Product Description
A collection of all 118 short science fiction and fantasy stories of one of the masters of the vignette, all his short works except two which were rewritten into parts ofa novel. Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg. Dustjacket art by Bob Eggleton. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

SOME GEMS AND SOME DUDS
There are some early stories here that are very well done and well worth reading, but his latter stories, many a single page, written after 1952, are for the most part more like puns. Not my cup of tea and nothing like O'Henry as some have suggested. O'Henry was the master of the tale with the twist. These are just gags and don't tell a tale at all.

Special note:One story that stands out among the rest is The Little Lamb. This story is written so well, with such spare and powerful prose that it's out of place here. It's every bit as good as Chandler or Hemingway. Little Lamb proves Brown had the chops to write much better stories than those he sold. But a writer must sell stories and he wrote down to the level of the market. Too bad. No wonder he was cynical.

Superb
As a long time Fredric Brown fan, I never thought I'd see a complete collection of his marvellous stories. He's fantastic. Quick, witty, poignant or just fun, Fredric Brown to me is THE O'Henry of science fiction.

Master Of The Vignette
"From These Ashes" is a collection of speculative fiction written by Fredric Brown and published between 1941 and 1965.Fredric Brown (1906 - 1972) achieved acclaim in mystery and speculative fiction writing.Over the course of his career he became a master of the vignette, which he was able to write in several genres including fantasy, horror, and science fiction.This collection was published in February of 2001.

The weakness of this collection is in the editing.The stories are supposedly grouped by year of their first publication, but there are several cases where they are incorrect, for example "The Joke" is put in the 1961 section, but it was actually first published in October of 1948 under the title "If Looks Could Kill".They also do not include any information regarding the publishing history of the stories.Many of the stories have had multiple titles over the course of their publishing history, but alternate titles are not listed.Despite the subtitle "The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown", the Editor's Notes at the back indicate that at least two stories were omitted because they were later rewritten in the form of a novel.There is a good Introduction by Barry N. Malzberg, which would be the highlight of the added material.

The most important measure of a collection is the stories themselves, and in that regard there is no complaint.While few of Fredric Brown's stories have received any attention in terms of awards or even in fan polls, there are many excellent stories here which have been long overlooked.The best known story is the novelette "'Arena'", which was the basis for the Star Trek (Original Series) episode of the same name.It was tied for 35th on the Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll in 1971 for short fiction, and tied for 34th on the 1999 Locus All-Time Poll for novelettes.The short story "The Waveries" was nominated for the Retro Hugo for the year 1945 in 1996, as was the Novelette "Pi in the Sky".

Eight of the stories are collaborations with Mack Reynolds, and there is also the wonderful "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" which he collaborated with Carl Onspaugh.Then there are the more than 50 vignettes, which are often overlooked when it comes to awards.All in all there are well over 100 pieces included, and on many of them the reader gets the feel of his mysteries as well as speculative fiction.

The best!
Fredric Brown's short stories are some of the best I've ever read. They're incredibly imaginative, sharp and often funny. Brown also invented many scifi concepts that are repeated in later books, TV and movies, making his stories fun to read for historical perspective, as well.

Another forgotten genius of early scifi
There are several absolutely wonderful writers of classic SF that are nearly forgotten today.Unfortunately, Fredric Brown is one of them.Whether it's his short fiction, as in this book, or his wonderful novels, including "What Mad Universe", all of his stuff is wonderful and well worth reading.Brown, Henry Kuttner, CM Cornbluth, Richard Matheson, so many others.All of them created the SF today, and most of their stuff is superior to the SF written today.Please, if you love SF at all, read Fredric Brown.You will thank me if you do.He is wonderful. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
1948 Edgar Award Winner!

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. Author Brown won the Edgar award in 1947 for this spectacular first-effort. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Hardboiled but Touching First Novel
"The Fabulous Clipjoint" is one of those books I would have missed out on if not for the relative ease with which copyright-expired (and, usually, out-of-print) books can be downloaded from the internet these days.Frankly, prior to discovering this title on the net, I knew nothing about Fredric Brown's writing career or about "The Fabulous Clipjoint," his first novel.What caught my eye was the cover art of the book's original 1947 edition - one glance, and I knew I had to read this one.

From the cover, I expected a hardboiled piece of American noir style detective fiction, the kind of stuff that is still so popular with readers today.And I got that plus a big surprise."The Fabulous Clipjoint" is also a fine coming-of-age novel about Ed Hunter, an 18-year-old boy whose father is murdered late one night in one of Chicago's back alleys.The elder Hunter, apparently on his way home from an evening of local bar-hopping, never made it.Ed was not particularly happy about his home life even before his father's murder but, now that he is stuck at home with just his alcoholic stepmother and his randy 15-year-old stepsister, life at home is trickier than ever.

Things get interesting when Ed's Uncle Am (Ambrose) shows up to help the family through its grieving process.Am runs a game of chance in a traveling carnival that just happens to be passing through Chicago at the time of his brother's murder.Am is determined to identify the killer and, since Ed's boss has given him a few days off from the printing shop he works at, he decides to help his uncle nose around Chicago's north side.

Am knows that his amateur investigation will bring him and Ed into contact with the thugs and lowlifes that thrive in Chicago's criminal underbelly.If they are to achieve their goal - and survive the process - the Hunters are going to have to be as tough and fearless as those they want to intimidate into telling them the truth about what happened to Ed's father in that dark alley.Am, world-wise and rough enough around the edges to pull off a tough guy image, begins a makeover of young Ed that is half the fun of the book.Before long, Ed, dressed in his new tough-guy-suit, finds himself bluffing his way through confrontations with thugs and their women in a way he could not have imagined himself doing even a few days earlier.

