Badge of Evil

When millionaire Linneker is murdered with dynamite, suspicion falls on his daughter’s boyfriend. Veteran officers Quinlan and his partner McCoy know he’s guilty and set out to prove it. And sure enough, they find some extra dynamite at the boyfriend’s apartment. It looks like another successful case for Quinlan and McCoy. But assistant district attorney Mitch Holt isn’t convinced. He had interviewed the boyfriend and something just didn’t match with the cops’ discovery. After a little investigation of his own, he discovers the real murderer. But the way that Quinlan and McCoy conveniently found that dynamite gets Holt to thinking. If they were willing to frame the boyfriend, who else might they have framed over the years? Film Noir Classics #15

Whit Masterson is actually two childhood friends, Bob Wade (1920-2012) and Bill Miller (1920-1961), who produced 33 books together until Miller's premature death from a sudden heart attack. Wade and Miller attended San Diego State and edited the campus newspaper together. After a stint in the Air Force, they joined forces again, eventually producing the book that Orson Welles adapted as the classic noir film, Touch of Evil. They also created one of the best post-war detectives, Max Thursday, whose complexities and flaws elevated him from the usual PI clichés. After Miller's death, Wade continued to write, winning the Private Eye Writers of America's 1988 Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as writing a monthly column called "Spadework" for the San Diego Union Tribune. Bob Wade passed away on September 30, 2012, in San Diego.