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Ed & Am Hunter #5
Death Has Many Doors
Fifth in the Ed and Am series, but last for several years (Brown worked on other projects from '52-58.) Having opened their own detective agency, Ed and Am start by taking cases passed along by former employer Starlock. One day a girl walks into their door, in fear of murder caused by Martians. The pair don't take her too seriously... until she winds up dead.
132 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Fredric Brown
814 books359 followersFredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was one of the boldest early writers in genre fiction in his use of narrative experimentation. While never in the front rank of popularity in his lifetime, Brown has developed a considerable cult following in the almost half century since he last wrote. His works have been periodically reprinted and he has a worldwide fan base, most notably in the U.S. and Europe, and especially in France, where there have been several recent movie adaptations of his work. He also remains popular in Japan.
Never financially secure, Brown - like many other pulp writers - often wrote at a furious pace in order to pay bills. This accounts, at least in part, for the uneven quality of his work. A newspaperman by profession, Brown was only able to devote 14 years of his life as a full-time fiction writer. Brown was also a heavy drinker, and this at times doubtless affected his productivity. A cultured man and omnivorous reader whose interests ranged far beyond those of most pulp writers, Brown had a lifelong interest in the flute, chess, poker, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Brown married twice and was the father of two sons.
Never financially secure, Brown - like many other pulp writers - often wrote at a furious pace in order to pay bills. This accounts, at least in part, for the uneven quality of his work. A newspaperman by profession, Brown was only able to devote 14 years of his life as a full-time fiction writer. Brown was also a heavy drinker, and this at times doubtless affected his productivity. A cultured man and omnivorous reader whose interests ranged far beyond those of most pulp writers, Brown had a lifelong interest in the flute, chess, poker, and the works of Lewis Carroll. Brown married twice and was the father of two sons.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 6, 2022
Death Has Many Doors is the fifth book in Brown’s Ed and Am series. It is a light-boiled detective story that combines Brown’s interest in mysteries and science fiction. This is indeed a mystery involving Martians and Ed doesn’t quite to know what to make of his client’s fear of martians at least until things go really wrong. While this is an amusing series, this volume doesn’t quite stand out either in terms of plot or feel. And when you hear the resolution of this mess, it might just not believable.
March 2, 2025
A 1951 mystery that goes all over the place. There's an interesting set up, a very interesting second murder, but it all wraps up too quickly, and mostly in an unssen location.
Beautiful Sally Doerr walks into the detective offices of Am and Ed Hunter (Uncle and nephew) and wants to purchase their protection because she believes she's going to be killed that night. Killed by Martians. Naturally the Hunters think she's psychotic and Ed feels sorry for her. He takes her out to dinner, against the advice of his uncle, and goes to her apartment to stay the night to make sure nothing happens. There's nothing that happens between the pair, as he stays in the living room and she goes to her bedroom. The next morning she's dead.
This is where the book begins to take some turns. Is her death natural or questionable? How did Ed not hear someone go in there? Ed blames himself for her death and begins to investigate it. Things take a very interesting turn when another client appears and things go decidedly south.
I had a tough time continuing the book after Sally's death because I didn't understand why Ed kept on it. I had an easier time continuing when the character at the end of Chapter 5 appears. Things got very interesting, considering what had come before this character's appearance, so I wanted to see what would happen. It did not disappoint.
Sadly, the ending was disappointing. It's solved elsewhere without Ed's input and seemed too far fetched. The reason for the murder was believable, but how it was carried out was too much for me. So, I have to give the book a mixed review.
Beautiful Sally Doerr walks into the detective offices of Am and Ed Hunter (Uncle and nephew) and wants to purchase their protection because she believes she's going to be killed that night. Killed by Martians. Naturally the Hunters think she's psychotic and Ed feels sorry for her. He takes her out to dinner, against the advice of his uncle, and goes to her apartment to stay the night to make sure nothing happens. There's nothing that happens between the pair, as he stays in the living room and she goes to her bedroom. The next morning she's dead.
This is where the book begins to take some turns. Is her death natural or questionable? How did Ed not hear someone go in there? Ed blames himself for her death and begins to investigate it. Things take a very interesting turn when another client appears and things go decidedly south.
