THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT

Knowing my fondness for pulp fiction, my buddy Dennis gave me this copy of Fredric Brown's THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT recently. I'm familiar with Brown as both a science fiction and mystery writer and I have several of his books on my shelves but CLIPJOINT is the first of his books that I've read. And it's a good one.

Published in 1947, THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT  won the Edgar Award for Outstanding First Mystery Novel. The story centers on young Ed Hunter, a teenager in Chicago. When his father is killed in a dark alleyway late one night, young Ed sets out to catch the killer. He's aided by his Uncle Ambrose, "Am" as he's called, his father's brother who is currently a carney worker. Ed and Am make a good pair of amateur detectives as they explore the seedy underbelly of the city. They discover secrets about Wally Hunter that neither knew, cross paths with murderous gangsters, solve the mystery and hop a train together at the end of the novel for parts unknown.

Ed is the narrator of the story and CLIPJOINT often reads like a crime story told by Holden Caulfield. It's part coming-of-age novel, part mystery thriller. Ed and Am meet boozers, bartenders, a crooked cop, a nympho step-sister, a cougarish femme fatale, and other assorted and colorful characters along the way to solving the mystery.

THE FABULOUS CLIPJOINT moves at (you'll pardon the expression) a good clip and Brown knew how to make a reader keep turning the pages. He wrote other Ed and Am mysteries over the course of his career and if they're all as good as CLIPJOINT, I've got some book hunting to do.

Recommended.