WRECKED author Joe Ide returns to Authors on the Air with Pam Stack

Authors on the Air host Pam Stack welcomes JOE IDE back to the studio for a discussion about the third book in his IQ series, WRECKED.

About Joe:  Growing up, Mr. Ide lived in two worlds: At home, his stern grandfather collected samurai swords and spoke no English; outside he had mostly black friends. He was never completely at ease in either place, but the experience taught him how to decipher people and how to blend in. He didn’t even blink when I asked whether he hesitated to write books about almost exclusively black characters. “Never occurred to me,” he said.  This outsider sensibility combined with a deep knowledge of those South Central streets helped Mr. Ide many decades later when he sat down to write his first novel, about a cerebral private investigator who solves crimes in a community just like the one where he grew up.  

Joe was in his mid-50s when he decided to draw on that rough world of his youth and meld it with his childhood obsession with Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. About Sherlock, hwe said: “I identified with him. He’s a loner. What was most powerful was that just by virtue of his intelligence, he could face this world and not be afraid.” 

About WRECKED: 

Isaiah Quintabe--IQ for short--has never been more successful, or felt more alone. So when a young painter approaches IQ for help tracking down her missing mother, it's not just the case Isaiah's looking for, but the human connection. And when his new confidant turns out to be connected to a dangerous paramilitary operation, IQ falls victim to a threat even a genius can't see coming.     Waiting for Isaiah around every corner is Seb, the Oxford-educated African gangster who was responsible for the death of his brother, Marcus. Only, this time, Isaiah's not alone.