Joe Ide, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

This is the third book in the IQ series, IQ being the nickname of Isaiah Quintabe, a young black man living in LA who earns a crust by solving crimes. The Watson to his Holmes is Dodson, a former drug-dealer who is trying to get their fledgling business on track after a series of badly paid jobs. But when Grace, a skint artist, tasks IQ with finding her mother, who has been on the run for 10 years, he can’t resist taking the case. This time around the bad guys are former soldiers who served in Iraq and got up to all sorts of criminality in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. They’re not shy in dishing out violence and, using the best surveillance money can by, they are also on the hunt for Grace’s mother. As usual, the author throws plenty of sub-plots into the mix, as well a colourful roster of characters that come straight out of Grand Theft Auto central casting, and, despite the odd plot contrivance, he keeps the pace bubbling enthusiastically right through to the satisfying pay-off.