Diamond Rock — Mark Schorr

In the 3rd novel featuring Red Diamond, the downtrodden N.Y. cabbie turned hardboiled private eye is living in Los Angeles, and gets drawn into the world of rock and roll. Big Band forties meets big hair eighties, with the quest for lady love Fifi La Roche, and the vile machinations of arch villain Rocco Rico. Gritty, sentimental and deftly written, Diamond is back in print after two decades.

Battling New York traffic is the least of cabbie Simon Jaffe's problems. With a shrewish wife, difficult kids, and the usual middle aged angst, his only escape is reading hard boiled mysteries. Chandler, Hammett, McDonald, Spillane, Parker -- they're good, but nothing beats the Red Diamond private eye series for tough guy patter, bedazzling dames and thuggish villains.
After a traumatic episode, however, he has become Don Quixote in a trenchcoat," the original knight not afraid to brave the mean streets.

When Red Diamond hit the streets in 1983, he earned rave reviews from dozens of newspapers, including 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. He was nominated for a Mystery Writers of America Edgar, and has been praised by numerous bloggers. Books were translated into French, Spanish, and Japanese, and the story optioned by Hollywood multiple times. Perhaps due to Rocco Rico, it never made it all the way to the screen.