I received another of his mysteries that I could afford on Ebay; *The Deep End
*
Damn, he’s good!
Agreed. I’ve read The Deep End.
I had been familiar with Brown’s science fiction and fantasy work for a long time (starting when I read Arena in an anthology). He was one of the great “short story with a twist” writers who flourished in the 1950s pulps (although he’d been publishing since well before then), but i hadn’t realized that he also wrote mysteries until I came across a recommendation for his The Night of the Jabberwock in Martin Gardner’s The Annotated Alice. I got a copy of Zomba’s omnibus edition of Brown, which included three other great Brown mysteries – his first, The Fabulous Clipjoint (which got hi m an Edgar), The Screaming mimi, and Knock 3-2-1.
Over the next few years I picked up other Brown mysteries. In the 1980s and eaely 1990s there waqs usually at least one out every year in reprint, and Dennis Mcmillan books published a collection of Brown’s prevciously uncollected short mysteries, first as collector’s hardcovers then as paperbacks. I got all the paperback editions, and wish they’d published the rest of the series. I also picked up many in used book stores from the 50s and 60s.
Sadly, nobody seems to be printing him anymore. Used bookstores are pretty much gone. I haven’t seen a Brown book in either a new or used bookshop in years (and I look). Your best bet is online booksellers. I highly recommend the anthology [iCarnival of Crime*, which collects his best short mysteries and has an extensive bibliography in the back.
There have been several movies and TV shows ostensibly based on Brown works, but the ones I’ve seen haven’t beren very good, or faithful (Star Trek’s episode Arena is typical. If you think you know the Brown story from the TV show – well, you don’t. Read the story by Brown). Maybe someday someone will do a faithful Brown adaptation, unlike dreck like the film version of Martian, go Home!.
Brown was one of three people thanked in the dedication of Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land. I think the Carnival scenes in that book wouldn’t have been written had not Heinlein been inspired by Brown’s stories set in carnivals (Part of The Fabulous Clipjoint and its sequels cwere set in a carnival, as were the short stories The Freak Show Murders and The Pickled Punks, whicgh later became the novel * Madball*), Brown had worked in a carnival himself, and the experience shows.
There’s a few things available as print on demand, but most of them are individual short stories.
But there is The Freakshow Murders And A Cat from Siam (Brown’s 6-part 1942 story, a spiralling descent into bloody murder, psychosis, mind control and hallucination (it says!) coming out from Creation Oneiros in October. $14.95 for 160 pages.
Or in July, for $95, Centipede Press have a posh 360 page volume called His Name Was Death, which includes the title novel and two short stories.
To this day, “Answer” is the only thing I’ve ever read by Frederic Brown.
Still one of the greatest (and shortest) short stories of all time, in any genre.
So… what else SHOULD I read of his?
Yep. Good writer. Answer was also what (supposedly) gave Doug Addams the idea for Deep Thought and 42.
Somewhat related quote which shows how good Fred’s ideas hold up even when changed wildly for TV shows and movies: “I know! You construct a weapon. Look around, can you form some sort of rudimentary lathe?”
The Fabulous Clip Joint is the first in a series of mysteries using the same protagonists.
I’ve read a collection of his short stories called From These Ashes. They’re all good, but I particularly recommend the ones called “Nightmare in Blue”, “Nightmare in Red”, and various other colors.
I loved the “Nightmare” stores, especially the wicked “Nightmare in Yellow.” They were once collected in an anthology “Nightmares and Geezenstacks.”
When you write short short stories, you are competing with Fredric Brown even now.
As observed in post #2. They were Ed and Am Hunter. The series, like most series, petered out as it went along, but the first several ones were pretty good.
How the hell can a title like “Mrs. Murphy’s Panties” be petered out?
Oh, wait…