This one is fun on several different levels, among them: its hardboiled look at big city life just after WWII; the nurturing relationship that develops between Ed and Am; the ease with which Ed grows into playing "gangster;" and the feeling of nostalgia that reading something from this period always generates.

"The Fabulous Clipjoint" won an Edgar for "Best First Novel" in 1948 and, as it turns outs, was the beginning of a series of seven "Ed and Am Hunter" novels written between 1947 and 1963.In addition to the Ed and Am series, Brown wrote at least twenty other novels in the fifties and early sixties, most of them science fiction.He is also the author of numerous short stories.I look forward to experiencing more of his work - in both genres.

Moving to another generation
Fredric Brown is one of the truly great authors.I purchased this to share his writing with my college junior grandson who was not familiar with him.

It worked!He went out and found more.

The "Black Mask" Edition is a joke.
The Blackmask Edition (ISBN 1-59654-119-9) is terrible. The edition is filled with typesetting errors (a ! instead an I) and it is missing text. Essentially someone downloaded the text and made their own cheap edition. Buy a used edition of this great novel, rather than giving your money to these charlatans.

Telegraphing a Surprise Ending
Ed Hunter's father, an alcoholic printer with a shrewish wife, is murdered on his way home from a late night binge.Aside from an alcoholic witch of a stepmother and an over-sexed younger stepsister (neither of whom he particularly likes) the only family Ed has left is Uncle Ambrose, an itinerant carnival worker that Ed hasn't seen in over a decade.Ed searches out his Uncle Am and together they set off on a quest to find and punish the killer.Under Uncle Am's guidance Ed learns (1) that his father wasn't the mediocrity Ed thought him to be, (2) that he, Ed, is capable of much more than he ever imagined, and (3) who killed his father.

Fredric Brown was the master of the surprise ending.The ending of "Clipjoint" is all-the-more surprising because he telegraphs the identity of the killer but still manages to bring off a number of unexpected twists.

I've known and enjoyed Fredric Brown for decades as a science fiction writer.This is my first taste of Brown's mystery writing.I'll be back for more.

Good Mystery Introducing Ed and Am
Eighteen-year-old Ed Hunter wakes up one morning to the news that his father has been robbed and murdered whilst visiting a few bars around town. This leaves Ed alone with his stepmother and her daughter, a prospect he doesn't find too appealing. So he immediately sets off to find his Uncle Ambrose, a man he has always admired, to tell him of his father's death.

It's from the meeting with Uncle Ambrose that the book's pace really picks up as he takes charge and gives Ed the direction he needs. They set about investigating the murder of Ed's father using all of their combined talents, which turn out to be surprisingly considerable. Ed and Am discover they make a good team together as they methodically piece together clues and follow up leads.

This is a great introduction to Ed and Am Hunter, who star in a further 6 books after this one. Both characters are your typical average nice guys who manage to adapt well to their surroundings. Adding to their appeal is the mixture of youth and experience allowing us to learn the craft of detection along with Ed as Ambrose shows him the ropes. ... Read more

Product Description
Written late in his career and while at the height of his powers, KNOCK-THREE-ONE-TWO is Fredric Brown's tour de force of suspense. Taking place over the span of a single evening, we find a city enflamed by fear. A serial killer is on the loose, and while the maniac ties the city into knots, the lives of ordinary citizens are drawn into an inescapable spiral of greed and chance. Brown, purveyor of the surprise ending, does not disappoint. Step now into a world of shadow and anxiety. You need only knock 3-1-2. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Fredric Brown the most talented SF author
I first read a short story from this book when I was at high school and it gave me the wish to be fluent in English to appreciate the style. I have been searching for this particular book for 20 years and thanks to amazon.com at last I can find it back and read it entirely. And it's a chance since this book is no more edited and is quite impossible to find in Europe. But it's worth searching it.

Some of Brown's best short stories!
This is a classic collection of clever, twisted s-f from Fredric Brown, master of the short-short story. If you like offbeat, mind-bending fiction, this is the book for you!

A Classic of Concise and Imaginative Writing
This collection of short short stories-- many only a page or two long-- is worth tracking down.Brown's light touch and incisive instinct for the plot twist make this a can't-miss proposition.These are little bite-sized bonbons (many with acid centers) that will entertain, impress, and sometimes horrify.Brown is a master of brevity: study him to see how it's done.

A stimulating exercise of the mind
It goes without saying that Fredric Brown is a master of the art when it comes to short stories, and if you love short short stories, the ones in this book are prime cut.The majority of these are 1 to 3 pages and nearly all have surprise endings.What amazes you most is how Brown can manage to top the story you just read, but a couple of stories later, it happens.Thought provoking to the max, his imagination seems to be completely unbound as you venture from one unbelievably profound situation to the next.How Brown manages to seize your total attention in 3 pages or less is a tribute to his craft of opening and perhaps even invading your thought process.I place this book on a pedestal of its own, a standout in the crowd.Read it, by all means, and at your own risk of becoming a deeper thinker.

fantasy short stories
Mr. Brown demonstrates his sense of the unusual and O'Henryisk manner in this can't put it down collection of stories and thought provocing what ifs. I read this collection for the first time in 1961, and have been haunted by it ever since. A delightful read. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great mind-benders from the master of short-short stories
Fredric Brown was the acknowledged master of "short-shorts" - stories that typically ran only 5-10 pages in length, sometimes only a page or two. "Honeymoon in Hell" collects 21 of these stories into a slim volume, and you'd be hard-put to come up with a better collection of imaginative, evocative, and sometimes frightening vignettes. Worth seeking out - or you can get all of Brown's short stories in one volume if you purchase the NESFA anthology "From These Ashes."(A companion volume, "Martians and Madness," anthologizes Brown's five SF novels.)

One of our great writers
I remember reading this collection about ten years ago and how
much i enjoyed Fredric Brown's worlds.I think that "The Weapon", a short story in this collection, is one of the greatest short stories ever written by anyone, anywhere and a startling anti-war statement."The Arena" is also a classic and the use of this story for the original episode of the first Star Trek series never really did it justice.I give "Honeymoon in Hell" my highest recommendation.

This is real nightmare material...
It's easy to slice, dice, slash, and bash;much harder to take the subtle approach and write something that worms its way into the subconscious and refuses to go away.I couldn't have been more than ten when I first read"The Arena";thirty-five years later, I still remember itvividly (vividly enough that, whenever I look at a sandbox, I recall thestory.How's that for persistence of memory?).It didn't frighten me inthe way a horror movie might;it did, however, give me a huge case of thecreeps.Bravo to Fredric Brown... and get this book back into print! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A myth among my friends
I have read the Hebrew translation when I was 12. Ten years later I have rediscovered. A friend was telling a story to a group of friends. All I heard from his tale was the last line, which went "And that's how thedinosours were extinct". That was all it took me to identify thestory.

Later I met the girl who is now my wife. She did not remeber thebook. She did remember a whole bunch of really good stories, which all camefrom this book.

Wonderful stories (almost all of them). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very nice mix of humor, irony and the macabre
This is an excellent way to be introduced to the work of pulp writer and mystery/science fiction author Fredric Brown.The collection here -- introduced by Robert Bloch -- nicely spans Brown's career and while heavyon the science fiction elements, still presents a fine selection of Brown'soutput. Mostly short stories and not a dog in the bunch! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Once Fashionable
Outdated science fiction. Some parts are original and enjoyable, others naive. Read this book in the same mind as you'd read a book by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells.

Incredibly funny ...
... and not really all that dated, given the plethora of sf adventure movies being made since Star Wars.Oh, maybe the totally gorgeous heroine who mostly stands around is a bit retro, but that's what sci fi guys expected of women when it was written, and not the only ones either.I wonder if anyone could catch the spirit of this book in a movie.I doubt it.

What mad delight!
This is the finest novel that ever slummed on the pulpy pages of the old Startling Stories magazine.It was written by a consummate professional, a master wordsmith whose avowed artistic goal was making a more-or-less honest living

It's the story of a very strange couple of days in the life of Keith Winton, an underpaid editor of a hack science fiction magazine rather remarkably like Startling Stories.As the book begins, Winton is engaged in the drudgiest of drudge work, editing the letters to the editor column, all of which come from youthful, pimply, passionate fans such as Joe Doppelburg, whose latest letter he is trying to fit into the monthly paste-up.

It's about 1950, a time when both a pulp science fiction magazine and a good cheeseburger cost about $0.25.In Winton's retro-precocious world, the first unmanned lunar probe has recently been launched.Laying aside Joe's letter aside for the moment, he goes outside to see if he can spot the anticipated landing.It will be marked by a humongous flash, you see, from a new kind of on-board generator that is supposed to be visible to the naked earthside eye.The flash, it turns out is not all the difficult to see, for the probe has been a colossal failure and is falling back to earth even as Winton peers upwards.It so happens that the impact point is the top of his head....

After which, he finds himself in a strangely altered New York, a New York in which pulp SF magazines cost 2.5cr and in which the nighttime streets are actually a little bit more dangerous than ours today.Women go into space in revealingly transparent spacesuits.Moonies trace their origins to the moon, not to Korea.Interstellar ships are powered by wholly unexpected developments in sewing machine technology.And the mysterious hero guarding all mankind against the space armadas of the dreaded alien invaders is brave, dashing, glamorous Doppelle.

I first read this story more than fifty years ago and still own a battered, second-hand first edition (sans dust jacket, alas, 10¢ at Miss Eilis' Book Emporium on 16th Street, San Francisco). One of the earlier Amazon reviewers wrote, "This book is one of the best SF books I ever read."Yes, I'll agree with that.I'll go even further, it is one of the finest pulp novels ever written, better than 99% of the genre novels being written today, better than 99.9% of the literary novels.

It'sa mad, mad, mad universe...
Keith Winton, a Pulp SF magazine editor, was minding his own business, answering a fan's letter, when the first moon rocket exploded right on top of him.
Next thing you know he is on a strange Earth, where having coins minted after 1935 will get you shot as a spy, aliens from the Moon work and play along side Earthlings and mankind is fighting for its very survival against battle fleets from Arcturus.
This is a classic sci-fi story. First printed around 1949 this story has held up very well and is a delightful read on a lazy day afternoon or a few slow hours on a train.

