Customer Reviews

The Fabulous Clipjoint: An Ed and Am Mystery Novel

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After almost a decade of publishing pulp sci-fi and mystery short stories, Fredric Brown had his first novel published in 1947. Entitled THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT, it was both a marvelous mystery as well as a superb "coming-of-age" story. The novel was so well received that it won the prestigious Edgar award for the Best First Mystery Novel by an American the following year. Brown would go on to write 6 more novels and at least 2 short stories starring young Ed Hunter and his fraternal uncle Am as they solved mysteries in and around Chicago. All were excellent, but this first one is special.

The novel opens with teenager Ed getting the news that his father has been murdered. While he cared deeply for his father, he has never truly come to know him. His uncle Ambrose comes to assist with the family's grieving, then stays on to help Ed find the murderer. During the process Ed comes to learn about himself, the father he never really knew, and comes to terms with his feelings for his stepmother and stepsister. His own confusion about his life and his emotions make up as important a part of the story as does his and his carny (former private eye) uncle's delving into the night life and mean streets of Chicago while searching for the killer.

Be warned Brown was known as the "O. Henry" of both mystery and sci-fi due to his shocker endings, and this first novel is no exception. This is a great book, and it seems that it will soon be back in print. I hope so, as it is one of the best hard boiled novels of its era. The passage of time has done little to "date" it. It is still as compelling and hard to put down as ever. I can't recommend this one enough.

The 1st of 7 novels by the late, great Fredric Brown concerning the adventures of the brash, young Ed Hunter & his "shortish, fattish, smartish" uncle. Brown's only series characters, Ed & Ambrose are two of my all time favorite detectives. Yet they don't really become detectives proper until the 3rd book, The Bloody Moonlight. I won't spoil any of it for you here, but let me just say that these books have given me great pleasure and they are way underrated amongst the canon of detective literature.

Ed Hunter's father, an alcoholic printer with a shrewish wife, is murdered on his way home from a late night binge. Aside from an alcoholic witch of a stepmother and an over-sexed younger stepsister (neither of whom he particularly likes) the only family Ed has left is Uncle Ambrose, an itinerant carnival worker that Ed hasn't seen in over a decade. Ed searches out his Uncle Am and together they set off on a quest to find and punish the killer. Under Uncle Am's guidance Ed learns (1) that his father wasn't the mediocrity Ed thought him to be, (2) that he, Ed, is capable of much more than he ever imagined, and (3) who killed his father.

Fredric Brown was the master of the surprise ending. The ending of "Clipjoint" is all-the-more surprising because he telegraphs the identity of the killer but still manages to bring off a number of unexpected twists.

I've known and enjoyed Fredric Brown for decades as a science fiction writer. This is my first taste of Brown's mystery writing. I'll be back for more.

Eighteen-year-old Ed Hunter wakes up one morning to the news that his father has been robbed and murdered whilst visiting a few bars around town. This leaves Ed alone with his stepmother and her daughter, a prospect he doesn't find too appealing. So he immediately sets off to find his Uncle Ambrose, a man he has always admired, to tell him of his father's death.

It's from the meeting with Uncle Ambrose that the book's pace really picks up as he takes charge and gives Ed the direction he needs. They set about investigating the murder of Ed's father using all of their combined talents, which turn out to be surprisingly considerable. Ed and Am discover they make a good team together as they methodically piece together clues and follow up leads.

This is a great introduction to Ed and Am Hunter, who star in a further 6 books after this one. Both characters are your typical average nice guys who manage to adapt well to their surroundings. Adding to their appeal is the mixture of youth and experience allowing us to learn the craft of detection along with Ed as Ambrose shows him the ropes.

The Blackmask Edition (ISBN 1-59654-119-9) is terrible. The edition is filled with typesetting errors (a ! instead an I) and it is missing text. Essentially someone downloaded the text and made their own cheap edition. Buy a used edition of this great novel, rather than giving your money to these charlatans.

"The Fabulous Clipjoint" is one of those books I would have missed out on if not for the relative ease with which copyright-expired (and, usually, out-of-print) books can be downloaded from the internet these days. Frankly, prior to discovering this title on the net, I knew nothing about Fredric Brown's writing career or about "The Fabulous Clipjoint," his first novel. What caught my eye was the cover art of the book's original 1947 edition - one glance, and I knew I had to read this one.

From the cover, I expected a hardboiled piece of American noir style detective fiction, the kind of stuff that is still so popular with readers today. And I got that plus a big surprise. "The Fabulous Clipjoint" is also a fine coming-of-age novel about Ed Hunter, an 18-year-old boy whose father is murdered late one night in one of Chicago's back alleys. The elder Hunter, apparently on his way home from an evening of local bar-hopping, never made it. Ed was not particularly happy about his home life even before his father's murder but, now that he is stuck at home with just his alcoholic stepmother and his randy 15-year-old stepsister, life at home is trickier than ever.

Things get interesting when Ed's Uncle Am (Ambrose) shows up to help the family through its grieving process. Am runs a game of chance in a traveling carnival that just happens to be passing through Chicago at the time of his brother's murder. Am is determined to identify the killer and, since Ed's boss has given him a few days off from the printing shop he works at, he decides to help his uncle nose around Chicago's north side.

Am knows that his amateur investigation will bring him and Ed into contact with the thugs and lowlifes that thrive in Chicago's criminal underbelly. If they are to achieve their goal - and survive the process - the Hunters are going to have to be as tough and fearless as those they want to intimidate into telling them the truth about what happened to Ed's father in that dark alley. Am, world-wise and rough enough around the edges to pull off a tough guy image, begins a makeover of young Ed that is half the fun of the book. Before long, Ed, dressed in his new tough-guy-suit, finds himself bluffing his way through confrontations with thugs and their women in a way he could not have imagined himself doing even a few days earlier.

This one is fun on several different levels, among them: its hardboiled look at big city life just after WWII; the nurturing relationship that develops between Ed and Am; the ease with which Ed grows into playing "gangster;" and the feeling of nostalgia that reading something from this period always generates.

"The Fabulous Clipjoint" won an Edgar for "Best First Novel" in 1948 and, as it turns outs, was the beginning of a series of seven "Ed and Am Hunter" novels written between 1947 and 1963. In addition to the Ed and Am series, Brown wrote at least twenty other novels in the fifties and early sixties, most of them science fiction. He is also the author of numerous short stories. I look forward to experiencing more of his work - in both genres.

Fredric Brown is one of the truly great authors. I purchased this to share his writing with my college junior grandson who was not familiar with him.

It worked! He went out and found more.