More Tales of the Black Widowers

The Black Widowers #2

by Isaac Asimov

The second novel of six that describe mysteries solved by the Black Widowers, based on a literary dining club he belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders. It collects twelve stories by Asimov, nine reprinted from mystery or science fiction magazines and three previously unpublished, together with a general introduction, and an afterword following each story by the author. Each story involves the club members' knowledge of trivia.

Contents
1   When No Man Pursueth
2   Quicker Than the Eye
3   The Iron Gem
4   The Three Numbers
5   Nothing Like Murder
6   No Smoking
7   Season's Greetings
8   The One and Only East
9   Earthset and Evening Star
10  Friday the Thirteenth
11  The Unabridged
12  The Ultimate Crime

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of six volumes of mystery short stories that Asimov wrote featuring a group of men who call themselves the Black Widowers who meet for lunch monthly and discuss a mysterious occurrence presented by a guest-of-the-month that they end up solving, usually due to the input of their waiter, Henry. They're fun puzzle stories in the tradition of Agatha Christie; most were originally published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1974 and 1975, though three are from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and three are original to the collection. The stories are quite obviously formulaic, and the solutions sometimes rely on some obscure bit of arcane trivia, and Asimov was notoriously egocentric and a proud and devout womanizer and some of his attitudes aren't condonable in current social attitudes... but they're fun, occasionally quite funny, and still fine mental exercise.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every so often I go for a dig through my books and make a point of heading to the back of the shelves (the down side I guess of having to double stack my book shelves). However it does mean I get to stumble across books I had forgotten about - or at least do not look at every day.

And so I came across my collection of Isaac Asimov books. I guess for me this was the start of my fascination with classic science fiction and the the desire to try and collect all of an authors work (which typically for me I chose one of the most prolific and hardest authors to start with).

Anyway here I am with a number of books - now I will admit that these have been read over a number of days but as usual I leave everything (or at least everything on here) to the last minute.

So what of the book - this is the second in the series of Black Widowers - now I could explain where the idea of these stories came from and how it was based on a real life club Asimov was a member of and how he wanted to celebrate the art of the short story (something he always was eager to promote) but I am sure I have said all this before and to be honest even if I had not then Asimov does it far better in his own introductions.

But what of the stories - well the are all neatly presented criminal brainteasers where the solution is both simple and unpacked. I will admit that the stories do feel at times formulaic but you have to (okay I do at least) have to recognise the story telling ability and how as you finish one you get pulled in to the next story.

Now I wonder where the rest of the series is hiding.

[Eleonoraparmesan · Rating 4 out of 5]

come giustifichi la tua esistenza?
questa è la domanda che, un venerdì al mese, il club dei vedovi neri sottopone ad un nuovo ospite.
ogni incontro inizia come un semplice raduno di uomini d'affari che si diverte ad interrogare un ospite diverso davanti ad un drink.
nella vita di ognuno, però, si celano bizzarri enigmi o semplici problemi irrisolti e questo porterà il club dei vedovi neri ad investigare (anche se, alla fine, la soluzione al mistero verrà sempre trovata dell'impeccabile cameriere Harry).
il libro è scritto in modo ironico, semplice e divertente dal famosissimo scrittore di fantascienza Isaac Asimov e non smette mai di stupire per i misteri proposti e per le soluzioni trovate (in particolare ho apprezzato molto il mistero sulla Pietra Nera).
Sono molto interessanti anche le postille scritte alla fine di ognuno dei 12 racconti da Asimov stesso che racconta quando ha scritto il racconto e come gli è venuta l'ispirazione.
ottimo libro, lo consiglio a qualsiasi tipo di lettore!!

[Verba Non Res · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta colección incluye uno de mis textos sherlockianos favoritos, aunque no pueda ser considerado propiamente un relato policial. “El crimen definitivo” es este relato, la versión narrada de un ensayo que Asimov había escrito previamente, dedicado al único libro con título que el canon sherlockiano atribuye al profesor Moriarty: The Dynamics of an Asteroid. Sobre esta obra, únicamente se dice (en un pasaje de El valle del miedo) que contiene una matemática tan complejo que nadie en la prensa científica europea fue siquiera capaz de comentarlo. Contando nada más que con esos datos, y con la quizás curiosa sintaxis del título, el objetivo del ensayo de Asimov, y ahora de su cuento, es determinar el tema de este libro. Las reglas dicen que la explicación debe ser diegética, y por lo tanto no cabe atribuirle ningún detalle a la ignorancia científica de Conan Doyle. Al final es, por supuesto, Henry quien da con una solución a la vez plausible y elegante al problema.