One of the top ten all time science fiction classics
This is a Wizard of Oz type parallel universe yarn for adolescents and adults. Unfairly neglected, it would make a stunning Disney animated film or Broadway musical. It's a delightful grab bag of satire on McCarthyism, science fiction fandom, the publishing world, and adolescent boys with out of control imaginations/hormones. Brown takes the blind tapper from Treasure Island and turns him into something utterly horrifying. He transforms Baum's Tik-tok Man into Mekl, the genius robot. The commies are transmuted into a race of interstellar invaders so horrific that humans can't bear to look at them and must shoot them on sight. The hapless hero just wants to get home (like Dorothy Gale in the first Oz book) but he ends up (like Dorothy in the later Oz books) with something better than home. The parallel world Brown creates is wacky but, like Oz (or Ratty and Mole's riverbank), totally believable if you enter into the spirit of it. I rate this book as one of the top classics of sf's Golden Age; indeed, it's on my personal list of the all-time top ten sf novels, along with Dick's Man in a High Castle, Lieber's The Big Time, Vance's Demon Princes quintet, Heinlein's Friday, etc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Martians Go Home
The book arrived earilier than expected and in "perfect" condition for not so current book.
And the "sender" followed up with quiry on my satisfaction. That is excellent service.

Probably the funniest Alien Invasion story ever!
"Martians, Go Home" chronicles the invasion of Earth by a billion visible, audible, but insubstantial Martians who are rude, lewd and obsessed with human sex. Their sole mission appears to be annoying and infuriating Earthlings ... and they're very good at it! While this book was considered somewhat risque when it was first published in 1955, today it is simply entertaining. Go ahead and buy it; some scenes are sure to put a grin on your face!

Excellent Little Book
This is one great little book. I say "little" because it's veryshort...like little green martians. Anyway.. Buy the bookand enjoy.
I bought the paperback way back in 1976 and every few years or so I give it another read. It has never lost anything for me, and I still find myself laughing as if I were reading it for the first time. Just think of it...Martians invade Earth with no intent to take over or destroy us. They don't even arrive in spaceships. They just kwim. We can't even touch them. We end up doing all the harm to ourselves! Great concept for a book. Great departure from the usual MARTIANS ATTACK EARTH type of novel.
It's even more astounding when you realize the book was first published in 1955. Great book. Read it and laugh.

"____________ you, Mack!"
This novel was WAAAY ahead of its time!In 1955, most people still took seriously the idea that weirdly humanoid beings could populate the outer planets.That anyone could write a wittily sarcastic book about little green men who don't carry ray guns or shoot anything out of their eyes but simply drive Earthlings crazy with their obnoxious behavior back then is simply amazing.While mainstream America was hiding under its collective (uh, no pinko connotation intended...honest!) desk listening for incoming ICBMs, Fredric Brown was at his typewriter making fun of his laughably serious countrymen.

Completely devoid of political epithets or any other profanity, this book nonetheless makes some serious points about how ridiculous we Terran primates are.What else amazes me is how hard to find this book is and that it's out of print.I seriously would have expected it to become a classic (by now in its twenty-seventh printing or so) and the gag line "____ you, Mack!" the sort of catch phrase that Da Tumminada's "Hasta la vista, Baby!" has become.

This book is what I love about science fiction ...
Science fiction has a bad reputation because there is just so much junk.However, if you find the good stuff, there's not much better.This book has got it all--it moves fast, it's funny, and, most important, it's about something.The Martians invade and are everywhere.Using their powers of teleportation and their sense of mischief, they make the very notion of privacy at risk.

It's not like this is deep philosophy, but it's more than a quick laugh too.You read it, you have fun, and it makes you think.SF at its best. ... Read more

Product Description
Crag was a no good drunk and deviant, now facing life in prison. But the good judge Jon Olliver offers him his freedom—plus a million credits!—in exchange for a small favor: steal a harmless tool from a rich scientist in Mars. Crag suspects a catch, but he finds it so hard to resist … especially when he knows that Olliver’s beautiful wife, Evadne, will be joining them in the adventure!

A great 1940s novella from a master of the form. ... Read more

Product Description
Fredric Brown was a popular American pulp writer whose work appeared in mystery and science fiction magazines of the 1930s through the 1960s. Hunter and Hunted: The Ed and Am Hunter Novels, Part One reprints four of his mystery novels that originally appeared in the period from 1947 to 1950. The novels included in chronological order in this volume -- The Fabulous Clipjoint, The Dead Ringer, The Bloody Moonlight, and Compliments of a Fiend – feature the uncle-and-nephew detective team of Ed and Ambrose Hunter, the only recurring characters in Brown’s longer fiction. The Fabulous Clipjoint was Brown’s first published novel and is as much a coming-of-age novel as it is a mystery novel. In the book, young Ed Hunter sets out to enlist his Uncle Ambrose’s aid in tracking down his father’s killer. In the process, Ed comes to terms with his upbringing in the slums of Chicago and finally escapes to a new life in the traveling carnival. The Dead Ringer finds Ed and his Uncle Am on the road in a creepy murder mystery filled with vivid descriptions and authentic slang from the bygone days of the carnival. The Hunters take on a job for the Starlock Detective Agency in The Bloody Moonlight, and Ed finds himself alone in a disturbing rural setting that seems to include werewolves and radio signals from the moons of Jupiter. Finally, in Compliments of a Fiend, Uncle Am himself becomes the victim in a race against time. The only clue to solving the mystery of his disappearance seems to be a passage in the works of paranormal investigator Charles Fort. Hunter and Hunted collects the early Ed and Am Hunter novels together in one volume for the first time ever. A second volume is planned that will collect the later novels and stories featuring the Hunters. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

One of the best
In my opinion Fredric Brown is not only one of the best pulp mystery writers, he is one of the greatest story tellers of the last century. His writings take you on journeys that transcend time, guided by characters that make you want to know them more, and all while putting the pieces together on superbly sordid mysteries. The Ed and Am novels are my favorites and this book is a must have for any pulp fiction, mystery,or detective novel fan.

