Casebook of the Black Widowers

Rating:
Summary: Another 12 sessions of Black Widower grilling
Review: Briefly, Asimov wrote Black Widower short stories for _Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine_ for years, rounding out each batch to a dozen with a few previously unpublished episodes for each new Widower collection. The Widowers are a stag club who meet once a month at the Milano restaurant: Avalon (patent attorney), Drake (research chemist), Gonzalo (painter), Halsted (teacher), Rubin (author), and Trumbull (intelligence analyst). They rotate the office of host; each month's host brings a guest for an evening of dinner, conversation, and grilling, and each eventually produces a problem of some kind for the Widowers to try to solve. (Problem-solving isn't the point of the club; Avalon, for one, grumbles about how the grilling always seems to degenerate into sleuthing, lately.) The seventh Widower - Henry, the waiter - always produces the solution after the other six have batted the problem around awhile.

"The Cross of Lorraine" - Host: Rubin. Guest: the Amazing Larri, a stage magician with a sideline in exposing psychic fraudsters. (However, Larri's discourse on psychics is only the prologue to his problem; for a story concentrating on psychics, see _Tales of the Black Widowers_). Larri wants to make a lady reappear: Gwendolyn, whom he met on a long bus ride. But a young French fellow-passenger could offer only one clue as to her destination. [Implausible for an 8-year-old to have spotted the main clue without being able to give clearer directions.]

"A Case of Income Tax Fraud" (a.k.a. "The Family Man") The evening's guest initially casts a pall over the banquet by revealing that he's employed by the IRS. (The griller, learning this, says that "you can have no friends here, or possibly anywhere.") His recollection for the evening is of a fraudster who managed, apparently quite innocently, to mislead him about his identity by giving the impression of being a family man when speaking of holidays. What went wrong? [This one's a stretch.]

"The Sports Page" This evening's guest is haunted by a mysterious dying clue left by a US agent that apparently, if properly unraveled, could have averted the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Naturally, the dying spy came up with a clue in his last moments that experts couldn't crack even years later, but Henry can.

"Second Best" An old soldier's problem is that he has never been able to grant the last request of a dying comrade on a battlefield; the only clue to the dead man's name is a reference to the 'second-best' vote-getter among the US presidents. [Dying-clue stories are inherently problematic; the more obscure the clue, the more tortured the rationale, and this one's *bad*. Asimov appears to have had a presidential-trivia bug, having used a similar clue in _Puzzles of the Black Widowers_.]

"The Missing Item" As with _Banquets of the BW_'s "Neither Brute Nor Human", someone dear to the guest has become involved with a cult: in this case, his wife wants to join the Tri-Lucifer cult, who claim that the anointed will one day live in a Martian paradise. He's trying to find a logical flaw in Tri-Lucifer dogma to persuade her that they're fakes, since being faced with logical inconsistency in doctrine has always persuaded her in the past to turn aside from unusual belief systems. [This one turns up in SF collections, and it's pretty good.]

"The Next Day" - Host: Drake, who's writing a book on recombinant DNA. Guest: Stephen Bentham, an editor at Southby Publications, despite Rubin's authorial objections to socializing with editors. Stephen's problem, however, is another author entirely: an unknown with tremendous potential, who not only resisted editing of his manuscript, but now claims that Stephen drove him away with vicious sarcasm. What happened after their last conversation?

"A Matter of Irrelevance" (a.k.a. "Irrelevance!") Guest: Dan Burry, high school principal, who's trying to interpret a mysterious paper a student apparently involved in a burglary ring was carrying, to convince the kid to cooperate with the law. [*Way* too involved for real-life thieving.]

"None So Blind" Mysterious death of a spy - and nobody could identify the killer.

"The Backward Look" - Guest: Milton Petersborough, stuck trying to create a murder-motive in the SF mystery he's writing on a bet. (He mentions that Asimov's career began with a similar bet.) But how could two photographs of an eclipse differ dramatically enough to motivate one photographer to murder the other? [My, but that *is* weak, isn't it? For a story about a story, "Earthset and Evening Star" in _More Tales of the Black Widowers_ seems a better bet.]

"What Time Is It?" - Host: Drake. Guest: Barry Levine, trial lawyer, who realizes the important of little things: the fate of his current client, charged with murder, hangs on a 20-minute discrepancy between two witnesses over when he left the scene.

"Middle Name" - Host: Gonzalo. Guest: handsome Lionel Washburn, rejected by a militant feminist for another man. She added insult to injury, claiming Washburn lost *a battle of wits* against his rival. The challenge was to produce a 1-syllable middle name that every schoolchild knows but doesn't know. Incidentally, James Drake is called on to recount the original reason for the stag rule of the club: the tale of his failed marriage to a woman his friends couldn't stand.

"To the Barest" - one of the few stories mentioning the club's founder, Ralph Ottur, and, sadly, the last: Ottur's representative at this evening's banquet bears tidings of his death. Ottur loved puzzles, and wants the Widowers to play one final time. He has left a legacy to whichever Widower meets the specification, "to the barest" - and to guarantee that the Widowers play, it all goes to the neo-Nazis if their solution doesn't satisfy Ottur's executor.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating short mysteries
Review: Isaac Asimov, better known for his science fiction series as well as for his non-fiction treatises on innumerable subjects, has crafted captivating short mystery stories. In the vein of "Minute Mysteries", the stories of the Black Widowers combines interesting character development as the stories conglomerate. Set in the atmosphere of a social gathering of professional gentlemen of varied fields, the story lines unfold as the members of "The Black Widowers" grill the guest of the month in unraveling a mystery they can attempt to solve. Never of earth shattering import, the mysteries are intriguing and challenging. They are also solvable by anyone with a modicum of knowledge on any number of subjects. Truly a treat you can give yourself, a few short minutes at a time.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating short mysteries
Review: Isaac Asimov, better known for his science fiction series as well as for his non-fiction treatises on innumerable subjects, has crafted captivating short mystery stories. In the vein of "Minute Mysteries", the stories of the Black Widowers combines interesting character development as the stories conglomerate. Set in the atmosphere of a social gathering of professional gentlemen of varied fields, the story lines unfold as the members of "The Black Widowers" grill the guest of the month in unraveling a mystery they can attempt to solve. Never of earth shattering import, the mysteries are intriguing and challenging. They are also solvable by anyone with a modicum of knowledge on any number of subjects. Truly a treat you can give yourself, a few short minutes at a time.

Rating:
Summary: Short mysteries where the mind is the key
Review: Since Isaac Asimov wrote in so many areas, his mysteries are often overlooked. While part of this is due to them being overshadowed by his science fiction and popular science series, another significant contribution is that they are not generally very deep. Most of his mysteries are the short, puzzle type of problem with little or no psychological intrigue. Furthermore, he scrupulously avoids the staples of blood, gore, sex, harsh language and violence. When you have been bombarded with such things, his writings seem rather tame. Which also makes them refreshing. Like viewing an old comedy tape where the comedian relies on timing, delivery and the incongruous events of the human existence rather than shock or chewing up another, these stories are a welcome relief.
The setting is a monthly gathering of an all male club where a guest is also present. That guest comes with a problem and it is presented to the Black Widowers for solution. After the group members are suitably stumped, the smartest person in the room, the quiet efficient waiter named Henry, comes up with the "obvious" solution. The difficulty of the puzzles is just about right, in that the solution is clear if you think about it in the right way.
I consider the tales of the Black Widowers to be the best series of mysteries that Asimov produced. They are entertaining, clearly written and give your brain cells a bit of exercise. If you like mysteries that are more puzzle than a deep conflict, then you will enjoy these tales.