I had a tough time continuing the book after Sally's death because I didn't understand why Ed kept on it. I had an easier time continuing when the character at the end of Chapter 5 appears. Things got very interesting, considering what had come before this character's appearance, so I wanted to see what would happen. It did not disappoint.
Sadly, the ending was disappointing. It's solved elsewhere without Ed's input and seemed too far fetched. The reason for the murder was believable, but how it was carried out was too much for me. So, I have to give the book a mixed review.
August 19, 2018
Another Entertaining Ed and Am Hunter Novel
Number five in a series of seven Ed and Am Hunter novels, “Death Has Many Doors” is a bit soft without the violence I like to see in this genre. The author, however, lives up to his more intellectual approach and I found the first 170 or so pages quite suspenseful. Tension builds slowly and methodically to an ending I found somewhat anticlimactic. Also, there are fewer quirky characters than in previous novels in the series, only two deaths, and the slightest hint of sex. There is a rather unconvincing fight scene.
It is interesting to encounter talk of Martians and a little esoteric chatter about parapsychology. There are attempts to “hard-boil” the novel, but there is no follow through. I love passages like, “She had red hair and everything that should go with it. I wouldn’t quite say she was beautiful, but she’d do until someone beautiful came along.” But that’s about all we get.
I am reading the series in order and I do believe the characters have developed a bit. They remain very consistent and I feel like I know them. Frederic Brown, who also writes science fiction, has great breadth and depth of knowledge on many diverse topics and that knowledge certainly adds a lot. Sometimes his methods of introducing that knowledge is a bit awkward – here, some knowledge of electrical phenomena come in through a weird eleven-year-old.
Overall, an entertaining story, well-told, and well worth reading. I am looking forward to the last two in this series.
Number five in a series of seven Ed and Am Hunter novels, “Death Has Many Doors” is a bit soft without the violence I like to see in this genre. The author, however, lives up to his more intellectual approach and I found the first 170 or so pages quite suspenseful. Tension builds slowly and methodically to an ending I found somewhat anticlimactic. Also, there are fewer quirky characters than in previous novels in the series, only two deaths, and the slightest hint of sex. There is a rather unconvincing fight scene.
It is interesting to encounter talk of Martians and a little esoteric chatter about parapsychology. There are attempts to “hard-boil” the novel, but there is no follow through. I love passages like, “She had red hair and everything that should go with it. I wouldn’t quite say she was beautiful, but she’d do until someone beautiful came along.” But that’s about all we get.
I am reading the series in order and I do believe the characters have developed a bit. They remain very consistent and I feel like I know them. Frederic Brown, who also writes science fiction, has great breadth and depth of knowledge on many diverse topics and that knowledge certainly adds a lot. Sometimes his methods of introducing that knowledge is a bit awkward – here, some knowledge of electrical phenomena come in through a weird eleven-year-old.
Overall, an entertaining story, well-told, and well worth reading. I am looking forward to the last two in this series.
August 6, 2017
Ed and Am Hunter are back and they've started their own detective agency. They're mostly getting by on small stuff sent to them by their former employer The Starling Agency. Then in walks a red-headed young lady who is firmly convinced she will be killed by Martians. And Ed and Am are drawn into two deaths that appear to be natural, but they are convinced are murders.
This was the last in the classic series by Brown before he went off to work on other things. He would come back for two more books about a decade later. This is a decent entry in the series. Brown plays pretty fair about what is going on and how it all adds up. For the most part it's pretty obvious who the guilty party is and why. And the second murder is pretty easy to figure out. The first one...not so much.
A decent entry. My understanding is that the two later books (particularly the last entry) aren't really up to snuff. But I guess I'll go ahead and give them a shot.
I will say that Brown flirted with sex in a pretty progressive way for the time, without getting into it in an exploitative manner.
This was the last in the classic series by Brown before he went off to work on other things. He would come back for two more books about a decade later. This is a decent entry in the series. Brown plays pretty fair about what is going on and how it all adds up. For the most part it's pretty obvious who the guilty party is and why. And the second murder is pretty easy to figure out. The first one...not so much.
A decent entry. My understanding is that the two later books (particularly the last entry) aren't really up to snuff. But I guess I'll go ahead and give them a shot.
I will say that Brown flirted with sex in a pretty progressive way for the time, without getting into it in an exploitative manner.