Fantastic!
Fredric Brown definitely doesn't get enough recognition.This particular type of crime story is really well-written and engaging, along with being a good source of odd slang from the earlier part of the 20th century.Truly worth the money and the time you'll spend reading it!

Four Fine Murder Mysteries from the O. Henry of Science Fiction
Fredric Brown was best known as a science fiction writer with a flair for the surprise ending.Actually, he wrote more mysteries than he did science fiction.His only series, the Ed & Am Hunter mysteries, ran to seven novels.This volume collects the first four.

"The Fabulous Clip Joint" (which won an Edgar): Ed Hunter's father, an alcoholic printer with a shrewish wife, is murdered on his way home from a late night binge. Aside from an alcoholic witch of a stepmother and an over-sexed younger stepsister (neither of whom he particularly likes) the only family Ed has left is Uncle Ambrose, an itinerant carnival worker that Ed hasn't seen in over a decade. Ed searches out his Uncle Am and together they set off on a quest to find and punish the killer. Under Uncle Am's guidance Ed learns (1) that his father wasn't the mediocrity Ed thought him to be, (2) that he, Ed, is capable of much more than he ever imagined, and (3) who killed his father.

"Dead Ringer": In a lateral logic puzzle, the author gives you a set of seemingly incongruous facts forming a "fair play" mystery. If you can fit the facts together correctly, you can solve the mystery. "Dead Ringer" is a lateral logic puzzle. All the pertinent facts are there. You just have to recognize which ones are relevant and the solution is obvious. At least it's obvious after Ed and Am Hunter explain how the facts fit together. A naked midget is found stabbed to death at the carnival. Later a chimpanzee drowns, and finally a child dies. Through the first two deaths, Ed and Am Hunter mind their own business. The third death stirs them to action, and the mystery is quickly solved. They arrive at the solution independently, but Am gets there a little quicker than Ed.

"The Bloody Moonlight": Ed Hunter, rookie detective with the Starlock Detective Agency, gets his first solo case. He goes to the country to check out an investment opportunity for a wealthy young lady who's appealing for more reasons than the size of her bank account. He has trouble sinking his teeth into the assignment because of a beautiful girl who isn't what she seems, a disappearing body, and a narrow minded sheriff who shoots first and asks questions later. On his way to interview the inventor, who may be in radio contact with Mars or Jupiter, Ed finds a body with the throat torn out. Ed leaves the body, finds a phone, and reports the crime. When the sheriff can't find the body, he beats Ed up, which makes Ed determined to [1] return the favor, and [2] find the body again. The plot thickens as Ed unravels who killed whom, the true identity of his dream girl, and exactly where those radio signals are coming from. He gets everything sorted out, and then confronts the problem of keeping the sheriff from killing him before he can expose whodunnit.

"Compliments of a Fiend": In one of his books on the paranormal, Charles Fort wrote of the disappearance in Mexico of the author Ambrose Bierce. He then mentioned the disappearance (several years later and almost a continent away) of another man named Ambrose, and asked whether there might not be an Ambrose Collector at work. It is against this backdrop that a gentleman calling himself Ambrose Collector telephones the Starlock Detective Agency asking for an operative who had experience with carnivals. Starlock dispatches Am(brose) Hunter, and he falls off the face of the earth. When Ed Hunter begins to miss his Uncle Am, a mutual friend opines that he must have been gotten by the Ambrose Collector. With only this clue to go on, Ed begins the search for his uncle. The investigation lurches along with no apparent progress, but all the while Ed is unwittingly gathering clues. When Ed solves the problem of the missing 45 minutes, the clues fall into place. Now Ed must not only find his uncle, but also survive the discovery.

Ashes to Ashes
After all the hoopla over the first volume of Ed and Am novels, once again the writings of Fredric Brown disappear into the vast unknown.SMPL made a big noise about publishing the complete mysteries of Brown in a sequence of volumes that were to begin with this one in 2002.Three years later, after promises made in numerous venues, SMPL has virtaully disappeared, taking this ambitious and long-overdue project with them.And in the interim, nary a word spoken from any source on the topic, least of all this august forum.

So much has been written about the quality and brilliance of Fredric Brown that it scarcely requires yet another treatment at my hand.That Brown is the overlooked genius in the shadow of Jim Thompson and others is news to no one who is paying attention.The deepest mystery is the repeated attempts by publishers more stalwart than SIMPLE and more numerous, to resurrect the writings of the man who almost single-handedly created noir fiction, all of which have fallen on the deaf ears of the masses.Or been swallowed in the machinations of the family estate.Or been mismanaged by vision-less editors looking for the big cash-out.Or whatever.The sad effect of all this is the steady disappearance of brilliant, prosaic Americana written by a mysterious, deeply troubled and ultimately doomed man whose vices were many, whose crimes were (mostly) of the mind, and who had a compelling penchant for nocturnal bus rides.Our world moving forward into the new millenium is the poorer for our inability to preserve the words that so vividly sliced a bit of life out of the guts of our country in the grave early days of our new Empire.His was the world of my grandparents and yours, a world we must always remember and learn from.It is the root cause of our disturbing national psyche today, and Brown serves it up as well as any, and much better than most.