[Acá
una reseña más general, dedicada al primer volumen de relatos de los Viudos Negros, pero perfectamente aplicable también a este.]

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov è famosissimo come scrittore di fantascienza, però anche la sua produzione da "giallista" è strepitosa.
Il Club dei Vedovi Neri è un club immaginario di sei amici che si ritrovano a cena e, a turno, portano un ospite con un problema da risolvere. Anche quando l'ospite è convinto di non avere problemi, la cena si trasforma in un'indagine per trovare la soluzione - solitamente semplicissima e fornita dal camierere Henry, "vedovo" onorario - al quesito.

Ho apprezzato molto il fatto che, pur trattandosi prevalentemente di una raccolta di storie già pubblicate prima altrove, l'autore abbia scelto di includere due inediti.
La storia migliore credo rimanga Mancato assassinio, anche se avrò sempre il rimpianto di non averla letta in ligua originale (dato che la soluzione è legata alla pronuncia di determinate parole).

[Vicki Cline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish this book. I got it after reading the biography of Leonard Casson, whose book Libraries in the Ancient World I really enjoyed. He and some friends formed a men-only club called the Trap Door Spiders; they would get together, eat and drink and discuss all manner of things. Many of the members were authors, including Isaac Asimov (one of my favorites) and he wrote a few collections of stories involving the Black Widowers Club. Each story has a sort of mystery, which the members try to solve, but it's the butler Henry who always has the answer. I think I'd enjoy the stories more if I knew more about the members, which the first book in the series probably goes into.

[Katsuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, this is one short story collection where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Series of short stories with recurring characters are a rare breed nowadays--there's an unspoken rule in the literary world that while series of novels are fine, series of short stories, well, it's just not done in polite society. Sure, Doyle had his Sherlock stories, but at least he had the common decency to feature Holmes in novels as well. And yes, Frank Richards had his Billy Bunter, but, well, nobody reads those stories anymore, do they?

Asimov's Black Widowers, though, were created for short stories, and short stories only. Their cases are always solved and done with in less than thirty pages, which keeps things admirably simple, and keeps the plot from getting overly complicated.

Like most stories in a series, the BW stories offer variations on a theme. The six members of the eponymous dining club meet up for their regular dinner, together with a guest that one of the Widowers has brought. Invariably, the guest has some sort of puzzling mystery that he needs help with figuring out. The Widowers do their best to figure things out, asking questions and offering solutions, but in the end, the puzzle isn't solved until their waiter, Henry, offers a solution that explains everything.

Now, to be honest, while these stories are good, they're not perfect. One issue I have are the characters. Possibly because they're based on real friends of Asimov's, they're just not different enough to be immediately distinguishable. Sure, the temperamental Trumbull is a sharp contrast towards the calm and composed Henry, but I had to read more than ten stories until I finally managed to begin to get a firm idea of the characters of Manny Rubin and Mario Gonzales. I'd have preferred it if everybody's personalities had stood out more--if Asimov had put more emphasis on each man's unique features and mannerisms.

With that said, I still enjoyed these stories. I enjoyed them a lot. And the main reason is that, well, they're just so cozy. Six friends, plus one waiter and one guest, having dinner together... There's something charming and friendly about it.
Now, I'm usually not a fan of the cozy mystery genre of novels, and that ties into another reason as to why I did enjoy this collection.
Modern ones tend to go overboard in their attempts to be cozy, with setups like A Cute Terrier Living With A Bakery-Owner, Also There Are Recipes At The Back.
The old ones are better, but still clearly take place in The World of Cozy Whodunnits, with everything that this entails--charming, comfortable English settings, very complicated murder plots that always go just so, a clearly defined set of suspects, a murderer that never ever gets caught simply due to being bad at acting innocent... I could go on.
Granted, I still enjoy me some Agatha Christie, and I'm a big Detective Conan fan, but as a whole the cozy mystery genre just feels so artificial and contrived.

And that's why I enjoy these mysteries--they're not the literary math problems that whodunnits usually feel like to me. These stories are about questions with no clearly defined sets of clues and possible solutions, and that feels much more realistic. Unlike murder whodunnits, where there are always a set amount of potential answers to the titular question, here the questions have more open answers. Why did a writer's editor pay for an article without any intention to publish it? Did the Russian visitor really overhear people planning a murder? These questions aren't ones we'd have reason to ask ourselves very often, of course, but they're not genre staples either, which makes them feel much more realistic than ubiquitous murder mysteries.

