[crutledge]

Ed Lacy (August 25, 1911 - January 7, 1968), born Leonard "Len" S. Zinberg, was an American writer of crime and detective fiction. Lacy, who was white, is credited with creating "the first credible African-American PI" character in fiction, Toussaint "Touie" Marcus Moore. Room to Swing, his 1957 novel that introduced Touie Moore, received the 1958 Edgar Award for Best Novel.
Lacy was born in New York City. He was a member of the League of American Writers, and served on its Keep America Out of War Committee in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact. He died of a heart attack in Harlem in 1968, at the age of 56.

Excerpt
That Saturday night we started fighting over a cup of coffee and a couple of bucks. It was after midnight and we'd seen two crummy pictures at some 86th Street theatre, if one can call a neighborhood movie house a theatre. Flo and I were “trying it again”—for a few days we had been enjoying one of our periodic reunions, complete with much kissing, tears, and a good deal of genuine love.