What do you think?
Rate this book
Kitten With A Whip
You could always blame it on the heat.... David Patton wakes to a real San Diego scorcher. His wife Virginia and daughter Katie are visiting his mother-in-law in San Francisco, giving him a wild sense of freedom for the weekend. What he doesn't expect this overheated morning is to find a teenage runaway rummaging through his daughter's bedroom. Jody Drew is just 17 but already knows the power she has over men. David tries to be the gentleman and give her the break she's never had but Jody doesn't want David's help--she wants David. Not only him, but his home, his money, and a chance to kick back at life. She knows the buttons to push to keep him in line and she's not afraid to use them. Jody's got the whip and David is headed for a weekend in Hell.
NOTE: Cover image on this edition is of Tuesday Weld.
NOTE: Cover image on this edition is of Tuesday Weld.
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
About the author
Wade Miller
135 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 24, 2020
Most people are only familiar with "Kitten With A Whip" (1959) because it later became a famous motion picture in 1964 starring Ann-Margret and was her first movie to feature her as an actress rather than primarily as a singer doing duets with Elvis. However, it was first a terrific novel by the writing team of Wade Miller (a team actually of two writers).
The plot is fairly simple. David Patton is a mild-mannered aerospace engineer, all alone in his ranch home in San Diego while his wife and daughter are in San Francisco visiting his mother-in-law. It is the middle of a Southern California heat wave: "a mammoth high pressure squatted like an octopus and sent its tentacles of scorching air groping for the Pacific." It is explained in the first chapter that: "The heat touched the people too, turning some of them a little wild. Some were awakening amorous, to snuggle against their perspiring mates. Others were awakening unrested and vengeful, looking for injustice and ready to snap angrily at it." The heat gets turned on when Patton awakens only to hear a teenage girl who had violently escaped from a juvenile detention camp in his home. Acting as a good Samaritan, Patton tries to help her and winds up with a big headache. She doesn't want to leave, puts on his wife's negligee and cologne, plops in his lap so dressed when he talks to his wife on the phone, and threatens to claim rape and assault if he calls the police.
Eventually, she has a gang of juvenile youths join her in his home and the story rockets to a shocking conclusion. Although the idea of the teenage temptress in Patton's home, beguiling him and alternately threatening him, seems at first blush to be a bit corny, the team of Wade Miller manages to pull it off as a good thriller and gives these characters enough life and depth that it works. It is not quite as pulpy as you would expect until deep into the story, but it is a good story nonetheless.
The plot is fairly simple. David Patton is a mild-mannered aerospace engineer, all alone in his ranch home in San Diego while his wife and daughter are in San Francisco visiting his mother-in-law. It is the middle of a Southern California heat wave: "a mammoth high pressure squatted like an octopus and sent its tentacles of scorching air groping for the Pacific." It is explained in the first chapter that: "The heat touched the people too, turning some of them a little wild. Some were awakening amorous, to snuggle against their perspiring mates. Others were awakening unrested and vengeful, looking for injustice and ready to snap angrily at it." The heat gets turned on when Patton awakens only to hear a teenage girl who had violently escaped from a juvenile detention camp in his home. Acting as a good Samaritan, Patton tries to help her and winds up with a big headache. She doesn't want to leave, puts on his wife's negligee and cologne, plops in his lap so dressed when he talks to his wife on the phone, and threatens to claim rape and assault if he calls the police.
Eventually, she has a gang of juvenile youths join her in his home and the story rockets to a shocking conclusion. Although the idea of the teenage temptress in Patton's home, beguiling him and alternately threatening him, seems at first blush to be a bit corny, the team of Wade Miller manages to pull it off as a good thriller and gives these characters enough life and depth that it works. It is not quite as pulpy as you would expect until deep into the story, but it is a good story nonetheless.
September 3, 2023
08/2021
From 1959
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I want to read more by Wade Miller, who is apparently two people (like Ellery Queen). Really good.
This novel is a paranoid male fantasy if ever there was one. Myth of the teenaged femme fatale. As such it is brilliant. I know about the Ann Margaret movie, but I've never seen it.
From 1959
I thoroughly enjoyed this. I want to read more by Wade Miller, who is apparently two people (like Ellery Queen). Really good.
This novel is a paranoid male fantasy if ever there was one. Myth of the teenaged femme fatale. As such it is brilliant. I know about the Ann Margaret movie, but I've never seen it.
November 28, 2013
Classic noir setup. Take a somewhat bored, middle-aged suburbanite and a weekend alone while his wife and daughter visit an ailing grandmother, throw in a psychotic teenage sex kitten on the lam from juvie, and you got shenanigans galore.
The fun of this novel is that David, the middle-aged suburbanite, is something of a chump in the claws of Jody, our sex kitten. He thinks he's got the world by the reins, but he's sadly out of his league against Jody. She twists and torments him to increasing levels of intensity throughout the novel, mostly due to his own folly.
This is my first Wade Miller novel, and I was surprised at the level of writing here for what is essentially a simple plot. There are probably a few to many coincidences in play, but that's part of the pulp/noir rules.
My edition is part of a two-fer from Stark House Press. Recommended for paperback noir fans.
The fun of this novel is that David, the middle-aged suburbanite, is something of a chump in the claws of Jody, our sex kitten. He thinks he's got the world by the reins, but he's sadly out of his league against Jody. She twists and torments him to increasing levels of intensity throughout the novel, mostly due to his own folly.
This is my first Wade Miller novel, and I was surprised at the level of writing here for what is essentially a simple plot. There are probably a few to many coincidences in play, but that's part of the pulp/noir rules.
My edition is part of a two-fer from Stark House Press. Recommended for paperback noir fans.
