james.doherty@gsa.gov
Wed, 22 Dec 1999 08:30:37 -0600
From: <rara-avis@icomm.ca>
AT internet on 12/22/99 08:31 AM EST
To: rara-avis@icomm.ca AT AT
internet@ccMTA-GEMS-MTA-01 cc: (bcc: James W.
Doherty/5PS-1D/R05/GSA/GOV)
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Wade Miller
Frank wrote:
"Does Anyone out there have any biographical information on
Wade Miller?"
"Wade Miller" is the joint pseudonym of two close friends in
San Diego who wrote mysteries in the post-war era. Their real
names were Robert Wade and William Miller. As "Wade Miller"
they are best-known for the Max Thursday series of PI novels,
widely regarded as one of the best post-war PI series. They
also wrote as "Dale Wilmer," and, at least once, as "Bob Wade
and Bill Miller." The best-known pseudonym aside from "Wade
Miller" is "Whit Masterson," under which they wrote *Badge of
Evil*, which became the film
*Touch of Evil*. After Miller died in the early '60s, Wade
carried on alone under the Masterson pseudonym. The
"Masterson" persona is most asscoiated with police novels. *A
Hammer in His Hand* was one of the very first procedurals to
feature a policewoman as the protagonist on the trail of a
serial killer, predating *The Silence of the Laambs* over
twenty years. On his own, using the "Masterson" name, Wade
wrote *711 - Officer Needs Help* which became the David
Jansen film *Warning Shot*, and a really fine, underrated cop
novel called *Play Like You're Dead*, which prefigures the
problem of child abduction by non-custodial parents.
I met Wade once at a San Diego Bouchercon. He was receiving
the Life Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of
America. In addition to the occasional novel, he was writing
a mystery review column for one of the local San Diego
papers.
JIM DOHERTY
-- # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Wed 22 Dec 1999 - 09:32:31 EST