If you love Hammett and Chandler...
After Hammett and Chandler, Fred Brown is the best hard-boiled detective writer of the Black Mask era.In this book, which contains several novels about a young man and his uncle in a world of murder, carnivals, freight trains, and dark alleys, the first novel is a classic, and all of them are highly enjoyable.For those of us who find modern detective novels too cutesy poo to stomach, and long for the world when a dick was a policeman and a shammus was a private eye. ... Read more

Product Description
A touchstone of psychologicalhorror, FredericBrown's (1906-1972)cult novel The ScreamingMimi (1949), wassubsequently filmed in1958, (an adaptation famousfor a shower sceneof its heroine wardingoff the villain with aknife) and again by italianhorror directorDario Argento in 1970 as"The Bird WiTh TheCrysTal Plumage" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Be Careful For What You Wish....
It's been 25 years now since I saw the 1958 Anita Ekberg movie "Screaming Mimi" at NYC's Thalia Theatre (paired with the 1956 Jayne Mansfield film "The Burglar," for one remarkable double feature...ah, that WAS a theatre!), and all I can remember of it is the famous scene at the beginning, in which Anita is attacked, while taking an outdoor shower, by a knife-wielding maniac. (Yes, this scene beat "Psycho" to the shower punch by two years!) I'd love to refresh my memory of this film, but surprisingly, despite the presence of cult actress Ekberg, it has never been released for home viewing--not on VHS, laser disc or DVD--and is rarely revived or shown. Fortunately, we still have the film's source book, Fredric Brown's 1949 thriller "The Screaming Mimi," and a recent perusal of that short novel has once again reminded me of what a terrific author Brown could be. (He was, famously, Mickey Spillane's favorite writer.) I'd previously only encountered Brown's work in the sci-fi field, but his output in the crime arena was apparently just as prodigious and well done. "Mimi" is a compactly written affair, as would be expected of the man who's famous for his sci-fi "short shorts," filled with wonderfully hard-boiled dialogue, intricate plotting and interesting, believable characters. Though not as highly regarded as Brown's first crime novel, "The Fabulous Clipjoint," it remains a marvelous entertainment.

In the book, we meet William Sweeney, an occasional alcoholic and a reporter on the "Chicago Blade." When we first encounter Sweeney, he is deep in the midst of one of his binges, living like a homeless person and soused to the gills. After witnessing the aftermath of the attempted murder of a beautiful stripper, however--the first nonfatal attack by the so-called Ripper, after three previous homicides--he rouses himself from the gutter and goes back to work, vowing to catch the Ripper and, ultimately, spend a night with the wounded victim, Yolanda Lang. To the reader's surprise, this mess of a lush turns out to be one very clever, witty and cultured fellow, although not especially tough; indeed, he gets the stuffing beaten out of him three times during the course of his pursuit! Investigating the three women who had been sliced to death by the Ripper over the course of the previous two months, Sweeney encounters quite an assortment of Chicago's denizens, from strippers to small-time hoods, from tough-talking cops to a wacky artist, from an enigmatic talent manager to a gay art dealer. Eventually, Sweeney realizes that a small black statuette of a terrified woman, the so-called Screaming Mimi, might hold the key to the killer's identity. But will he live long enough to make use of that knowledge?

As to the identity of the murderous Ripper, my advice would be to not even guess. This novel is extremely well plotted, as I mentioned earlier, and its final revelations DO come as a nice surprise. I would be remiss if I didn't mention the author's great use of humor in his book. The dialogue here sparkles, and Sweeney seems to never be at a loss for some snappy rejoinder. "The only thing I hate about you is your guts," he tells one of his adversaries. When told that the Ripper's third victim had been a private secretary, he remarks, "How private? Kind that has to watch her periods as well as her commas?" Then again, the book can get awfully bleak, as when Sweeney reflects, "Death is an incurable disease that men and women are born with; it gets them sooner or later. A murderer never really kills; he but anticipates." I might also add that a good street map of downtown Chicago (a town I've never been to) proved very helpful to me while reading this book;Brown was apparently right at home in Chicago, and it shows. The author, for all his meticulous plotting and sharp writing, DOES make a few gaffs during the course of his novel. In one section, Sweeney walks into a bar (even when not on a binge, this character drinks more than you would believe; an interesting drinking game would be to take a sip of booze for every full drink that Sweeney consumes!) and puts a $5 bill on the counter; a few pages later, Brown tells us that he had put a $10 bill down there. Also, one of Sweeney's fellow reporters, Horlick, is said to be starting his vacation on a Monday, but 100+ pages later, he IS at work on that day. Quibbles aside, though, "The Screaming Mimi" is some mighty impressive work. Capped by a wonderfully ironic final page, it is an object lesson in being careful for what one wishes....

A little dated, but still a terrific mystery after all these years.
"On top of the radio-phono, on the half that didn't lift up, stood a little ten-inch-high black statuette. It was the figure of a naked girl, her arms thrust out to ward off a ripper, her mouth open in a silent, eternal scream. Her body, which would have been beautiful relaxed, was subtly distorted, rigid with terror. Only a sadist could have liked it. Sweeney wasn't one; he shuddered a little and averted his eyes.

But it woke him up, seeing the (black statuette). It woke him up to a nightmare." - THE SCREAMING MIMI p. 64

This short mystery is a perfect example of noir writing at its best. Published in 1949, it is dated, but gives the reader an excellent slice of Post-WW2 big city life over 60 years ago. The author, Fredric Brown, was a prolific writer of that bygone era with an amazingly off-beat view of America at that time. Brown also had a great sense of humor. His likeable hero, newspaper reporter for the Chicago "Blade" John Sweeney, is, I think, more of an anti-hero with a heavy duty drinking problem, who wakes up on a park bench one day after a long bender and talks to God. Sweeney looks at life through the jaundiced eye of a professional newspaperman. He isn't surprised by much; except when he first sees Yolanda, the beautiful, blonde, stripper victim of a brutal attack by....well, you'll have to read the book to find out who done what to whom.

I highly recommend this novel. 5 BIG STARS

A book for all tunes
Blackmask is to be commended for republishing a lot of pulp era fiction which has gone public domain.The downside is that apparently they seek out a copy of the original, scan it and then OCR the images.This causes a lot of typos; in this book, for instance, the word "time" is almost always rendered as "tune", and sometimes you have to figure out that "bun" means "him".Of course these are all real words, so they are not caught by spellcheck..

That aside, this is an engaging little mystery, and perhaps the Chicagoest book I have read.Brown gives you enough clues to figure out more or less what's going on, but the real draw is the engaging character of Sweeny.

One reviewer below called the book homophobic.I think that's an overstatement.A book from 1949 is not going to have a modern view of homosexuality, but the atitude is very "live and let live", and Sweeny does come to respect the shop-keeper a bit.

Is it hard-boiled or an action thriller?Not really.Sweeney is a man of culture as much as deeds, and is only really in danger once, but Brown makes shoe-leather as interesting as shoot-outs.

they call this a classic?
I enjoyed reading this novel, all right-- parts are so bad they deserved to be enshrined in one of Pronzini's Gun In Cheek books.To say that the psychology in this novel is sound is akin to saying that an abandoned shack in the woods would pass building code inspection.And I'm not even factoring in Brown's homophobia (which, even as a straight guy, I found annoying) or the fact that a chronic alcoholic-- I'm sorry, _heavy drinker_-- could function as well as this reporter does.The ending, in which the reporter keeps the killer at bay (for several hours!) is deliciously bad in the best tradition of wretched pulp fiction.I recently read a few W. R. Burnett novels (Little Ceasar and Asphalt Jungle) which were written a decade or two before this but hold up a lot better.Brown has written some good stuff, but this novel doesn't deserve its "classic" status.

Be Careful What You Wish For----
Our guy, Sweeney, is so far over the top the only reason we believe him is because he's our narrator.Sweeney would make Hecht & McArthur's "Front Page" newspapermen look like weenies.Sweeney doesn't just occasionally drink too much; he binges out and spends weeks in the gutter, broke, filthy, and homeless.When Sweeney sobers up (just moderately), he is such a star reporter, his employer's leap to cater to his every whim.Like Wow!

In this 40's era Chicago-noir, Sweeney,while in a nearly comatose binge, witnesses a strange crime site through a plate glass door.A woman (is she dead?) is sprawled on the floor with a fearsome, slavering dog guarding her.No one can get by the dog to see what is wrong.The woman slowly rises, and drops her gown in a spectacular manner.Sweeney decides then and there 1) this is the most beautiful woman in the world and 2) he, Sweeney the Magnificent, will spend a night with her. And anything he wants badly enough, he gets.

Though Sweeney is a little uncertain if what he witnessed was an alcohol-induced hallucination, he finds out quickly it was the real thing.The police think The Ripper, who has terrorized Chicago with three victims, has made an abortive attack on the lady, but her dog saved her.She is an at-risk witness who might be in further danger.Sweeney intends to solve the crimes and get the girl.

Frederic Brown is an edgy writer with a razor sharp sense of humor.When Sweeney theorizes, we don't know if he is putting us on or himself. Mr. Brown is concise and sardonic with a crafty throwaway style.He leaves us always slightly off-balance, and then walks away.Take it, or leave it.Most readers will take it and line up for more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Nicely written summary of Brown's life, and work
Jack Seabrook has turned a mountain of research into a compact and readable book.Fredric Brown was a complex individual, and Seabrook paints an accurate (often painfully so) picture of the man.Seabrook's book alsoincludes a list of Brown's pulp fiction and novels for the collector, hasthoughtful analyses of Brown's work for the critic, and has humor andinsight for the curious.An excellent job and well worth the price ofadmission. ... Read more

Product Description
Have you ever heard about the little boy who beat the devil with a water pistol? Or the time Earth was invaded by some misgauided aliens? Then you have read Fredric Brown. ... Read more

Product Description
Mystery and science fiction writer Fredric Brown (1906-1972) remains best-known for his short fiction. His story "Arena" (in this volume) became the basis for a "Star Trek" episode of the same title. "Arena" was also voted by the membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the twenty finest SF stories of all time.

In addition to "Arena," this volume contains five more of Brown's classic tales: "Daymare," "The Little Lamb," "The Geezenstacks," "The Hat Trick," and "Don't Look Behind You." ... Read more

Product Description
Earthmen Bearing Gifts

Happy Ending

Hall of Mirrors

Keep Out

Two Timer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A neglected classic!Earth would never know what hit it!
Fredric Brown was one of science fiction's great authors, and this in my opinion is his finest novel, albeit overlooked by most critics and in fact out of print for years.I treasure my copy and if you can find it, buy it!

