Independence Hall (I,Q #1) by Roland Smith

Fame has arrived for rockers Blaze and Roger! Just married, leaving Los Angeles, and touring the United States with teenagers Q (Quest) and Angela in tow, the excitement heightens in Philadelphia when Angela realizes she's being followed. Q soon learns the secret about Angela's real mother - a former Secret Service agent.
Readers are thrust into current issues affecting the world in this edge-of- your-seat, modern-day mystery adventure. I, Q readers will be immersed in the work of U.S. Secret Service, the Mossad, and the MI5. But who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? What happens to this newly formed family if Angela's mom is not dead?

IQ is very unique, it has many entertaining aspects. IQ: Independence Hall has high tech gadgets, aliases, danger, death and espionage. This book followed Quest and his new step sister Angela Tucker as their lives turned from fun to frightening. Just as they had adjusted to life on the road with their parent’s band tour; Angela noticed that she was being followed. Their whole way of life unraveled when they discovered that their traveling RV mechanic (Boone) was a retired CIA operative and Angela’s mom, Malak, was alive. The problem with that was, Malak (a secret service agent) was declared dead years ago. Q and Angela were not the only ones who knew though, a huge terrorist cell knew; they weren’t going to rest until she was dead. They barely had enough time to grasp all this new information when an attempt on their lives was taken. Can they save her mom from the terrorists before it is too late? Or will they pay for her freedom with their lives?

Roland Smith has done a fantastic job at this realistic fiction book. Bravo is one word that comes to mind. It did a wonderful job of revealing terrorism in America without getting gory. However, the book is so realistic, that whenever Angela’s mom was mentioned (especially the way she died) I found myself reliving that awful morning, Tuesday September 11, 2001. Maybe it didn’t happen to you; maybe you didn’t see it on the news. For me however, the video was seemingly burned into my mind in slow motion. IQ is an excellent book (and I am looking forward to the sequel), but it is realistic fiction. If you were severely affected by terrorism or 9/11, maybe this isn’t the book for you. Or maybe it would be therapeutic to read about two teens fighting terrorism. This is for you to decide.