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Max Thursday and Austin Clapp #7
Shoot to Kill
Max Thursday, hard-boiled private investigator, learned that his sweetheart, Merle, and Bliss Weaver, one of his clients, were secretly in love. Then he discovered the strangled corpse of Weaver’s beautiful estranged wife, and San Diego cops insisted Weaver was the killer. Max stumbled on a clue which convinced him of his rival’s innocence. What should he do – let him burn or try to save him and lose Merle.
This is a suspense-filled thriller, in which a tough private eye is torn between his conscience and desires as he nails down a dangerous assignment. – back cover blurb
This is a suspense-filled thriller, in which a tough private eye is torn between his conscience and desires as he nails down a dangerous assignment. – back cover blurb
- GenresNoir
144 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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About the author
Wade Miller
137 books12 followersSee also Bob Wade
Wade Miller is a pen name of two authors, Robert Allison “Bob” Wade (1920-present) and H. Bill Miller (1920-61). The two also wrote under several other pseudonyms, including Whit Masterson and Will Daemer.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1988.
Wade Miller is a pen name of two authors, Robert Allison “Bob” Wade (1920-present) and H. Bill Miller (1920-61). The two also wrote under several other pseudonyms, including Whit Masterson and Will Daemer.
Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1988.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 13, 2025
“Shoot to Kill” (1951) is the final of the six novels in Wade Miller’s Max Thursday private eye series, that includes Guilty Bystander (1947), Fatal Step (1948), Uneasy Street (1948), Calamity Fair (1950), Murder Charge (1960), and Shoot to Kill (1951). “Deadly Weapon” (1946) is often included as a seventh novel in the series, though it includes Homicide Detective Austin Clapp, who is in all the Max Thursday novels, but not Max Thursday himself. The books in this series include Miller’s characteristic chapter headings containing the dates and times of events in the stories.
“Wade Miller” was a pseudonym employed by two childhood friends who eventually developed a writing career together, Robert Wade and Bill Miller. They also wrote together as Will Daemer, Dale Wilmer, and Whit Masterson. They wrote together from 1946 to 1961 when Miller died. After Miller’s untimely death in 1961, Wade (the real Wade) continued writing but used exclusively the Whit Masterson pseudonym for eleven novels or his own real name in two instances (Stroke of Seven and Knave of Eagles). Wade was not quite as successful on his own, and either he did not have the same magic solo or times and tastes had changed. Seven of the novels were made into movies, most famously A Cry in the Night starring Natalie Wood, Touch of Evil starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh and Kitten With a Whip staring the one and only Ann-Margaret.
Each book in the Max Thursday series can be read as a standalone, but there are a handful of continuing characters whose relationships change over time, particularly the relationship between Thursday and crime reporter Merle Osborn, who in “Fatal Step” is someone who is primarily a foil for Thursday, but by the time of “Shoot to Kill” is bemoaning the fact that they have been together four years and have reached a standstill. “We’ve run our course, darling. If you really loved me permanently you’d have seen that we’d gotten married a long time ago,” she tells him.
In fact, she dumps him for a wealthy leading-man type, Bliss Weaver, and a factor in the investigation is the personal lives of these three and Thursday’s uncharacteristic jealousy, resulting in him actually planting evidence to help secure a conviction against Weaver, who has a strong motive for killing his estranged wife (Joyce Shafto) who won’t take any divorce settlement offered, preferring to take half as California is a community property state. Indeed, immediately after Thursday and Weaver come to blows over Merle, Thursday follows Weaver to his wife’s apartment only to find her lying on the floor, clearly recently deceased. “Joyce Shafto wasn’t a pretty woman any more.”
Thursday, at this point, works on his own, but has four part-time operatives who he keeps on-call, two were former police matrons, one a retired prison guard, and one an ex-motorcycle patrolman. Merle Osborn, we are told, “was a tall full-figured woman who could be nearly beautiful when she chose, which wasn’t often.”
Thursday eventually comes clean with Detective Clapp, figuring he had the evidence pointing toward the right guy, but at some point even Thursday begins to re-think the murder, coming around to the viewpoint that maybe it wasn’t Weaver after all. Thursday, however, only comes to this conclusion after Weaver escapes custody, there’s an all points bulletin out for him, and a posse of vigilantes led by Kelly Dow are hunting for Weaver.
The key theme in this murder mystery, which has a surprising ending, is the confluence of Thursday’s personal life crossing over and influencing his professional ethics. Miller introduces a series of odd characters in this narrative as well, including the wheelchair-bound madame, Buena Echavez.
At their best, the Thursday novels are pointed single-mindedly at one crime or series of crimes. Thursday is almost always on his own, calm, detached (although not so detached here), and thoughtful.
“Wade Miller” was a pseudonym employed by two childhood friends who eventually developed a writing career together, Robert Wade and Bill Miller. They also wrote together as Will Daemer, Dale Wilmer, and Whit Masterson. They wrote together from 1946 to 1961 when Miller died. After Miller’s untimely death in 1961, Wade (the real Wade) continued writing but used exclusively the Whit Masterson pseudonym for eleven novels or his own real name in two instances (Stroke of Seven and Knave of Eagles). Wade was not quite as successful on his own, and either he did not have the same magic solo or times and tastes had changed. Seven of the novels were made into movies, most famously A Cry in the Night starring Natalie Wood, Touch of Evil starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh and Kitten With a Whip staring the one and only Ann-Margaret.
Each book in the Max Thursday series can be read as a standalone, but there are a handful of continuing characters whose relationships change over time, particularly the relationship between Thursday and crime reporter Merle Osborn, who in “Fatal Step” is someone who is primarily a foil for Thursday, but by the time of “Shoot to Kill” is bemoaning the fact that they have been together four years and have reached a standstill. “We’ve run our course, darling. If you really loved me permanently you’d have seen that we’d gotten married a long time ago,” she tells him.
In fact, she dumps him for a wealthy leading-man type, Bliss Weaver, and a factor in the investigation is the personal lives of these three and Thursday’s uncharacteristic jealousy, resulting in him actually planting evidence to help secure a conviction against Weaver, who has a strong motive for killing his estranged wife (Joyce Shafto) who won’t take any divorce settlement offered, preferring to take half as California is a community property state. Indeed, immediately after Thursday and Weaver come to blows over Merle, Thursday follows Weaver to his wife’s apartment only to find her lying on the floor, clearly recently deceased. “Joyce Shafto wasn’t a pretty woman any more.”
Thursday, at this point, works on his own, but has four part-time operatives who he keeps on-call, two were former police matrons, one a retired prison guard, and one an ex-motorcycle patrolman. Merle Osborn, we are told, “was a tall full-figured woman who could be nearly beautiful when she chose, which wasn’t often.”
Thursday eventually comes clean with Detective Clapp, figuring he had the evidence pointing toward the right guy, but at some point even Thursday begins to re-think the murder, coming around to the viewpoint that maybe it wasn’t Weaver after all. Thursday, however, only comes to this conclusion after Weaver escapes custody, there’s an all points bulletin out for him, and a posse of vigilantes led by Kelly Dow are hunting for Weaver.
The key theme in this murder mystery, which has a surprising ending, is the confluence of Thursday’s personal life crossing over and influencing his professional ethics. Miller introduces a series of odd characters in this narrative as well, including the wheelchair-bound madame, Buena Echavez.
At their best, the Thursday novels are pointed single-mindedly at one crime or series of crimes. Thursday is almost always on his own, calm, detached (although not so detached here), and thoughtful.
March 6, 2020
Shoot To Kill is the last of the Max Thursday mysteries. I'd like to know why the two writer's (Bob Wade and Bill Miller) decided to step away from Max. I thought they were some of the best of the 50's private eye stories, yes, even on a par with Raymond Chandler, in my opinion.
This one starts with Max and his girlfriend Merle, going through the motions of a relationship that has passed it's prime. When suddenly Merle's new boyfriend shows up things get heated. Max and Bliss Weaver (the boyfriend) start fighting and only break off when Merle gets upset. Max leaves only to wait outside to finish the fight. When Max follows Bliss he discovers that Bliss goes to his estranged wife's place, thinking that Bliss is up to make Merle out a fool, he goes up to the apartment, but Bliss is leaving already, Max hides and when Bliss has gone Max walks up to discover a dead woman in the apartment. From this beginning a quite entangled, yet logical mystery is weaved. I enjoyed all six of the Max Thursday novels. There is a 7th (the first, Deadly Weapon) that uses the head of Homicide, Austin Clapp, but not Max. There was some good writing within this whole series.
This one starts with Max and his girlfriend Merle, going through the motions of a relationship that has passed it's prime. When suddenly Merle's new boyfriend shows up things get heated. Max and Bliss Weaver (the boyfriend) start fighting and only break off when Merle gets upset. Max leaves only to wait outside to finish the fight. When Max follows Bliss he discovers that Bliss goes to his estranged wife's place, thinking that Bliss is up to make Merle out a fool, he goes up to the apartment, but Bliss is leaving already, Max hides and when Bliss has gone Max walks up to discover a dead woman in the apartment. From this beginning a quite entangled, yet logical mystery is weaved. I enjoyed all six of the Max Thursday novels. There is a 7th (the first, Deadly Weapon) that uses the head of Homicide, Austin Clapp, but not Max. There was some good writing within this whole series.
November 28, 2012
Robert Wade and William Miller, who together became Wade Miller and Whit Masterson, were lifelong crime writers, and masters of, especially, the private investigator genre. Shoot to Kill, featuring PI Max Thursday (created prior to Joe Friday), written sixty years ago, exemplifies their art and craft. While the story delivers us to another time, in a long gone San Diego, the characters are alive, as complex as a mystery allows, and the themes and concerns are as vital as ever.
The team's most-acclaimed novel “Badge of Evil,” was made into a 1958 Orson Welles film, “Touch of Evil,” generally considered one of the best crime movies ever.
The team's most-acclaimed novel “Badge of Evil,” was made into a 1958 Orson Welles film, “Touch of Evil,” generally considered one of the best crime movies ever.
August 2, 2012
Max Tuesday is in another jam; solve a case and lose his girl. Plenty of characters and plot twists that kept me reading. Some scenes seem forced. Recommended to hard-boiled and noir fans.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews