In this paper, a quasi-orthogonal space time block coding (QO-STBC) scheme with maximum likelihood (ML) decoding via simple linear and single-complex-symbol detection is proposed. We present a fast and simple linear decode processing by embedding a transformed signal space. The method benefits from the reduced maximum likelihood decoding complexity via the pre-interleaving to QO-STBC. We also proposed codes with 3/4 of the full transmission rate for the specific cases of 8 transmit antennas. Finally, the numerical results show the proficiency of our design procedure, demonstrating that significant improvements in BER are achievable when the rate or receive antennas increases.