The Fabulous Clipjoint

“Ingenious . . . Plunges the reader into a desperate, working-class America now better known through William Lindsay Gresham’s precisely contemporary novel Nightmare Alley and such film-noir classics as Out of the Past and The Postman Always Rings Twice.” —Washington Post

“[Fredric Brown is] my favorite writer of all time.” —Mickey Spillane

When Wally Hunter is found bludgeoned to death in an alley in Chicago’s near north side, his 18-year-old son, Ed, and carney brother, Ambrose, team up to find out who killed him. Winner of the 1948 Edgar Award, The Fabulous Clipjoint was Fredric Brown’s first novel, launching the Ed & Am Hunter mystery series and establishing Brown as one of the 20th century’s finest crime writers.

“[Ed & Am are] an engaging pair of detectives . . . [Fredric Brown is] a real pro—a natural storyteller.” —New York Times

“[E]nough good people put Brown on their must-read lists and then become evangelists to keep his name alive on the same high shelf as Hammett, Thompson, Ross Macdonald, and other crime icons.” —Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune