Red Diamond, Private Eye

Red Diamond #1

by Mark Schorr

When trouble gets his name and address, a New York cabbie with the heard of Sam Spade gets a new ID - RED DIAMOND, PRIVATE EYE. Edgar award Nominee — THE BROAD HAD MORE MILES ON HER THAN THE N.J. TURNPIKE... — And so did the cab Simon Jaffe hacked around New York every day. But at night he went home to another world, his collection of the pulps: Black Mask and Crime Busters, Mickey Spillane and Same Spade. And especially Red Diamond, the ex-cop turned private eye who took on the tough guys with his .38 cocked, his fists at the ready, and a blond named Fifi at his side.

Then came the fateful afternoon when his wife hocked his entire collection and sent Simon over the edge - and onto the mean streets with a new identity: Red Diamond, PI. Now he was out there in the naked city looking for Fifi and getting his first deadly lessons in the ABCs: A for A crazy blue-eyed dame, B for the Big Boys, and C for coke, crime...and corpses.

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Mark Schorr is the author of 11 previous published mysteries/thrillers. He was nominated for an Edgar award, had books published in France, Spain and Japan, and had three books optioned by Hollywood. He’s also the author of hundreds of articles, with work published in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Esquire, and The Oregonian. He’s been on staff for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, USA Today, CBS and NBC.
Aside from his work as a writer, he’s been a bookstore manager, a bouncer at Studio 54, a private investigator, an international courier, a crisis de-escalation trainer, and a decoy during training for TSA’s bomb-sniffing dogs.
He is currently a mental health and addictions counselor in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picture a hardboiled 30s detective like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe if he were in present day (well, 1980s) New York, constantly cracking wise and calling dames broads and broads dames. That’s basically what the premise boils down to here, as down-on-his-luck NYC cabbie Simon Jaffe has a sudden break from reality and takes up the persona of the stereotypical private eye from all the old pulps that he obsesses over. He incorporates the numerous stories into his own identity, believing they’re his actual memories. Turns out, reading old crime magazines and novels can make you a skilled PI in the real world.

At first I didn’t jibe too well with this book, finding the incessant tough guy lingo a bit grating. But then I started viewing it more as a parody of the genre, and everything just clicked. It’s pretty damn hilarious at times, especially when Jaffe would be relating an old case (usually something outrageous from the pulps) to some random pimp or crooked cop, and they’d be thinking he was a delusional lunatic while he himself assumes he’s being perceived as a badass. Some of the situations he finds himself in are ridiculous, yet at the same time serious and deadly dangerous.

Overall, it’s funny, fast-paced and well written, with memorable characters and some rather tense scenes sprinkled throughout. An excellent tribute to classic noir, and I’ll certainly be continuing the series. Too bad there are only two more.

Thanks again to Jordan West for the rec.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The unique central idea in this wonderfully written debut, is a must for pulp fans. Poignant, nostalgic and wickedly funny. I'm smiling thinking about this book again......

[SB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh man, great setup to a series that I ended up really liking: a 1980s NY sadsack cabbie gets pushed over the edge when his wife sells his collection of pulp detective novels, the only bright spot in his life. That, plus a bump on the head, transforms him into one of his favorite fictional detective, Red Diamond. He spends the rest of the series getting involved in, and solving, crimes that he has no business getting near. But because he has the “nothing can touch me” mindset of a pulp detective, he ends up successfully taking down major criminals/syndicates. All while his wife (and her divorce lawyer) and kids periodically try to bring him back to reality. Highly recommend this trio of books.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a particularly great novel. A real rare read.

[Books On Your Radar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious & brilliant. This book was witty, punchy, and very entertaining to read. A great satire written in a hard-boiled detective manner. Our hero, Red Diamond, is Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther) meets Harry Canyon (Heavy Metal).

Due to an overall dissatisfaction with the way the cards were dealt for New York cabbie, Simon Jaffee, compounded a tragic event & the evaporation of his one solace in life; when Simon's wife clears out his collection of detective paper backs and pulps. It forces our protagonist to play a new hand and assume the persona of his favorite hard-boiled detective hero, Red Diamond, which springs him into a series of misadventures, infiltrating a new strata of society. He is on a mission to find Fifi and he knows Rocco Rico is behind it all. Who? You'll just have to find out.

[Victoria & David Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was fun.
Some people read to disappear into a book.
Some people read for what they can get out of a book.
But what if you were so deeply into a genre (such as pulp fiction)
that you couldn't get back out because your dearly beloved had sold your entire collection.
Suddenly and with no warning.
You might discover, like our hero, that
1930s and 1940s genre reality and 1980s New York and L.A. reality are really not so far apart after all.
But there is a bit of a blur.
Fast paced and humorous.

[Sam Burns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book. Red Diamond is the greatest fictionally fictional (it makes sense if you read it) detective there ever was.