Tales of Blkwidowers

The Black Widowers is a group of men who meet once a month to engage in animated discussion. Although superficially it may appear that their relationships are tense, they are in fact quite fond of each other. Hosting the dinner is a revolving responsibility and the host is allowed to bring a guest. Once the dinner is complete, the guest is grilled, with the line opening the grilling, "How do you justify your existence?" This leads to a puzzle, which is bantered back and forth between the members. Once they reach an impasse, Henry the devoted waiter to the group, steps in and comes up with the solution. These stories revolve around the spirit of the chase, the style and tactics of the banter between the members as they throw ideas out and maneuver themselves into an apparent impasse. Finally, after this point is reached, Henry very politely interjects or is simply asked for his opinion. These are not powerful, intense mysteries and there is only the slightest hint of violence. They are generally short stories about the type of puzzle that regular people would encounter and be forced to solve.

The Black Widowers meet once a month at the Milano Restaurant, taking the task of host in rotation. Each month the host brings a guest for grilling, traditionally beginning with 'How do you justify your existence?' and ending with ferreting out some mystery. After the six regular members have cleared the ground, the seventh - Henry, the waiter - always solves the problem.Most of Asimov's Black Widowers stories first saw the light of day in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (EQMM), except those written to round out collections. EQMM retitled half of them; Asimov has reverted all but one title change. The club is based on the real-life Trap Door Spiders, a stag club created so that the members could meet without involving one friend's disagreeable wife. Asimov, as a member, has based some of the Widowers on fellow club-members.I find the by-play between the Black Widowers entertaining in itself. Drake is the original reason for the no-women rule. Halstead, high school mathematics teacher, has an ongoing hobby of writing limericks for each chapter of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Trumbull works for an unspecified agency as a code-breaker; when he's not host, he's usually chief griller, and is the most apt to shout down the other members when they stray off-topic. Avalon is dignified, pedantic - good for the odd spot of in-character exposition. At the other extreme, Gonzalo, the youngest, is usually eager for each puzzle to appear. As a professional artist, he caricatures each guest, and enjoys trading insults with Rubin (mystery writer and deputy chief griller). Rubin also finds reason, at least once per book, to libel another writer of his acquaintance: one Isaac Asimov. :)"The Acquisitive Chuckle" - Host: Avalon. Hanley Bartram believes that, as a private investigator, his clients find his existence justified - when he's successful. He asked Avalon for an invitation because he thought the Widowers might help him settle an old case. Anderson, a grasping character, was sure that his fanatically honest ex-business partner had scored off him by taking *something* from his house - but he couldn't figure out *what*."Ph As in Phony" - (EQMM = 'The Phony Ph.D.' to avoid confusion with the Graftonesque titles of another author.) Host: Trumbull, whose guest is a Ph.D. in chemistry at Berry, where Drake did his graduate work. Drake is reminded of a fellow student - mediocre in every way - who somehow scored a 96% from the fire-breathing Professor St. George. How did he manage to cheat?"Truth to Tell" - (EQMM = 'The Man Who Never Told a Lie') Host: Gonzalo, whose guest (the title character) is chief suspect in a theft from his uncle's firm. His uncle knows he wouldn't lie, but without a plausible scenario of what *did* happen, Sands' career is at a dead end."Go, Little Book!" - (EQMM = 'The Matchbook Collector') Host: Rubin, whose guest had lunch with the title character the previous day - someone Trumbull's been after for months, who has an unbroken system of pas

I have devoured Asimov's Sci-fi for years, and only when I ran out of books and short stories written by him alone did I accidentally run into his mysteries. They show a more playful side of Asimov that is a real treat and and a side that certainly helps temper his "great brain", "prolific writer" image. The stories are great mind teasers wherein Isaac plays with the reader. Great fun!

The stories contained in this volume revolve around the Black Widowers, a group of men, who met monthly for a dinner resided over by the waiter Henry. Each month a member brings a special guest, and the stories are about their mystery. The members are drawn from people who were friends of Isaac Asimov. The mysteryies are all entertaining, as are the solutions. All of the personalities seem to engage you in their antics.