Wade Miller 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.