July 12, 2020
In many ways this is a brilliant little novel of how life can spin out of control so easily: a home intruder gets the upper hand, choices are made, the slope gets slippery, until the inevitable slide to the bottom. Loved the first two-thirds, which was tense and kept increasing the tension with every scene, but the conclusion cost this a five-star rating. Although the plot is front and center, there is plenty of psychological depth as the protagonist is constantly weighing his choices and evaluating his own shortcomings.
Made into an excellent B-movie in 1964 with Ann Margaret and John Forsythe and for the most fun, be sure to watch the treatment given by Mystery Science 3000!
Made into an excellent B-movie in 1964 with Ann Margaret and John Forsythe and for the most fun, be sure to watch the treatment given by Mystery Science 3000!
September 27, 2020
If Gold Medal paperbacks were organized like porn sites, this one could be found using the keywords: femdom and teen. Wade Miller sets out to both satisfy your fetish and teach you a lesson.
The prey is David Patton: family man, good citizen, and good guy. He tries to do the right thing and help some JD predators. He tries to understand the root causes of their antisocial behavior. He might have even voted for Adlai Stevenson in 56. A first-class sucker like this needs to suffer. He does, but .
The prey is David Patton: family man, good citizen, and good guy. He tries to do the right thing and help some JD predators. He tries to understand the root causes of their antisocial behavior. He might have even voted for Adlai Stevenson in 56. A first-class sucker like this needs to suffer. He does, but .
Want to Read
March 22, 2019Synopsis: David wakes one morning to find a teenage runaway rummaging through his daughter's bedroom. It escalates. Became a famous movie.
September 1, 2021
Fun read- don't remember what brought it and the author to my attention, but read through Archive.org (Borrow for an hour at a time). Reads like a J. McDonald non Travis book. Poor David Patton is alone - his wife and daughter are out of town and it's mid 50 so cal and he thinks he'd like a little fun and adventure. By odd chance, a chancy teenage girl shows up (Jody) in his house and begins funning with him. She is an escapee from the local girls jail and is nothing but trouble! Quickly seducing him (the old demon alcohol), he winds up "trapped" into indulging her in various ways (she threatens to out him as a child rapist), until finally her hoodlum friends drop by to beat him up and force him to drive them to Mexico where worse tribulations occur. Quite a ride! but in the end it all works out and Jody has a heart of gold after all and frees him up as she is dying. But David Patton feels he must fess up to his good wife... and so begins the last sentence of the book....
March 29, 2021
I'm a fan of the film adaption starring Ann Margaret so it was fun to take a look the original source material. There's some great sections probing the male lead's deeply insecure suburban machismo and the titualr Kitten with a Whip is a delightfully outrageous character but I can't say the book ever really coalesces into something compelling. Despite the short page count, there's a slackness to the plotting that pales in comparison to the brisk and efficient film version. Plus, no Ann Margaret.
July 8, 2018
Another really good Wade Miller book. Tight story. Crazy characters. Satisfying ending. Recommended.
February 9, 2016
Suburbanite David Patton is stewing in the heat of the California summer all alone, his wife and daughter out of town visiting his mother-in-law. When he wakes up hearing someone moving around his house one Saturday morning, he expects to find his family’s returned early to surprise him. Instead, he finds 17-year-old sexpot Jody Drew, runaway from the local juvenile home. Instead of calling the cops, David succumbs to the story of her pitiful upbringing and tries to give her a clean break, buying her some new clothes and leaving her at the bus stop with some cash. David’s feeling pretty good about himself for helping Jody, thinking of himself both a knight in shining armor and a small-time delinquent riding high on his abuses of the law.
David's made the worst mistake of his life. Jody knows where David's buttons are, and knows exactly which ones to press; she blackmails him, lusts after him, and says if Dave goes to the police she'll tell them he raped her. Wrapped around her finger, David falls lower and lower, hosting a party for her friends, taking a quick trip to a Tijuana dive... All David wanted was a normal life, but after spending time with Jody, he begins to see the world differently---she brings out the darkness within him, and now he can see that darkness in others.
It may not have the same level of tension as similar novels (I reviewed Brewer’s A Killer Is Loose and Matheson’s Fury On Sunday not too long ago), but it has more depth to its characters and more flair in its prose---the hallmark of a Wade Miller novel. (Granted, I am biased, and consider the Wade Miller byline my favorite of the era.) What would otherwise have been an average sleaze novel in the hands of lesser writers is an excellent noir thriller in the hands of Wade Miller.
(Full review found here.) Mad props to Stark House Press for the advance reader copy; release date September 2013.
David's made the worst mistake of his life. Jody knows where David's buttons are, and knows exactly which ones to press; she blackmails him, lusts after him, and says if Dave goes to the police she'll tell them he raped her. Wrapped around her finger, David falls lower and lower, hosting a party for her friends, taking a quick trip to a Tijuana dive... All David wanted was a normal life, but after spending time with Jody, he begins to see the world differently---she brings out the darkness within him, and now he can see that darkness in others.
It may not have the same level of tension as similar novels (I reviewed Brewer’s A Killer Is Loose and Matheson’s Fury On Sunday not too long ago), but it has more depth to its characters and more flair in its prose---the hallmark of a Wade Miller novel. (Granted, I am biased, and consider the Wade Miller byline my favorite of the era.) What would otherwise have been an average sleaze novel in the hands of lesser writers is an excellent noir thriller in the hands of Wade Miller.
(Full review found here.) Mad props to Stark House Press for the advance reader copy; release date September 2013.
August 8, 2016
Nifty little, hard-boiled, home-invasion thriller, basis for the great Ann-Margaret b-movie. And, isn't the title great? Let's give it another half star for that title. 3 1/2 stars.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews