumbles over some nuances of geography even as it dares readers to keep up with IQ’s Holmesian inductions. But these are minor quibbles because High Five succeeds on so many fronts as it sets IQ and the series’ characters on an uncertain path down darker roads.
Mr. Ide is a remarkable writer, inhabiting the personae and rendering the back stories of a diverse assortment of characters ... “Hi Five more than earns its triumphant title.
It is humanly impossible to summarize his teeming, dizzying, ricocheting, madcap (and somewhat mad) story lines ... Out of this boundary-crossing background, Ide has fashioned a crime series that itself crisscrosses lines of identity, genre and tone ... The bizarre mystery that kicks off Hi Five, the fourth novel in the IQ series, is so complicated that it strains what Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot called his 'little grey cells' ... The end result of all Ide’s frenetic literary machinations, however, is a crime novel that gives readers a sense of the totality of life in all its possibility: comedy, violence, irrationality and heartbreak. It’s no longer a fresh observation to say that Ide is an original as a suspense writer, but, certainly, every novel he writes — including Hi Five — feels like a new invention.
Ide arguably juggles a few too many flaming chainsaws in the air as far as plots are concerned. This situation is created in large part by the primary plot device. Christiana’s multiple personalities give readers and the author quite a bit to deal with. It is an intriguing concept, and Ide handles it quite well so far as it goes. But the side plots involving supporting characters tend to slow things down just a bit, and needlessly so. Ide also goes all-in on political and cultural issues repeatedly and excessively, and the pacing suffers as a result. That said, Hi Five is well worth reading for Ide’s command of language. I underlined or highlighted numerous passages on many pages to memorialize similes, metaphors and descriptions that I found to be quite memorable. Isaiah also continues to be one of the more distinctive characters in contemporary detective fiction, both because of and in spite of the occasional hiccups in this one. The ending may be somewhat open-ended as to the future of the series, but if the conclusion constitutes a new beginning for IQ, I’ll be there for the next round. You should be as well.
While the exploration of multiple personalities is less than commonplace in crime fiction and catches our interest up front, it soon bogs down as IQ and everyone else in the story plays a tedious guessing game of name-the-personality as they manifest with random unpredictability ... Interesting up front, but after a while the gimmick lasts too long and becomes tiresome ... Another problem with the novel is Ide’s writing style. His interpretation of LA noir involves riffing on Chandler’s well-known use of similes to inject a humorous and badass tone to the proceedings. Unfortunately, Ide never met a simile he didn’t like. In fact, like would seem to be his favorite word in the language. After a while, your eye skims the surface of his prose, looking for the next like. They crop up multiple times on a page, often more than once in a single paragraph ... Instead of constantly telling us what something’s like, at some point it might be better just to tell us what it is ... Joe Ide’s fan base continues to dig this kind of writing, and there’s no arguing with taste. L.A. noir has definite expectations it must meet, and over-writing is apparently one of them. But for the rest of the crime fiction-reading public, this stuff just won’t get the job done ... the kind of novel readers will like if they’ve already fallen under IQ’s spell and want more of the same. If they’re coming to Ide’s work fresh off the street, though, they may not get past that can of alphabet soup before dropping this one to look for something else more deserving of their time and attention.
With a convoluted plot that is hard to keep straight, as well as numerous overt political screeds against the current administration, Ide’s fourth IQ novel forsakes a winning cast and excellent storytelling for something less satisfying than a compelling mystery.
... stellar ... Readers will root for Ide’s distinctive lead every step of the way. This innovative series continues to show promise for a long, high-quality run.
