The Fabulous Clipjoint

infobox Book |
name = The Fabulous Clipjoint


image_caption = Pulp cover of the 1948 Bantam paperback edition
author = Fredric Brown
country = USA
language = English
series = Ed and Am Hunter mysteries
genre = mystery, detective fiction
publisher = Dutton
release_date = 1947
pages = 181
followed_by = The Dead Ringer

"The Fabulous Clipjoint", first published in 1947, is the first full-length novel by writer Fredric Brown, who had honed his craft by publishing hundreds of short stories in the pulp magazines of the day. "The Fabulous Clipjoint" is also the first of seven detective novels featuring the nephew/uncle team of Ed and Am Hunter. The subsequent novels in the series are "The Dead Ringer", "The Bloody Moonlight", "Compliments of a Fiend", "Death Has Many Doors", "The Late Lamented", and "Mrs Murphy's Underpants".

Plot

When teenaged Ed Hunter's alcoholic father is murdered, Ed is for all intents and purposes orphaned, as he feels no affection whatsoever for his mean-spirited stepmother and hypersexual stepsister. The police dismiss the case as nothing more than the random murder of a back-alley drunk, and so Ed decides to investigate the crime on his own.

Ed enlists the help of his father's brother, Ambrose Hunter, an itinerant carny, who he has not seen in many years, and the two of them set out to solve the crime. Together they wade through a swamp of unseemly characters of the Chicago underworld to expose the real murderer of their father and brother. Along the way, with Am's guidance, Ed comes to realize that his father was not the hapless, pathetic man he had always believed him to be.

"The Fabulous Clipjoint", like most of Brown's works, is notable for its solid craftsmanship, atmosphere, and suspense. In 1948 it received the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, which marks the only occasion Brown won or was nominated for the award.