The Fabulous Clipjoint

Vice and murder prowl Chicago--and one man hunts a killer through the glittering Gold Coast and seamy back alleys.  After Wally Hunter, a linotype operator, is found dead in a Chicago alley, his 18-year-old son, Ed, and his brother, Ambrose, a carny, try to find his killer. In the process, Ed learns things about his father he never knew and gets an education about life. Fast-paced and well thought out, both as a mystery and a bildungsroman, the novel gives a colorful glimpse of the seamy side of Chicago.