This is the story of a being from a distant star who is exiled from his/its home planet to a randomly selected primitive world: the Earth.He is sent here by teleportation.Under the laws of his exile, if he can return to his home world, he is both forgiven his crimes, and becomes a hero.

The being (The Mind Thing) has no arms or legs, and looks much like a tortoise shell minus the head and legs.But he possesses a terrible power.The Mind Thing can enter the mind (and thus control the body) of any sleeping creature.The catch is, it can only exit the possession of such a creature by killing it, i.e. by causing it to commit suicide.

The story focuses on the efforts of The Mind Thing to control the necessary humans to enable it to return to its home world.Oh, and by the way, The Mind Thing has determined that human beings are ideal hosts for its race, so if it succeeds in returning, eventually its race will raid the earth for its slave potential.More would be telling, but this is a wonderful, imaginative, and chilling tale that nevertheless is not without the usual whimsical humor and irony that the great Fredric Brown always imparted to his stories.

Don't miss this one if you can find it! ... Read more

Product Description
This sharp, ironic, tightly written thriller takes place during a single night, during which our narrator, editor of a small-city newspaper, shows what stuff journalists were made of then by consuming a truly epic amount of alcohol and unweaving an artfully tangled web. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Quick read
A strange tale, bolstered by arcane references to Alice In Wonderland, which at the core is a whodunit as experienced through an alcoholic haze by the narrator. That was my only problem with this entertaining book -- Doc is obsessed with liquor, and even if it's 1950, driving under the influence wasn't something to be proud of. The whole story is sort of preposterous, but that's what makes it so much fun. It reminded me a bit of Naked Came The Sasquatch by John Boston, except Jabberwock doesn't really involve the supernatural world.

Sad and So 1950's
A Lewis Carroll fan (a PhD who published one monograph and one article on Carroll and then ended up owning and editing a small-town weekly) is framed for murder.Brown tries very hard to make the unlikely seem possible.A fast read, with no "philosophy" or higher meaning.There is a disturbing dependence on drink throughout the book, as in all of Brown's books, which from today's vantage point is a little sad and so 1950's.

Artfully woven tale of strage events in a small town
Fredric Brown was a uniquely talented writer who created numerous clever works in both the mystery and science-fiction genres. "Night of the Jabberwock" fits in the former category. It describes the strange and harrowing adventures of one "Doc" Stoeger, a mild-mannered little man who edits a weekly newspaper in a small Illinois town circa 1950. As events progress, the borderline between reality and illusion becomes increasingly blurred, and our hero finds himself in increasing peril. This is a slim little book -- only 140 pages -- which can be polished off in a couple of hours if you're a reasonably fast reader. It's a fun read that will keep you guessing 'til near the end, and provides more than a couple of entertaining moments along the way. Worth seeking out.

The night the jabberwocks came to town
This is an awesome little book.Fredric Brown's writing is succinct and he weaves a very tight plot.The action in this book takes place during one night.The hero is a 53 year old guy named Doc Stoeger, and he has been complaining that nothing ever happens in his little town for him to print in his weekly newpaper.That is until one night!Then the whole town seems to go crazy and Stoeger is set into play by a very intelligent criminal.He sets Stoeger up to take the fall for two very heinous murders and plays him like a chess piece.The setting is 1950's small-town America, and the book will keep you turning pages until the end.Whatever you do, noir murder afficiondos, don't pass up this book.Beg, borrow or steal the book in order to read it.I picked up a very worn copy from a used bookseller in the States. (But you can't have mine!)

It All Happens One Night
Doc Stoeger is the editor of the Carmel Clarion, Carmel City's weekly newspaper, put to bed on Thursday night and released on Friday. On this particular Thursday night, the paper is looking extremely void of news and Doc complains that he wishes something would happen on a Thursday night to give him a hot story. As well as being editor of the local paper, Doc is also an aficionado of the works of Lewis Carroll and enjoys nothing more than spouting verse in Smiley's bar when work is over. The Lewis Carroll references become very important to the storyline and are scattered liberally throughout the book.

Before the night is half over, Doc's wishes come true as he is absolutely deluged with exciting stories that would make terrific reading the next morning. From bank robbers, to a factory fire, to the capture of a criminal gang. But as quickly as they break, the stories evaporate leaving him with the prospect of delivering a newspaper with nothing worthwhile to read.

In the midst of his newspaper worries, Doc is visited by a man calling himself Yehudi Smith - a name of great significance to a Lewis Carroll fan. Yehudi seems to know a great deal about Doc and about his fascination with Lewis Carroll and he invites Doc to accompany him later that night on a hunt for the Jabberwock. As surreal as this prospect seems, Doc is convinced that the prospect isn't as crazy as it first seems, so he agrees to go.

This is just the start of an amazing night for Doc Stoeger. Before the night is through, he finds himself in an unbelievably hopeless predicament on the run from the police, desperately trying to make sense of the night's events. It seems that the story goes off the rails and heads into the realms of fantasy, but the key to the whole story is hidden in the fact that, although everything that happens seems impossibly fantastic, when logic is applied and reasoned out carefully, the events become part of a very clever plot.

This is a brilliantly constructed book combining the strange and, at times, nonsensical talents of Lewis Carroll's brilliance with a scathingly clever mystery. This is the first book I have read by Fredric Brown, but I am now hopelessly and helplessly hooked.

And just as a teaser, here is an important verse of Lewis Carroll's that has a rather special meaning in Night of the Jabberwock:
As I was climbing up the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would go away ... Read more