by Isaac Asimov
The prolific Isaac Asimov (author or editor of over 300 books) is most well known as a writer of science fiction, even though he essentially stopped writing in the genre for the last twenty years of his life (picking up only at the end with an additional Foundation and Empire novel). Although he did write several mystery novels (including two science fiction ones – Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun) in the mystery genre Asimov made his name known as the creator of a popular series of short stories featuring The Black Widowers, most of which were published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. (Some of them were written for his own magazine, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and others were written specifically for the book collections, in order to fill them out to a specific number.)
The Black Widowers are a group of six or seven men (there numbers vary from story to story) who meet once a month at a local restaurant for dinner and conversation. They are:
Geoffrey Avalon, a patent lawyer;
Asimov gives each of the characters his own distinctive characteristics, and not all of them are particularly likeable, but half the fun of reading the stories is in settling down with ‘familiar friends’ and trying to outwit them.
At each of their meetings, one of the members brings a guest, someone of interest whom they can ‘grill.’ Starting with ‘The Acquisitive Chuckle,’ each of these guests brings a problem to the table – a mystery of some kind which the Black Widowers endeavor to solve. Invariably, it is Henry, the waiter, who is able to separate the wheat from the chaff of the Widower’s remarks and come up with the correct solution.
These are essentially fair play stories. Clues depend on word play more than anything else. As Asimov writes in an afterword to the story 'The Next Day' (in Casebook of the Black Widowers) ‘I sometimes wonder on how small an ambiguity it is possible to hang a Black Widower’s plot.’ (Sometimes it is very small!) Stories in this series range from how a college student could have cheated on a test, to where an old man has hidden $10,000 in bonds, to why a suspected spy always hums a certain tune when he’s being interrogated.
An added bonus of this collection is reading Asimov’s afterwords to each story, wherein he identifies where the story was first published, and explains such things as the genesis of the plot, the genesis of a character name, or mistakes that readers might have pointed out in the story.
Fans of this series will be glad to know that there are five collections of Widowers stories (Tales (1974), More Tales (1976), Casebook (1980), Banquets of (1985) and Puzzles of (1990).
1. The Acquisitive Chuckle (EQMM, January, 1972)
Thomas Trumbull, a code expert for the government;
Emmanuel Rubin, a successful writer;
James Drake, an organic chemist;
Mario Gonzalez, an artist;
Roger Halsted, a math teacher;
and Henry, their waiter and ex officio member.
2. PH as in Phony (EQMM, July 1972)
3. Truth to Tell (EQMM, October, 1972)
4. Go, Little Book! (EQMM, December 1972)
5. Early Sunday Morning (EQMM, March 1973)
6. The Obvious Factor (EQMM, May 1973)
7. The Pointing Finger (EQMM, July 1973)
8. Miss What? (EQMM, September 1973)
9. The Lullaby of Broadway (written for Tales)
10. Yankee Doodle Went to Town (written for Tales)
11. The Curious Omission (written for Tales)
12. Out of Sight (EQMM December 1973)
This review copyright
May 24, 2000.
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