So many of us are familiar with the late physicist and author Isaac Asimov; mostly through his widely-read science fiction novels. He's the man responsible for the gentleman robot series -- including a short story made into the motion picture Bicentennial Man. He's also the author of one of the best-known science fiction series of all, the Foundation Trilogy.

But how many of us knew that Isaac Asimov also wrote mysteries?

Yes, I said mysteries... Not only did he publish a series of science-fiction-based mysteries featuring Wendell Urth (Asimov's Mysteries) and at least one rank-and-file mystery novel (Murder at the ABA), he was also a regular contributor to "Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine." Most (if not all) of the short stories Asimov published in that periodical were based on occurrences at the monthly meetings of a fictitious New York club named the Black Widowers. The club members welcomed a guest to each meeting, so there were always eight attendees: the members, a guest, and the waiter, Henry.

In Tales of the Black Widowers, Asimov reprinted twelve of the Black Widower stories, each of which is a fifteen- to twenty-page puzzle. Here are some details.


A Common Format

All of the stories (except one*) take place in the upstairs dining room of the Milano Restaurant; where the membership's needs are attended to by the redoubtable Henry. Sis members comprise the Black Widowers Club: Geoffrey Avalon, James Drake, Emmanuel Rubin, Mario Gonzalo, Roger Halsted, and Thomas Trumbull. At their once-a-month meeting, the host is charged with bringing a guest with an interesting story to impart to the others. The stories themselves are invariably mysterious: puzzles in logic, questions of human nature, riddles arising from double entendre, and the like.

After dinner, as the members settle back in their chairs to sip their post-prandial brandies and puff thoughtfully on fine cigars, this month's guest poses the mystery. The membership, then, attempt to rise to the occasion: bantering, haranguing, cajoling, querying, and even sometimes sniping; they pepper the poor guest with questions and impertinent suggestions. After several increasingly implausible possible solutions have been presented, one of the attendees invariably asks the key question to the mystery's solution.

All of the stories have in common certain elements:

- identification of the membership, usually with reference to their professions
- a joke, limerick, or other "amusement" offered by one of the members (usually Drake)
- reference to the "rules" of the club (no discussion of women -- in fact, no women in the room; no questions of the guest before dessert; etc.)
- introduction of Henry, the waiter


The Stories

There are an even dozen (another dozen or so made it into a followup named, unsurprisingly, More Tales of the Black Widowers). In the earliest stories, "The Acquisitive Chuckle" and "Ph as in Phony," the pattern of mystery-fumbling-solution is established; the guests are simply people with interesting stories. In later stories ("Go, Little Book!" and "The Obvious Factor," for instance) the pattern runs true to form (although certain members tend to grouse about always having puzzles).

The subject matter is diverse: "Go, Little Book!" deals with a cipher puzzle surrounding a collection of matchbooks. The puzzle in "Miss What?" is about a threat to the contestants of the Miss Earth beauty pageant. "Out of Sight" deals with industrial espionage. The Black Widowers pull out all the stops every time; researching questions in the club's reference books (which are kept in the dining room) and putting their diverse bodies of knowledge together in an effort to solve. It rather reminds me of pub trivia nights...

And when the answer is revealed, it's invariably slap-your-forehead-and mutter "Why didn't I think of that!" time.


The Good and the Bad

The tales are all short and sweet. Like much of Asimov's work, they tend to be sexist (women are either absent or greatly subordinate characters); this is pretty much par for the course with scifi writers of Asimov's generation (see Heinlein for confirmation). Each is rather entertaining on its own: Asimov's conversational writing style is generally folksy and friendly (as he mentions in his foreword), which makes the stories easy reading. Most of the puzzles turn on a single plot detail, and so can be difficult if you're not reading carefully.

A major problem with the format is that all twelve tales were written to stand alone. As such, there's a body of information that's repeated every time; including a running gag about Trumbull's late arrival accompanied by the cry, "Henry, a scotch and soda for a dying man!" The repetition tends to get old if you read all the stories consecutively. This one's a good book to pick up for quick bursts in between other books.


A Real Club?

According to Asimov's foreword, he was a member of a New York-based club not unlike that depicted in Tales of the Black Widowers, which went (goes?) by the name of the Trapdoor Spiders. Like the Black Widowers, every member is addressed by the others as "Doctor," the title having been conferred by his membership. All members are charged with arranging to have the club mentioned in their obituaries.

In the case of Asimov -- who was in the Guinness Book of World Records for having published in the most categories of the Dewey Decimal System -- there apparently wasn't room. Upon his death (6 April 1992, obituaries listed some of his 400-plus book titles, his honors, his biography, his accomplishments. But none I read listed his membership in the Trapdoor Spiders. More's the pity.





* The odd one ("Lullaby of Broadway") takes place in Emmanuel Rubin's apartment; Henry attends as a member rather than the waiter


Recommended: Yes