Ed & Am Hunter

Vice and murder prowl Chicago-and one man hunts a killer through the glittering Gold Coast and seamy back alleys!

Vice and murder prowl the back alleys of North Side Chicago…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. Fredric Brown's first mystery novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the Edgar Award for outstanding first mystery novel.

As a band of carnies moves through the Midwest putting on shows for the rubes, it seems a killer is traveling along with them. The first victim is one of the pint-size performers, and two more tragedies soon follow. Fortunately, Ed Hunter and his uncle Ambrose are there-and they have some sleuthing experience in their recent past. So, even though Ed's a little distracted by a fetching female, they intend to track down this midway murderer...