THRILLERS GEOFFREY WANSELL
IQ by Joe Ide (W&N £8.99)
THiS is one of the most remarkable debuts i’ve read this year, written by a Japanese-American who grew up in los Angeles loving Sherlock Holmes.
its central character is a loner and high school dropout called isaiah Quintabe — iQ — who takes on cases the police can’t or won’t touch. On the surface he is quiet, almost geeky, but that disguises a fearsome native intelligence and determination.
Even more useful is that he started out as a successful burglar who specialised in unlikely targets. Rumours of iQ’s abilities spread among the locals, who ask him to solve crimes that no one else will, until he gets the case of a black rap star being pursued by a hitman whom even other hit men think is a lunatic.
Deliciously quirky, written with exceptional panache and a fine ear for dialogue, it introduces the world to an lA private detective who might just become the Holmes of the 21st century.
HERE AND GONE by Haylen Beck
(Harvill Secker £12.99) A SUpERB Stephen King-style thriller from northern irish author Stuart neville, here writing under a pseudonym.
A woman and her two children have finally left her abusive husband and are driving across the Arizona desert to begin a new life, taking backroads in case he comes searching for them.
But the flight turns into a disaster as she encounters a crooked sheriff and deputy who falsely accuse her of carrying marijuana, abduct her children and throw her in jail, while insisting that she never had any children with her in the first place.
Her son and daughter are clearly to be trafficked, but can she convince the FBi that she had nothing to do with their disappearance? There are echoes of King’s Misery in this rollercoaster of a ride, complete with agonising tension and a heroine you can’t help rooting for. it deserves to be a best-seller.
THE FREEDOM BROKER by K. J. Howe
(Headline £14.99) THiS breakneck debut introduces Thea paris, a leading kidnapping and hostage negotiator and daughter of a greek oil billionaire, whose elder brother was kidnapped when he was 11 and held for nine months, which accounts for her decision to become the only woman in this dangerous business.
The story opens in Africa, only to shift rapidly to greece where her father is about to celebrate his birthday. Suddenly the billionaire is abducted and his daughter swings into full professional mode. The kidnap comes just days before a series of negotiations the tycoon is due to conduct with an African government to exploit a giant oil field.
Besides telling a breathtakingly fast story, Howe also highlights the fact that 40,000 people are reported kidnapped each year, and the number is growing steadily. This makes the book even more compelling, for it rings absolutely true.