WADE MILLER – Guilty Bystander. Farrar & Rinehart, hardcover, 1947. Paperback reprints include: Handi-Book #65, 1947; Penguin Signet #677, 1948, with many later printings.

   Guilty Bystander is the second book by the Bob Wade / Bill Miller team, and the first of six featuring private eye Max Thursday. At the beginning Thursday is a down and out ex-private eye working as a house detective in a shady hotel and drinking constantly.

   His ex-wife Georgia, now remarried, comes to him for help when their son Tommy is kidnapped. Max must sober up and use all his not inconsiderable skills to figure out the confusing scheme (whick involves a million dollars worth of pearls) and rescue his son.

   As always in the Miller books, the San Diego scene is vividly done, and Max is a sympathetic protagonist we want to succeed. Max gets some help from Homicide Lieutenant Austin Clapp (hero of Miller’s first book, Deadly Weapon) and Smitty, an ex-madam who owns the hotel where Max works.

   It is a fine book that all hard-boiled fans will enjoy — Miller and Wade are excellent writers.