1948 Edgar Award Winner Ed Hunter is eighteen, and he isn\'t happy.
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..
Then his father doesn\'t come home one night, and Ed finds out how good he had it.
Ed wants out, he wants to live, he wants to see the world before it\'s too late.
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. 1948 Edgar Award Winner Ed Hunter is eighteen, and he isn\'t happy