September 11, 2007
This is another enjoyable Ed and Am Hunter mystery novel, the fifth in the series. (Note: I did not read the blackmask.com edition pictured here; I was unhappy with the proofreading, layout, and typography of two of their other Fredric Brown books.)
October 21, 2024
Ultimately one of the least interesting, least successful novels I have read from Fredric Brown, one of my favourite Crime & Mystery authors.
I've got no problem with the Martian angle - a woman sure that Martians are trying to kill her, Martians seeming to be lurking in the background, making phone calls that steer murder investigations in a preferred direction. This is a variation of so many Mysteries that have come before, whether it be John Dickson Carr suggesting ghosts, phantoms; whether it be Anthony Boucher or whomever throwing in some character who seems to have mystical powers or telekinetic abilities; whether a generations-old curse is the first and easiest way to explain a rash of murders among modern, supposedly doomed descendants. Throw this stuff in, authors, amp up the creepy aspect of your strange whodunit...and debunk away at your convenience. There's also the fact that Fredric Brown's recurring fascination with Martians is a bit charming, and to see the author of Martians Go Home transplant anything Martian over to his Crime & Mystery output - some short stories, or this novel - makes cool in-joke connections that are pure Fredric Brown. Jack Seabrook's biography of Fredric Brown is titled Martians and Misplaced Clues for more than one reason. Fredric Brown simply liked Martians, even alleged Martians. I love the moment in this novel where amateur shamus Ed Hunter does suddenly seem to be standing in front of a homicidal Martian; Fredric Brown was always great at the closest thing to a cinematic jump-scare you can get in a book.
I also read this novel at perhaps the perfect time, and that has to do with complete coincidence; I had just read the Clare Winger Harris short story 'The Fate of the Poseidonia'. It's a fun Science Fiction story: a guy is convinced some strange and catastrophic events on Earth are the fault of Martians, and Martians have infiltrated Earth. He ends up committed to a mental institution, locked away from a world that seems to have problems that do require some outside-the-box-maybe-think-Martians-after-all thinking. All I can say is, by pure chance, this was the perfect short story to read before heading directly to Death Has Many Doors.
No, my main problem here is: everything is just too obvious, too early. I copped to most of the 'mystery details', and avoided red herrings, all the way along the line. I found this book very transparent, even if it did remain entertaining throughout. I wanted it to surprise me, and it didn't - and that's where a 3-star rating comes from. It's funny, because I read a much later Ed and Am Hunter series offering - The Late Lamented - not too long ago, and gave it 4 stars even though it had one big flaw that Death Has Many Doors does not have: The Late Lamented has no patented Fredric Brown suspense. The Late Lamented is lacking a certain Fredric Brown energy - BUT, the whodunit, the premise, the mechanics of The Late Lamented, are more satisfying. Put simply, I didn't have The Late Lamented pretty much figured out. By contrast, Death Has Many Doors - mainly because of the hidden 'Martians' - does have an unsettling aspect to it, that I feel keeps the book afloat...but the lurking threat of whoever those evil Martians really are, couldn't compensate for a weak whodunit. Finally, one aspect of how murder was committed does seem too far-fetched, or suddenly thrust upon us without proper groundwork to get the reader to believe such-and-such.
It pains me to think of anyone starting here, when it comes to Fredric Brown's Mystery output. This can't compare to Night of the Jabberwock, The Screaming Mimi, His Name Was Death, Knock Three-One-Two, The Far Cry, or even the earlier Ed and Am Hunter novels. On that subject, the first Ed and Am Hunter novel is so different than all the others; everything after The Fabulous Clipjoint is so much more off the wall, so full of bizarre, Scooby Doo-esque, Fredric Brown-style improbability. The Dead Ringer brought in creepy carnival weirdness - and by the third book, The Bloody Moonlight, with its possible werewolf, plus a weird radio that tunes in aliens, things had moved far away from the realism, and the attempt at serious psychological underpinnings, that formed The Fabulous Clipjoint. I'm not complaining. I can never attack Fredric Brown's inventiveness; relying on it has served me well. And I know that if I want more books by Fredric Brown that are like The Fabulous Clipjoint, ironically, I need to go outside the Ed and Am Hunter series, a series where Brown decided to go with his wildest ideas for Mystery novels. In The Late Lamented, Brown can't generate his familiar brand of suspense and lurking menace, but he still delivers a very readable novel, and a better Mystery. Death Has Many Doors still has that edginess the author likes to build up, but the mystery is not mysterious.
