Stark House has struck gold again with THE KILLER / DEVIL ON TWO STICKS, reprinting two novels from Wade Miller, aka the writing team of Bob Wade and Bill Miller — the duo best known for writing the book that TOUCH OF EVIL is based upon. This collection starts with a brief introduction from Wade, who is truly pleased with this volume’s selection of stories, since both he and his partner considered them their best work. Also, as he states, one could not be more different from the other.

Following is David Laurence Wilson’s detailed history of their writing partnership. It’s truly one of the best pieces that have been attached to a Stark House release thus far, and Wilson needs to be given a lot of credit for such a detailed and engaging history of the team.

In his brief intro, Wade refers to 1951’s THE KILLER as a modern Western. That description totally fits this riff on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. Jake Farrow, a big game hunter who lives in Africa, is approached by a man named Walter Stennis about a job opportunity with a huge payday for tracking down bank robber Clel Bocock, who killed a young man with ties to Stennis.

Farrow is sent on this hunting expedition with only the thinnest of leads, taking him on a journey to the bayous to meet with Clel’s family and his estranged wife Margaret, who wants nothing to do Farrow. It turns out Farrow is not the only interested party with finding Clel; it seems some of his business associates believe they are entitled to the bonds as well.

This drives the story through a game of hunters on the path, only to have the tables turned. As soon as Farrow makes any progress, it’s Clel’s wife who is there to throw him off the trail. This includes Farrow getting a visit from his competitors, which ends in the train yards. When he is finally on the right trail, he’s only slowed down further by some overanxious police who are led to believe he is one of Clel’s men.

In the final showdown, our hunter meets his prey, only for our writing team to switch gears on us in a major way with such a well-hidden reveal. This plot plays so well for one close to 60 years old, especially since it does not play on simple action to drive it, but more on the human aspect of the people involved and the choices they make that will follow them.

Melodramatic noir: Does that makes sense? It’s the perfect way to describe 1949’s DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. Steve Beck is the problem solver for a San Diego-run crime syndicate. The problem he needs to clean up is a rat in the operation. But who’s the culprit? Beck has to find out. He figures it should be easy enough, going through the detailed files the boss has on all of them.

But things change radically for Beck, when he falls harder than a man off a bridge with concrete shoes for one of the suspects’ daughters. Sadly for him, it’s not mutual. She’s more interested in one of his fellow suspects. What’s a tough guy to do?

This is more of a soap opera then a shoot-’em-up, relying heavily on dialogue in this little psych drama. Adding to all this is that Beck doesn’t even know if he can go through with it. By that I mean, will he be able to piece it altogether and then shoot the culprit? The story is so driven by drama that most readers won’t realize how little action that takes place. It’s more abut tough guys going through their emotions than barreling through doors. For a book that came out so long ago, it’s as if it could have been written today. That just shows the talent that Wade and Miller posessed in their style and story structure.

Stark House not only delivers with another fantastic reissue, but has really given crime fans something fraught with discussion topics to chew on for years to come. Not many crime novels can lay claim to that. —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• KISS HER GOODBYE by Wade Miller
• TOUCH OF EVIL by Whit Masterson