So yes, I'll be reading the other Black Widower collections as well. I've already bought them in paperback.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This second collection of short mystery stories in the Black Widowers series continues the formula of the first. A group of men (The Black Widowers) get together for a monthly banquet, they invite a guest to the dinner, the guest has a mysterious problem that needs to be discussed and solved, they group bumbles around trying to figure it out for a while and eventually, Henry, the waiter, comes up with the solution.

Some of the tales are quite ingenious and others are merely annoying. The ones I found most enjoyable ("Quicker than the Eye," "The Three Numbers") usually involve seeing something in a new way. The facts are all present in the text and when the solution is finally presented the reader is apt to say "Now why didn't I think of that?" These stories seem to follow the "fair play" rules sets up by the British mystery writers of the early 20th century. However, other stories ("The One and Only East," "Friday the Thirteenth") seem to rely on esoteric or arcane knowledge that the average reader is unlikely to have at their fingertips. Such solutions are clever but the whole story then seems like an elaborate Rube Goldberg contraption; it lacks the simple elegance of the best crime stories.

The saving grace is that these stories are usually brief and so they come and go quickly. Whether you love a story or hate a story, it doesn't matter, it's already over and you're on to the next. This book is a light entertainment, best consumed in small doses, like a chocolate truffle before bed.

[Raja99 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is at least the third time I've read this book. I hadn't planned on re-reading it, but it was at hand when I was stuck waiting to pick up my father at the airport, so....

This contains my favorite Black Widowers story, "Nothing Like Murder", one that John H. Jenkins (my choice for the web's best expert on Asimov's writings) hates so much that he goes out of his way to spoil it ;-). I really like the story because Manny Rubin's moment of epiphany mirrored mine when I read the story the first time.

I don't care for some of the other stories (e.g., "The Unabridged" seems awfully contrived, and "Earthset and Evening Star" doesn't work as well in print as it would if it were read aloud or dramatized) but some of the others, especially "The Ultimate Crime", are quite fun.

(Finished 2008-02-08 0:35ET)

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tales of the Black Widowers are a set of 66 mystery stories. It's a group of middle-aged guys that get together each month for dinner and drinks. Each story involves a mystery that arises out of a guest attending the dinner with a problem to solve. Invariably, the waiter, Henry, solves the mystery. The characters are loosely based on the personalities of various science fiction writers of Asimov's day (e.g. Lester del Rey and L. Sprague de Camp). The stories are short and are written in a way that gives one a chance to guess the solution to the puzzle. This book is for anyone who likes personality-driven fiction (there's no "action" so-to-speak). The stories are all conversation. They are written with Asimov's signature clarity and are fun, light reading. I first discovered the Black Widowers probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s, and I've re-read them many times since.

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secondo libro della serie dei vedovi neri.
La cosa più bella del primo libro (a cui ho dato 5 stelle) era che ,quasi sempre, il lettore aveva tutto ciò di cui c'era bisogno per arrivare alla soluzione prima che fosse esposta dall'autore, quindi si poteva giocare a tentare di anticipare l' esposizione della soluzione.
Qui purtroppo mi e stato molto difficile anticipare la soluzione di Asimov, poiché per arrivarci si necessitano di informazioni che non si hanno.
Tuttavia restano racconti molto interessanti e restano soprattutto tantissimi ragionamenti puramente logici interessantissimi da leggere

[Old Man Aries · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ecco qualcuno che non delude mai. Questo volume è il secondo di quattro che verranno pubblicati da Minimum Fax e che vogliono raccogliere l'opera omnia sui Vedovi Neri.
Che dire? Lo schema narrativo dei dodici racconti è sempre lo stesso e ripercorre fedelmente il primo volume: piccoli/grandi rompicapi a cui il club va incontro e che cerca di risolvere, ovviamente con l'aiuto dell'infallibile cameriere Henry.
Da godere fino all'ultima parola, incluse le sfiziose note di "zio Isaac" alla fine di ogni racconto.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov is always a good time! These short mysteries are like potato chips: short, delicious, and you can't stop at one. The whole series is worth checking out, and there's always a science lesson or intellectual sidebar buried for the interested reader. Who doesn't love a good mystery?

[Lis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un Asimov come non te lo aspetti. Abbandonate astronavi, robot e viaggi spaziali si cimenta in piccoli racconti gialli che hanno per coprotagonisti 6 personaggi molto diversi tra loro.
Non si tratta di un capolavoro ma di una lettura divertente che con la logica stimola piacevolmente la mente.

