Hi Five by Joe Ide: A review

I decided to give Joe Ide another chance after being somewhat disappointed by Righteous which I read a couple of months ago. I'm glad I did. This one was a definite improvement. It had an interesting plot and well-developed characters and Ide's protagonist, Isaiah Quintabe (IQ), comes into clearer focus in this one.

Angus Byrne is one of the biggest, maybe the biggest, dealers in illicit arms sales on the West Coast, and his right-hand man has just been murdered, mowed down while in Angus's daughter Christiana's boutique shop where he was having a suit fitted. There seem to be few clues and the police are focusing on Christiana as their number one suspect.

This is an unacceptable situation for Angus for several reasons; first and foremost because she is his daughter. He is desperate to have her cleared and free of the police's gaze because she really could not withstand such investigation. Christiana was abused as a child and the result is that now she suffers from multiple personality disorder. She is inhabited by at least five distinct personalities. She was present and a witness at the murder, but the first question is, which personality was actually there and what did she or he see?

Angus is not content to simply approach IQ and hire him to investigate; instead, he must coerce him. IQ has a new girlfriend who is a talented violinist. Angus threatens to crush her hands so badly she'll never be able to play again unless IQ can clear his daughter.

Isaiah has no doubt that the old man will fulfill his threat and he sets about trying to find out what really happened at the shop and hoping that that will prove Christiana innocent. At first, he doesn't understand that she has multiple personalities. When he does come to understand that, he is flummoxed. How will he ever be able to even interview all the personalities to find out which one was there and what she or he saw?

In his desperation, he calls on his old friend and former partner, Dodson, to help out. Then, to complicate matters even further, Grace, the love of Isaiah's life, returns to town from Arizona. And it turns out that Angus is deeply into the white supremacist movement and he and his followers are constantly at war with the Hispanic and Asian gangs, as well as the African-American gangs in the East Long Beach area of Los Angeles. Why then did he go out of his way to hire a black detective to clear his daughter? Maybe there were no lily whites available or maybe IQ is the best and Angus only hires the best.

Joe Ide tells a complicated tale, maybe even a little more complicated than it had to be, but he hooked me early on and I was engrossed right up to the conclusion. Yes, this one was definitely better than Righteous.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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