Ace of Diamonds — Mark Schorr

The second Red Diamond private eye novel sees the detective, actually a delusional New York cab driver, solving a mystery in Las Vegas. Red thinks he's a 1940s private investigator, and is willing to take on organized crime in his quest for his lady love, Fifi La Roche. He believes that arch villain Rocco Rico is behind all the problems. With skills picked up from reading countless pulp detective novels, confidence born of insanity, his cabbie skills, and a dollop of good luck, Red takes on the Herculean task of cleaning up the town that Bugsy Siegel built.Long out of print, the series earned rave reviews when published in the 1980s. The New York Times, Newsday, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Daily News, Library Journal, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, New York Daily News, and Dallas Times Herald all praised the series as imaginative, funny, and an addition to the genre.Mark Schorr is the author of 11 novels, all in the mystery or thriller genre. The first Red Diamond was nominated for an Edgar. The books have been published in France, Spain and Japan, and optioned multiple times by Hollywood film makers.