[zcat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Either this was surprisingly not terrible, or I am remembering my battered old '77 edition with undeserved fondness.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the variety of the mysteries, but my favorite part of these stories is the interaction between the club members.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good at the time

[Suresh Ramaswamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I read my first Black Widowers book about 25 to 30 years back, I read it out of curiosity, that a fairly well-known Sci-fi writer was venturing into the field crime thriller writing – short story or books. Of course, in his Robot series Asimov had already written a few mysteries in the distant earth like exo-planets light years away from earth and an earth detective Elijah teaming up with a humanoid robot investigates and solves the mysteries, but terrestrial crime mysteries was something else.

The book was “Tales of the Black Widowers” and my review was “WOW!” deserving of a five star, but conservatively I rated it four star.

This book “More Tales of the Black Widowers” is the second book in the series of six books. Honestly, I had not read the book earlier, nor had I come across any of the tales in this collection.

Series of short stories with recurring characters are a rare. Doyle had his Sherlock stories, and, Frank Richards had his Billy Bunter, but, well, nobody reads those stories anymore, do they?

The six members of the eponymous dining club meet up for their regular dinner, together with a guest that one of the Widowers has brought. Invariably, the guest has some sort of puzzling mystery that he needs help with figuring out. The Widowers do their best to figure things out, asking questions and offering solutions, but in the end, the puzzle isn't solved until their waiter, Henry, offers a solution that explains everything.

I enjoyed these stories. I enjoyed them a lot. They definitely deserve the best rating five star, but as I mentioned earlier, being a little conservative and cautious, I will stop at four star.

Interesting, enjoyable and eminently readable – every mystery aficionado must definitely try out Isaac Asimov – mystery thriller writer. He is almost as good as his sci-fi persona.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't remember exactly when I read both this and the original Tales of the Black Widowers for the first time, but know it was while Asimov was still alive, and probably a full decade or more before his passing.

I've read both a few times since then, but it's been more than a decade, if not more than 15 years, since I last cracked them.

A voice of nostalgia or whatever cried out, and I checked my local library. It had this, but not the original. It also had Casebook of the Black Widowers, which I also checked out and will review separately.

The 3 stars overall?

A best guess of 3.5 for how I would have rated them back in the day, and 2.5 for today.

First, each tale is relatively short, so not much room for plot twists.

Second, between a mix of their simplicity and my memory from old readings being THAT ingrained, I could remember most of the endings, or at least be in their vicinity of the solution, without much mental effort.

Third, as stories in general? The six members of The Black Widowers are 2 1/2 dimensional. Not totally flat, but not a lot more than that. And, being in the first story of Casebook as I type this, that doesn't seem to change in the third volume.

Worse? Henry the waiter and invariable mystery-solver is a flat 2 dimensions. He does have a bit more of his past presented in one story in the original volume, but that's it.

Also (and I suspect nothing changes in Casebook) why not have somebody besides Henry solve one case? Especially if Henry himself gets visibly stumped?

Beyond the above? Yes, these were written in the 1970s. And, the group, like The Trap Door Spiders IRL after whom it's modeled, is stag, so we can't have women.

But, counting a Hispanic artist as White? All six members are White. No Blacks, South or East Asians etc among either them or guests.

[Clyde Tosalini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a 3-1/2. The stories are better than I thought they would be, with no science-fiction creeping in, just puzzle mysteries. For me, the ones toward the end were stretching it and not as good as the earlier ones in the book. In the Afterwords at the end of each story you discover that some of these later ones had been turned down for publication. They are all interesting reads nonetheless.

They are all well-written and you feel as if you know the regular characters right from the start. I will read more of these.

My one problem is with "The One and Only East." In the Afterword Asimov states that he wrote it aboard ship and didn't have his reference library with him. I know there was no internet at that time, no Wikipedia, but a little research when the ship landed should have turned up East Florida and West Florida.

[Francesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov è famosissimo come scrittore di fantascienza, però anche la sua produzione da "giallista" è strepitosa.
Il Club dei Vedovi Neri è un club immaginario di sei amici che si ritrovano a cena e, a turno, portano un ospite con un problema da risolvere. Anche quando l'ospite è convinto di non avere problemi, la cena si trasforma in un'indagine per trovare la soluzione - solitamente semplicissima e fornita dal camierere Henry, "vedovo" onorario - al quesito.

