The Fabulous Clipjoint: An Ed and Am Mystery Novel (A Nonpareil detective mystery) [Paperback]

Fredric Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1986 | Series: A Nonpareil detective mystery

1948 Edgar Award Winner! Ed Hunter is eighteen, and he isn't happy. He doesn't want to end up like his father, a linotype operator and a drunk, married to a harridan, with a harridan-in-training stepdaughter. Ed wants out, he wants to live, he wants to see the world before it's too late. Then his father doesn't come home one night, and Ed finds out how good he had it. The bulk of the book has Ed teaming up with Uncle Ambrose, a former carny worker, and trying to find out who killed Ed's dad. But the title is as much a coming-of-age tale as it is a pulp. Author Brown won the Edgar award in 1947 for this spectacular first-effort.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 181 pages
• Publisher: David R Godine Pub (December 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879235977
• ISBN-13: 978-0879235970
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,626,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both a great mystery and coming of age story. An all timer., July 3, 2002

By 

Steven R. Harbin (Southeastern USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fabulous Clipjoint: An Ed and Am Mystery Novel (A Nonpareil detective mystery) (Paperback)

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.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ed & Am Hunter: The Early Years, May 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fabulous Clipjoint: An Ed and Am Mystery Novel (A Nonpareil detective mystery) (Paperback)

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.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Telegraphing a Surprise Ending, September 4, 2005

By 

George R Dekle "Bob Dekle" (Lake City, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Fabulous Clipjoint (Paperback)

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.