I've got no problem with the Martian angle - a woman sure that Martians are trying to kill her, Martians seeming to be lurking in the background, making phone calls that steer murder investigations in a preferred direction. This is a variation of so many Mysteries that have come before, whether it be John Dickson Carr suggesting ghosts, phantoms; whether it be Anthony Boucher or whomever throwing in some character who seems to have mystical powers or telekinetic abilities; whether a generations-old curse is the first and easiest way to explain a rash of murders among modern, supposedly doomed descendants. Throw this stuff in, authors, amp up the creepy aspect of your strange whodunit...and debunk away at your convenience. There's also the fact that Fredric Brown's recurring fascination with Martians is a bit charming, and to see the author of Martians Go Home transplant anything Martian over to his Crime & Mystery output - some short stories, or this novel - makes cool in-joke connections that are pure Fredric Brown. Jack Seabrook's biography of Fredric Brown is titled Martians and Misplaced Clues for more than one reason. Fredric Brown simply liked Martians, even alleged Martians. I love the moment in this novel where amateur shamus Ed Hunter does suddenly seem to be standing in front of a homicidal Martian; Fredric Brown was always great at the closest thing to a cinematic jump-scare you can get in a book.
I also read this novel at perhaps the perfect time, and that has to do with complete coincidence; I had just read the Clare Winger Harris short story 'The Fate of the Poseidonia'. It's a fun Science Fiction story: a guy is convinced some strange and catastrophic events on Earth are the fault of Martians, and Martians have infiltrated Earth. He ends up committed to a mental institution, locked away from a world that seems to have problems that do require some outside-the-box-maybe-think-Martians-after-all thinking. All I can say is, by pure chance, this was the perfect short story to read before heading directly to Death Has Many Doors.
No, my main problem here is: everything is just too obvious, too early. I copped to most of the 'mystery details', and avoided red herrings, all the way along the line. I found this book very transparent, even if it did remain entertaining throughout. I wanted it to surprise me, and it didn't - and that's where a 3-star rating comes from. It's funny, because I read a much later Ed and Am Hunter series offering - The Late Lamented - not too long ago, and gave it 4 stars even though it had one big flaw that Death Has Many Doors does not have: The Late Lamented has no patented Fredric Brown suspense. The Late Lamented is lacking a certain Fredric Brown energy - BUT, the whodunit, the premise, the mechanics of The Late Lamented, are more satisfying. Put simply, I didn't have The Late Lamented pretty much figured out. By contrast, Death Has Many Doors - mainly because of the hidden 'Martians' - does have an unsettling aspect to it, that I feel keeps the book afloat...but the lurking threat of whoever those evil Martians really are, couldn't compensate for a weak whodunit. Finally, one aspect of how murder was committed does seem too far-fetched, or suddenly thrust upon us without proper groundwork to get the reader to believe such-and-such.
It pains me to think of anyone starting here, when it comes to Fredric Brown's Mystery output. This can't compare to Night of the Jabberwock, The Screaming Mimi, His Name Was Death, Knock Three-One-Two, The Far Cry, or even the earlier Ed and Am Hunter novels. On that subject, the first Ed and Am Hunter novel is so different than all the others; everything after The Fabulous Clipjoint is so much more off the wall, so full of bizarre, Scooby Doo-esque, Fredric Brown-style improbability. The Dead Ringer brought in creepy carnival weirdness - and by the third book, The Bloody Moonlight, with its possible werewolf, plus a weird radio that tunes in aliens, things had moved far away from the realism, and the attempt at serious psychological underpinnings, that formed The Fabulous Clipjoint. I'm not complaining. I can never attack Fredric Brown's inventiveness; relying on it has served me well. And I know that if I want more books by Fredric Brown that are like The Fabulous Clipjoint, ironically, I need to go outside the Ed and Am Hunter series, a series where Brown decided to go with his wildest ideas for Mystery novels. In The Late Lamented, Brown can't generate his familiar brand of suspense and lurking menace, but he still delivers a very readable novel, and a better Mystery. Death Has Many Doors still has that edginess the author likes to build up, but the mystery is not mysterious.