Ho apprezzato molto il fatto che, pur trattandosi prevalentemente di una raccolta di storie già pubblicate prima altrove, l'autore abbia scelto di includere due inediti.
La storia migliore credo rimanga Mancato assassinio, anche se avrò sempre il rimpianto di non averla letta in ligua originale (dato che la soluzione è legata alla pronuncia di determinate parole).

[Óscar Trobo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ufff! Los atribulados invitados de las cenas mensuales del Club de los Viudos Negros siguen planteando sus problemas, que los miembros del club intentan resolver solo con la lógica. Muy MENSA todo. Realmente la estructura tan obvia y repetitiva acaba haciendo estos cuentos muy cargantes.

Mención aparte por curioso para “El crimen definitivo”, donde el invitado, deseoso de poder ser un miembro de pleno derecho de los “Irregulares de Baker Street”, plantea el problema de sobre qué podía tratar la obra de Moriarty “Dinámica de un asteroide”.

[Suyog Garg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ones again, the Black Widowers gather together in their monthly banquets and fascinate us with the puzzles. I liked the extrapolations on the personality of Henry, the perennial waiter of the meetings, that this set of stories had. Gave a bit of a justice to him. And yeah! After a while the reader can almost anticipate when the affable Henry would say, 'Excuse me, can I ask a question?' and nonetheless enjoys the discussion. I liked the last tale, 'The Ultimate Crime' the best. Given its premise on a article to be written on Moriarty, what else can be expected.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mysteries in general weren't as fun as in the previous collection, but the Baker Street Irregulars one was fantastic.

Something I forgot to mention in the previous book's review was his much of a draw the actual Black Widowers are. It's a little... white-upper-middle-class-male-y, but they're still a lot of fun to read, each with their own personality and gripes. Math teacher, government steganographer, chemistry professor, author, artist, and... I think one more?

I miss the Iliad limericks, hope they come back.

[Jayal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having never had read Asimov before, and having heard of him as a giant in sci-fi, mayhap erroneously, i was excited to stumble across him in the library shelves. Alas, it was short lasting.
The plots are mediocre, and quite implausible, and is exactly as the writer claims somewhere in the book itself, that he will make anything and everything into a black widower tale.
Whereas he says this gloatingly, the result in my mind at least, is quite lacking in character and effort.
I will give him another try, probably a more safer one like iRobot; hopefully he redeems himself.

[Josh Hitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second collection of tales about a group of know it alls and their waiter the true Holmes of the group. Loved the first collection and this was more the same. Most are not great mysteries really but the chatter of the group and the solving of small to large matters in such a setting as around a dinner table is fun. They are the perfect length too, enough to get you interested but never too long to bore you.

Highly recommended for fans of cozy mysteries or even Holmes fans since Henry uses reason as his main weapon.

[driti · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I did the book justice. I was so lost 90% of the time. Deserves a reread one day. However, I really couldn't immerse in the story because there is no plot, but personality driven. There is a group, they meet up, they get a mystery, they solve the mystery. Everything happens to quickly for me to follow. Also, being the second book, there was no time to actually connect with the characters, making it more difficult for me to get into it. Nevertheless, the sheer amount of excitement I got when I found out that my school library has THE ISSAC ASIMOV cannot even be measured!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

These aren't the best mysteries, as some of the puzzles are a bit tortured, but I've always had a soft spot for them. I had previously read all the other collections and finally am a member of a library system that had this one, so I've now read the full set. Asimov is rightly known for his science fiction rather than his mysteries, but these are worth checking out if you're looking for some light puzzles.

[Bruce Stephenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 more tales of mystery from the legendary Isaac Asimov. The Black Widowers meet regularly for dinner with a new guest to interrogate and a new mystery to solve. The question for their guest...? How do you justify your existence? What follows is the meticulous unraveling of a mystery... usually thanks to waiter Henry's insightful questions and deductive reasoning. So well written and engaging - Asimov gives the impression that writing for him is effortless. My only issue - some of the mysteries are trivial...

[Adrián · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lo que te dice el título es exactamente lo que hay dentro. Son más cuentos mediocres. Los personajes son mínimamente interesantes sí pero estaría bien que alguno hiciera algo alguna vez. Hay un par de cuentos buenos. Hay un par muy malos. El del calendario me mató de aburrimiento. Con todo el respeto, Asimov no está hecho para relatos de misterio.
Aún así sus anécdotas personales hacen que merezcan la pena leer el libro.