In this hotly anticipated follow-up to the smash hit IQ, a New York Times Critics' Best of the Year and nominee for the Best First Novel Edgar Award, Isaiah uncovers a secret behind the death of his brother, Marcus.

For ten years, something has gnawed at Isaiah Quintabe's gut and kept him up nights, boiling with anger and thoughts of revenge. Ten years ago, when Isaiah was just a boy, his brother was killed by an unknown assailant. The search for the killer sent Isaiah plunging into despair and nearly destroyed his life. Even with a flourishing career, a new dog, and near-iconic status as a PI in his hometown, East Long Beach, he has to begin the hunt again-or lose his mind.

A case takes him and his volatile, dubious sidekick, Dodson, to Vegas, where Chinese gangsters and a terrifying seven-foot loan shark are stalking a DJ and her screwball boyfriend. If Isaiah doesn't find the two first, they'll be murdered. Awaiting the outcome is the love of IQ's life: fail, and he'll lose her. Isaiah's quest is fraught with treachery, menace, and startling twists, and it will lead him to the mastermind behind his brother's death, Isaiah's own sinister Moriarty.

With even more action, suspense, and mind-bending mysteries than Isaiah's first adventures, Righteous is a rollicking, ingenious thrill ride.

This title is Otto Penzler's favorite book for November. Here's his review, from our newsletter:

With last year’s IQ, newcomer Joe Ide introduced the world to Isaiah Quintabe, the young African American detective that the author describes as “Sherlock Holmes in the ‘hood.” A high school dropout in one of Los Angeles’s toughest neighborhoods, Quintabe is a genius puzzle-solver who investigates the crimes that the LAPD often ignores. In his second outing, IQ takes on two deeply personal investigations simultaneously: having discovered evidence that his brother’s hit-and-run death years before may have been murder, he searches for the killer. Meanwhile, his endeavor to help a long-time flame get her sister out of gambling debts brings Isaiah face-to-face with a deadly gang of Chinese Triads and a human trafficking operation. Deftly plotted and rendered with a sharp ear for spoken language, this installment in the IQ series shows that the character and his author are here to stay.

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