November 26, 2023
This one is that odd combination of both compulsively engrossing and increasingly preposterous. A friend passed this pulp onto me, in its Bantam Mystery 25 cent paperback version, and the book was literally falling apart in my hands as I read it, which was fitting, because it is a bit of a relic from another era. Didn't know anything about Brown or his Ed and Ambrose Hunter series, but gather from the other comments that this is one of the weaker outings, so I will give some of the others a try. According to his Wikipedia entry, he hated to write, and would do just about anything to avoid his vocation. Something of that resentment comes through in the writing: he seems impatient at having to take his characters through the process of tracking down their theories of these crimes and you can sense the writer chafing at having to try to hold the whole enterprise together with at least a patina of credibility. Still, living here, loved the setting in an unforgivingly hot Chicago August. The patter is not as snappy as Brown tries to make it, but he does have considerable skill at pulp pacing. Looking forward to going on some of the other rides in the series.
September 6, 2025
Fredric Brown punta narrativamente più in alto del solito e conduce il lettore in una bizzarra storia di delitti impossibili, figure femminili quasi fantasmatiche e paranoie su persecuzioni marziane. Un susseguirsi di situazioni così affascinanti nella loro apparente illogicità da far montare esponenzialmente la curiosità circa la conclusione, sulla quale finisce per scaricarsi il peso di tutto il romanzo. Essa si rivela, come prevedibile, non all'altezza delle premesse, sebbene nel complesso passabile: soluzione del whodunit non sorprendente, prima parte dell'enigma piuttosto ben risolta, seconda piuttosto forzata, oltre che prevedibile. Per il resto, Brown riesce a conferire scorrevolezza agli intermezzi tra una sterzata e l'altra della vicenda, con un tono vagamente hard-boiled gestito con leggerezza e ironia.
***
Letto in I classici del Giallo Mondadori, 2002, titolo "Uno strano cliente"
***
Letto in I classici del Giallo Mondadori, 2002, titolo "Uno strano cliente"
December 5, 2024
A Weaker Ed And Am Mystery
Brown’s mysteries featuring the nephew and uncle team of Ed and Ambrose Hunter are generally pretty good, but this is a weaker entry in the series. Investigating the mysterious deaths of two sisters, they do their best to follow leads but in this case the leads don’t bring them into contact with the sorts of entertaining characters found in the other books. And the solution to the mystery is a bit far-fetched for my taste. As always it’s well written, but a lesser book in terms of plot and characterization. Side note: As part of the story, Brown mentions a couple of real world things of interest - Dr. J. B. Rhine and his parapsychology studies at Duke University and the book Life On Other Worlds by astronomer H. Spencer Jones.
Brown’s mysteries featuring the nephew and uncle team of Ed and Ambrose Hunter are generally pretty good, but this is a weaker entry in the series. Investigating the mysterious deaths of two sisters, they do their best to follow leads but in this case the leads don’t bring them into contact with the sorts of entertaining characters found in the other books. And the solution to the mystery is a bit far-fetched for my taste. As always it’s well written, but a lesser book in terms of plot and characterization. Side note: As part of the story, Brown mentions a couple of real world things of interest - Dr. J. B. Rhine and his parapsychology studies at Duke University and the book Life On Other Worlds by astronomer H. Spencer Jones.
April 11, 2020
As per usual, his endings are a bit silly, or underwhelming, but the buildup is a lot of fun.
November 30, 2022
maybe 3 1/2
Old fashioned. A few things wouldn’t be in a modern tale. But I liked it and the two heroes. The ending was semi acceptable. I liked it well enough to want to read another.
Old fashioned. A few things wouldn’t be in a modern tale. But I liked it and the two heroes. The ending was semi acceptable. I liked it well enough to want to read another.
January 22, 2013
This is a not bad little mystery, about a woman who thinks Martians are after her and then dies an apparently natural death, followed by her sister. It's well done but not spectacular.
May 16, 2013
Ottimo romanzo con una strepitosa camera chiusa:
http://lamortesaleggere.myblog.it/arc...
http://lamortesaleggere.myblog.it/arc...
May 16, 2013
Great novel with a thrilling locked room.
Article on :
http://deathcanread.blogspot.it/2012/...
Article on :
http://deathcanread.blogspot.it/2012/...
March 30, 2016
Good read for a weekend! The story is bit unlikely but well done
October 2, 2016
Fast-paced, pulp classic.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews