In the rough edges of 1940s Chicago, the discovery of a corpse in an
alleyway isn't always enough to cause a big stir--especially when the
victim is killed in the midst of a night-long bender, caught between
barrooms in what appears to be a mugging gone awry. Which is why the
police don't take a huge interest in finding the murderer of Wallace
Hunter, a linotype operator who turns up dead after a solitary drinking
adventure that led through many of the Loop's less reputable
establishments.
But for his teenage son, Ed, and his carny brother, Am, something about
Wallace's death feels fishy, a fact that grows increasingly bothersome
when it becomes clear that some of the witnesses aren't telling the
whole story. In order to get to the heart of the matter, they'll need
all the skills Am picked up in the circus life--skills that young Ed
will have to pick up on fast. And in the process of discovering the
killer, they make another discovery as well: Wallace was a much
different man than the father Ed thought he knew.
The Edgar Award-winning novel that announced a legendary voice in crime
fiction, The Fabulous Clipjoint is the first in Fredric Brown's
long-running Ed & Am Hunter series. The book's memorable mixture of a
hardboiled mystery with an urban coming of age narrative remains fresh
to this day.
