Devil on Two Sticks by Wade Miller

Wade Miller is the pseudonym for co-authors Bob Wade and Bill Miller. The pair first came to my attention by another pen name they used of Whit Masterson. Badge of Evil (1954) by Masterson is the novel that Orson Welles’s film Touch of Evil is based upon. While searching for that novel, I stumbled across the Wade Miller name. Devil on Two Sticks published in 1949 and reprinted in 1950 under the title of Killer’s Choice. The 2008 version I obtained was from Stark House and contained an extra novel by the duo called The Killer (1951).

Beck is a snappy dresser complete with pastel sweaters, tweed suits, and a perfectly tied bow tie. He drives an expensive coupe and parks the car where he can always see it. He moves in an almost mechanical precision for his crime syndicate boss named Pat Garland. On his off time, Beck’s a lady’s man and has a fling with his boss’s wife. Meanwhile, a young woman, named Marcy Everett, which he met right before a raid one of the syndicate’s gambling houses, distracts Beck.

Released from jail with the aid of the syndicate’s new lawyer J.J. Everett, Garland calls Beck into action to expose a mole for the Attorney General that has breached their inner circle. Exposed details of the syndicate’s criminal operations single-out a select group of individuals. Beck gathers the data and inputs his list of suspects into his memory banks to process. As the suspects are investigated, one syndicate member is found dead and another looks highly suspicious. Beck’s intuition fingers Harvey Isham for the mole and Garland orders his elimination; a mistake that causes the Circle’s inner trust to break.

As a lead character, Beck is not exactly amiable. He’s very stiff. He doesn’t quip the wise cracks or flash his gun, in fact, he doesn’t even carry a gun. The majority of his emotions remain internalized and surface only when necessary. Beck is very clean and organized except when something disrupts his everyday patterns. Beck is the Devil on Two Sticks caught between the two sides of his life, which Beck literally demonstrates in the novel at a dinner party with a toy diabolo. However, torn by his professionalism and his emotions for Marcy Everett, Beck soon realizes that either direction will have severe consequences.

Devil on Two Sticks is not action packed, but its not without its share of exciting moments. Particularly, a chase in the dark of a funeral home was well paced and suspenseful. I was expecting a straightforward crime novel, but there’s much more underneath the surface of this existentialist crime novel than I expected. The writing is very mechanical and emotionless. In retrospect, this may have been the author’s intent because the writing style interlocks with Beck’s characteristics too. Everything is logical and precise clockwork, which created a stilted reading experience. In that respect, the ending is unsatisfying but is correct and works for the story. The novel also has a touch of redemption at the end. Beck chooses to walk away without completing his assignment to prove that love can change a person.