The Goodbye Coast

One of the Wall Street Journal's Best Mystery Novels of the Year
One of Apple's Best Books of the Year

“How the hell do you write a mystery about Philip Marlowe, set it in Los Angeles, and still make it a total gobsmacking original? That’s the miracle of Joe Ide’s The Goodbye Coast. Ide has created a Philip Marlowe for the 2020s. And an L.A. that he clearly loves and hates.” 

"Not so much a reimagining of Chandler's world as a reinvigoration. By transplanting Philip Marlowe to 2021 LA, Joe Ide has chiseled off the rust while keeping the soul of one of American fiction’s icons. The Goodbye Coast is a blast from start to finish.”
 

"Sunshine and skullduggery, movie stars and mayhem -- Joe Ide brings us a Philip Marlowe who wears our twenty-first century like a well-cut suit."

"Raymond Chandler may have inspired him, but this Phillip Marlowe is all Joe Ide. I loved this sexy, twisted, complicated Marlowe--he's a perfect match for Ide's sexy, twisted, complicated City of Angels. What a gripping kick-ass book!"

Every character has great lines, and the descriptions alone make the story worth reading…. There is tension, violence, humor, and a bit of sadness, with romance just out of the hero’s reach. This one’s witty, clever, and fun, and it’s worthy of the great Raymond Chandler.”

"instead of emulating Chandler’s stylized first-person point of view, Ide used his trademark propulsive third-person narrative, entering the heads of multiple characters, including Marlowe’s father, Emmet, an aging LAPD officer, and Cody, a client’s missing teenage daughter. The prose is pure Ide, infused with whip-smart dialogue and fast-moving scenes throughout iconic Southern California hangouts."

"At first I was unsure about Emmet — his character seemed so outside of my idea of Marlowe. But through him Ide offers a thoughtful look at how Marlowe might have come to be the man he is, both in Chandler's books and in this one. It's good to have him back.”

"The talented Joe Ide… manifests Marlowe in the form of a present-day private investigator…. The laugh-out-loud dialogue, the vivid similes, the complicated story and the set-piece subplots are all vintage Chandler. The gripping flashbacks, the adrenaline-pumping action and the heart-piercing poignance show Mr. Ide at his best. ‘The Goodbye Coast’ delivers the distilled essence of both authors for the price of one."

"If you haven’t yet read Joe Ide’s imagining of Philip Marlowe in “The Goodbye Coast,” you ought to."

“With deft precision and the knowledge of a lifelong L.A. resident, Ide effortlessly inhabits the Marlowe character. Just as Chandler before him, Ide paints a gritty picture of contemporary L.A. and its inhabitants, while also allowing the reader to understand why a character like Marlowe tries so hard to fight back against those darker forces.”
 

“This version of Raymond Chandler's iconic PI patrols the mean streets of contemporary Los Angeles, and while he shares the original's bone-deep iconoclasm, he's distinctly his own man, complete with a rich backstory… The sleuthing here is top notch, but it's the bantering father-son interplay (evoking Jim Rockford and father Rocky in The Rockford Files) that really gives the book its zip. More Marlowe and Emmet would be most welcome.” 
 

"This is one gritty-to-the-core novel, as clever as a Sherlock Holmes tale, and a rollercoaster thrill ride the entire way through."

Ide (the IQ series) reimagines Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled sleuth, Philip Marlowe, as a contemporary PI… Ide’s fans will appreciate the humor and evocative descriptions of L.A.”

PRAISE FOR THE IQ NOVELS:
"Joe Ide's IQ novels are an electrifying combination of Holmesian mystery and SoCal grit."

"Ide is still the hottest of recently-emerged crime writers. He has populated Southern California with wildly entertaining characters, from those hinted at offstage to the motormouths whose priceless talk fills his pages."

"As far as I'm concerned, Joe Ide can't write them fast enough."

"Joe Ide expands the territory of L.A. noir."